Phenomenal work

[Democritus]

The phenomenal work in this thread is most definitely not mine.
It is work done by Joey Richardson featured in an article in this month’s ‘Woodturning’ about women turners. The piece illustrated is fantastic. How she made it is a complete mystery to me.
I can understand ‘piercing’, and ‘airbrushing’, but I have no idea how she produced the organic, wave like forms it has. Does anyone have any insight into this creative process?
I’ll never make anything like it , but i’d like to know how it’s done.
D

 

[Suffolkboy]

So good, it's not even visible!

 

[scooby]

I'd never heard of her until the other week when I stumbled onto her website. The work is amazing.

 

[Adam W.]

She's got a steady hand, that's for sure.

There's a nice video about it on her site.

https://www.joeyrichardson.com/turned-work

 

[Democritus]

Thanks for the site info, Adam.
It’s amazing turning of an end grain bowl blank. Walls so thin she can pierce them with a scalpel....
D.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

This thread needs photos.

 

[Cabinetman]

That’s incredible work.
Really, really incredibly good work, anybody know what the tool was she was using to cut through the thin sections? I couldn’t see if it was like a multitool vibrating or burning its way through. Ian

 

[Ozi]

It's seeing skills like this that keep me coming back to this site - thank you for posting

 

[gregmcateer]

It's so good it's frightening! How can one person be so bloody good. Blows me away

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Very clever, but when I see something that could equally as well be made in another material - metal, plastic, ceramic - it has little appeal for me.

 

[Woodchip Wilbur]

Very clever, but when I see something that could equally as well be made in another material - metal, plastic, ceramic - it has little appeal for me.

Not very sure that I agree with you in this particular example - but in general, yes, indeed. I have a little laser engraver (not powerful enough to cut) and a FB group I am on is full of folk, proudly showing off 3rd-rate renditions of photo images on canvas. Surely, if you want an image on canvas, there are much better technologies. Like paint! (That even comes in colour as well.)

 

[AlanY]

Very impressive! Some lovely pieces to view on the website. I can see how the turning is done but I have no idea as to how the intricate patterns are cut. I do know this is never going to be within my skillset, though!

 

[Cooper]

Like it or not, incredible skill and confidence. The clip poses a couple questions. 1, What was the log? I think it may be holly. 2 What design process does she go through? As in the clip she knows exactly what size of image, texture and piercing with no reference to a sketch.

Very clever, but when I see something that could equally as well be made in another material - metal, plastic, ceramic - it has little appeal for me.

I have some experience of ceramics and would find it amazing if similar piercing was cut into porcelain. Spinning metal and then piercing would be equally fantastic. Raising on a stake or hollowing and piercing would also require fantastic skill.

I have seen pieces like this at the Worshipful Company of Turners' Wonders in Wood exhibitions, indeed maybe hers and though like Phil they are not particularly to my taste, I have been in awe of the skill and delicacy.
Martin

 

[Democritus]

For those who haven’t seen the ‘Woodturner’ article, I attach a photo ofJoey’s piece.
Hope it’s clear enough.
D

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... I have been in awe of the skill and delicacy.
Martin

As am I, but that wasn't my point. I wasn't thinking of the practicalities of making it from another material, merely the appearance. If I look at something and wonder whether it's wood or not it's lost any beauty it had from it's being wood.

 

[Democritus]

I can understand what you mean, Phil. At first glance Joey’s piece could be made of anything. It’s not obviously wood.
I suppose the same ambivalent feelings can apply to heavily coloured bowls, boxes etc that are made to resemble marble or metal etc. Like you, I prefer to see the wood itself.
Having said that, you have to admire the sheer artistry and skill represented by Joey’s piece. How she turned the initial blank to be almost translucent was astonishing in itself. Having made many a ‘funnel’ bowl, I can only wish I had her skill with the tools we all use.
D

 

[Yorkieguy]

You'll be even more impressed if you take a 'tour' of Joey's website. Take a look at what she did to gain her MA at Lincoln Uni. It looks rather like a greenhouse, but with 'panes' of thin wood instead of glass. Each 'pane' has been been designed by Joey and etched out to create scenes of wildlife. Also, look at her short video 'From log to finished Work':

Turned Work | Joey Richardson

She lives near Scunthorpe and has demonstrated each year for some years at the Club of which I'm Secretary - East Yorkshire Woodturners, which until lockdown met at Skidby Village Hall on the 3rd Tuesday each month. Amazing to see first had the techniques she uses. She works exclusively in sycamore, (which Joey refers to as a 'weed'!) which she cuts into suitable sizes with a chainsaw and stores unseasoned in a freezer. She mounts a blank on the lathe, and works so fast that in a matter of minutes the bowl (sometimes with another inside it), will be turned so thin (2 - 3mm) that you can shine a light through it. By that time all the moisture has gone out of the blank and is lying as 'streamers' on the floor, with what's left on the lathe being bone dry.. Then she sets about piercing it with a very high speed hand-held air drill, powered from a monster compressor. Finally she sands and air brushes it. When finished, it's hard to imagine that two hours earlier, it was a half-frozen log. Until you've seen it done, you can't visualise that it was turned on a lathe.

Last summer, when there was a brief opportunity when lockdown was lifted, along with my wife we visited Joey's workshop, studio and gallery at her home when she had a few open days. (She's since move house, not too far away). Every facet of her work had separate locations - a wood store, a Tree House which is/was her design studio, a workshop where the turning and sanding is done, another in which she does the piercing, and yet another to do the colouring/airbrushing.

Along with fellow Club members and other clubs around the UK, we look forward to when we can once more marvel at Joey in action.

Hope that's of interest.

 

[Democritus]

Thanks, Yorkie. Do you know if she travels for demos ? My own club has been in hibernation during the pandemic, but is beginning to think about new meetings. We usually have 3 or 4 pro demos a year. Joey might be a great draw.

 

[Yorkieguy]

Yes - ordinarily Joey is much in demand and travels reasonable distances. Ramsbottom is a bit of a stretch from Scunthorpe - close on a 200-mile round trip, so that might be stretching it. If you look at the remnants of what would have been her 2021 diary of demonstrations, (mostly rearranged for 2022), you'll see that it would have involved fairly extensive travel. There comes a point of course at which even if demonstrators are prepared to travel, the travel costs plus demonstration fee may put the costs beyond the pocket of small Clubs.

Another possibility when Clubs do re-open, would be for your club to see if a Club at which Joey is to demonstrate (Huddersfield for example), would extend an invite to your Club members.

As to when Clubs might be able to resume activities, that's a rather vexed question to which my answer would be not any time soon. That's beyond the scope of this thread, but I might start a thread to outline some of the challenges facing all small clubs and societies. At the time of Lockdown in March 2020, there were more than eighty clubs and societies in my village (which is really a township with 20,000 residents). All but a handful of those clubs and societies are now in limbo, and despite (allegedly) 'all social distancing and other restrictions' are to be lifted from Monday, I don't see much changing any time soon.

 

[Democritus]

Thanks, Yorkie
I like the idea of sharing with another club .
I agree with you that resurrecting clubs is going to be difficult. Most of our members are what you might call ‘mature’ (including me) ,and there is a good deal of apprehension about social gatherings. Hopefully the liberation will not be the disaster I suspect it will be, and we can pick up the tools again.
D.