A good friend of mine had been showing his mum my Facebook 'Otter Woodcraft' page, and we were all pleased to find that she really liked the stitched and stapled bowls and vases that I do. There I was, thinking that it was more a younger-person's sort of thing. Anyway, he asked me to make her something similar as a Christmas present. So here it is....a piece of apple from a stump that I grubbed out of the ground last March.
It's about 8" tall and 5" diameter, with Sterling silver wire fixings. Altogether, there's a couple of bands around the rim and the foot, about 30 staples, plus a mount for a cabochon of mariam jasper, which is a fossilised form of sediment with shards of straw and sea-shells in it; it's colour is a great match to the apple. The finish is a coat of Danish oil, brushed on heavily, left for 20 minutes then wiped off with a paper towel drenched with white spirit, the whole process repeated a few times to give a very low-sheen.
The biggest difficulty with this piece was avoiding breaking through the wall, either when carving out the ground for the stone, which is down to 1.5mm - 1/16", or when pre-drilling all the holes for the staples, which I set into holes just a little too shallow for them, drop in a spot of ca adesive off the end of a dress-pin, then press the staples home to bed them well.
C&C always welcome...Les
