Jones' Woodworks

 This new “Light Dancer #18″ was made for our nephew’s wife’s mom and dad in celebration of their 30th wedding anniversary this month. Lori, the daughter managed to get her siblings all on side with this gift and we hope that the mom and dad will get years of use out of it. The “” with the 1\4 circle underneath is the farms brand. The intertwined rings represent the bonds of their marriage. This was a totally cool piece to be asked to make. To be able to create a piece of art that will become part of their family’s heritage is a very special commission and one that we will not forget. Thanks for the vote of confidence Lori. Even delivering the piece becomes part of the story. I was headed to Red Deer, about half-say between Calgary and Edmonton to teach a woodturning class at the Central Alberta Teachers Convention. As Lori and Jordy live just outside of Stony Plain it seemed like a good time to make the exchange. Shipping these babies is fun and very expensive as we have found the need to build bomb proof containers in which to ship them. So to avoid that cost I took it up to Red Deer and a very good friend of Lori’s (a girl by the name of Vanessa) meet me in the loby of my hotel. From there I don’t, as yet, even know if Lori has picked it up. Hopefully it makes its journey without incident and it will give years of pleasure to her mom and dad. At any rate, Happy Anniversay. Jim and Eileen.

  This is another of our Light Dancer series or was until today. This piece was made for my oldest son Chris and his wife Yolanda for Christmas. We actually burned it last night at Christmas dinner and even the grandkids liked it a lot. I really liked the patterns, especially the way the pyrography showed up and complemented the piercing. The pyrography is a new thing for us and I will continue to work with it, making new custom tips for the burner and playing with new shapes, flowers, birds, etc as for as subject material is concerned.  It is also amazing the way the grain between the two halves matched up. It was very cool and I thought very strong considering much of it was, as usual, turned to  approx. 5/1000″. We were discussing with them what they would like painted on it or whether they just wanted to leave it natural. I guess we will never know as I had a light baffle fall on top of it as I was taking photos of it. I was just crushed. About all I can say is that it will never hapapen again as I will make sure of two things: the first is that I will make up some light weight light baffles and the second is that what ever is used will be secured properly. Oh well, I guess it is another of life’s lessons that I needed to learn.

This is a bowl I turned almost 2 years ago. I had asked Eileen to hand-paint the leaves on the outside of the bowl. After waiting what seemed like a long time I finally figured out that this particular project just didn’t seem to motivate her soI started to look for new ways to do the leaves. Keeping in mind that by this time I had sprayed about 6 coats of spray bomb lacquer on the piece I started looking for alternatives. My first thought was that   I could still get away with masking the areas with the leaves in them and them air-brush the colours. I have also been doing quite a lot of pyrography lately and thought that that would be a really cool way to finish them off – until a good friend said that I would likely melt the lacquer and leave a very fuzzy surface and lines to define the leaves. So out the door went that idea. I has suggestion from another friend that suggeted that I take a finer texturing tool and texture very lightly the leaves to help bring them out At this stage i am still quite conflicted about what to do. I think I am going to try 2 methods on the same piece. The first (on 2 of the leaves) will be masking and air-brushing some colour. The other two are going to be lightly textured and then maybe a little bit of hand-painting done to highlight them just a bit. I want them to be subbtle but still be visible. If anyone has any good ideas pleaes feel free to pass them on. Jim

This piece is the second in a new series – yet to be named. The piece is called “Lively”. They all feature multi-axis turning and thin  rims that are either pierced or stippled. The idea for this series came from the Doug Fisher workshop I took back in the spring. I have been trying ever since to find an outlet for my own ideas for this technique. The next picture is of “The Natural” and is an attempt to do both multi-axis and turning thin in the same piece. I find the results quite interesting. I love the grain in this piece and I am also very glad that Eileen talked me into not piercing or stippling any more. Eventually I will try a piece where I do off-center or multi-axis on both the inside of the bowl and the outside. This last picture is actually the first of the series and is titled “Blue Lagoon”. Once again it is multi-axis with a wide pierced rim. I like the subtle change in colours of this piece. Both “Blue Lagoon” and “Lively” are air-brushed with custom mixed colours. Hope you like them. Look for more of these to appear soon.

  This fall we were very proud to have some of our work published for the second time this year. This time it was as a result of our inclusion in the Southern Alberta Woodworkers Society’s (SAWS) 2011 Exhibition. There was some wonderful work there and we were honored that three of our pieces were chosen by the jury. These were quick shots taken on our dining room table without the use of a tripod or lighting. They aren’t the best of shots but they will do the trick until I get a chance to take some proper shots in the photo tent. This exhibition was put on at the South Centre Mall in Calgary, Alberta and they have approximately 5000 people a day go through the mall. I know that on the afternoon that I stewarded the show I sure talked to a lot of people – notonly about our work but also about many of the other fine pieces that were on display as well. This exhibition is staged every other year and I have wanted to submit work many times before but just never had anything ready at the right time. This year, I knew it was comig up and was consistently reminded by friend and co-member of the Calgary Turning Guild, Don James,that I had better be entering some stuff this time around. We were really glad that we did.