Summer into Autumn – A woodturner’s Reflections
Summer into Autumn…
Last night I spent with a friend at her beach hut on Shoreham Beach, drinking tea, having a quick dip in a cooling sea and chatting about our summer holidays. I was telling her about our ventures during a trip to Sweden, visiting family. A yearly highlight in late summer is to go foraging for Chanterelles near my sister’s house. We have our secret places where we know we can find “forest-gold”. Many other types of mushrooms are more widespread and there’s no shortage of interesting specimens to photograph.
The Fly Agaric stand out with their unmistakable spotted red hats and Penny buns and Parasol Mushrooms are also easily identifiable. These were some of my first subject matters for my turned wooden mushrooms, which have now become recurring favourites amongst customers.
Most of my work involves showing off the beautiful natural colours and grains of wood but I also like to occasionally use some paint and with the mushrooms I can do both.
There are of course plenty of places for mushroom spotting around Sussex too and a cluster of tiny white mushrooms around a tree in Steyning inspired my “Mushroom Log”.
Starting my workshops
Woodturning is my true passion and I wouldn’t want another job, but It can sometimes feel quite isolating working on my own. Various shows throughout the year, spending time in the Shoreham Art Gallery and frequent interactions with clients are great but I’ve been wanting to get more social interactions into my working life.
This spring I visited the new location of the Montague Gallery in Worthing for the first time and I had a real wow-moment when I saw what a fantastic space they have upstairs for running workshops. I had to come up with something to teach here!
Living right by the coast and picking up bits of driftwood, smooth pebbles and other pretty things on beach walks, this has fed into my work in various ways. I’ve been making Stacked Pebble Lamps for many years and lately, blue edged bowls which echo the changing colours of the sea. Some have painted pebbles around the edge.
I’ve also been making my Seaside Scenes with little beach huts as a side-project for a long time and have made and sold dozens of these scenes. I thought they might make for a fun workshop project with lots of different creative elements to it, so I tentatively booked my first workshop in May this year. It created a lot of interest and I’ve run three more fully booked sessions since, all fantastic fun for both the attendees and myself. I’ve definitely got the workshop bug now!
I can only fit in one more Seaside Scene workshop this year, on the 27th October, so do come along to this if you fancy it! They will also return at some point in the new year.
One lady asked if I run any other workshops and I have been mulling over several ideas. It’d be good to do something related to the season and as the sun hangs lower in the sky, I feel drawn to the woods, taking long walks kicking yellowing leaves and picking up acorns, pretty pinecones and other bits and bobs.
Wouldn’t it be nice then, to be able to re-create some of this in a Woodland Scene? If I was to turn a mushroom for people to paint, and to use airdrying clay, card and other materials to create a mini-woodland to treasure at home? If you like the sound of this, I now have a Woodland Scene Workshop available on the 1Oth of November. To book your place, go to the Montague Gallery Website now, before they run out!
My Pebble Lamps, Bowls, Seaside Scenes and Mushrooms are all available to buy from the fabulous Shoreham Art Gallery. I look forward to seeing you there when I’m next on duty. If you’d enjoy a few hours of creative fun making a 3D scene, I’ll also see you at one of my workshops.
