September 1, 2015 – 5:48 pm
Earlier this summer, Dennis met with Richard Pankratz, a bronze sculptor, to develop a convincing patina on urns made of wood. The happy result is this finish in aged bronze.
The advantage of the faux bronze urn is that the urn itself is lighter in weight, and the use of pine keeps the urns in a very reasonable price range. Many customers contact Dennis to find a bio-degradable urn that is still beautiful enough to display at a memorial service.
Dennis will probably use this finish on more turnings done in plain woods. It does not, however, qualify as a food-safe finish for bowls.
August 29, 2015 – 6:52 am
Dennis will teach a class for turners of all skill levels on Saturday, October 31st, at the Colorado Springs Woodcraft store.
Students will make one or more of the two-part salt shakers that continue to delight the public with the mystery of getting the salt in and out of a shaker with just one hole in the bottom. It makes a great gift for family and friends who may not understand the woodturning obsession.
This class will also hone skills with the parting tool, spindle gouge, and even the skew, for those turners who have been primarily bowl makers. Dennis will help you sharpen your own tools correctly if you bring them to the class.
Call Woodcraft to reserve a spot, or to buy a class for your own aspiring woodturner: 719-266-9889. The class will be over in time for trick-or-treating. Recommended costume is personal safety gear – safety goggles or face shield.
Dennis has been to see the Bike Art Show here in the Pikes Peak Region for at least five years. This year, he made a bowl to commemorate the 7-Eleven Velodrome in Colorado Springs. It is a clean hard maple with inlaid crushed stone in the shape of bicycle racers.
This may be the first bowl ever in the Bike Art Show. It follows a long tradition of decorating bowls with arena events. Picasso painted the bull fight arena on ceramic bowls fifty years ago, and now we have Dennis Liggett and bicycle track racing.
A highlight of this year’s show wasn’t an entry–it was an ice cream maker churned via stationary bicycle.
In the Spring of 2014, Dennis purchased wet blocks of Ambrosia Maple while visiting woodturning friends near Atlanta. He has carefully dried and hollowed a series of burial urns from this extraordinary wood. The tops are threaded, so they stay on securely. Most of these urns will be sold privately to folks who love wood or need a lightweight urn. It is a nice alternative to storing ashes in plastic boxes in the back of the closet. Dennis sizes the urns for a mid to large-sized person by measuring the internal volume of each one.
Prices and more photos are available by request: 719-481-8754
This little bowl of ambrosia maple is struggling to emerge from its block of wood.
The woodturner also faces some challenges turning this piece! Like the Roman Canteen, the Emerging Bowl requires turning on two different axes. Dennis has chosen this project as a companion to the canteen for the intermediate woodturner. It is well within the range of most intermediates, but it has a more advanced ‘wow’ factor.
Like the Roman Canteen, the emerging bowl requires careful planning. It also introduces some extra safety considerations. Surprisingly, turning two of them is only a little more difficult than turning one.
Most of the things that Dennis makes have roots in traditional woodturning. This one goes back to the way Hans Weissflog developed many of his forms in Germany, and has also been popular with turners in Canada and Australia.
December 8, 2014 – 3:07 pm
Snowmen turned from aspen with walnut top hats gather in the Liggett woodshop with those enigmatic smiles that we all remember from a more innocent time…. maybe the time of Calvin and Hobbes, when snowmen played a variety of roles in winter cartoon strips. To about 9″ total height–call Dennis if you need one or several for a collection or a centerpiece (719-481-8754).
November 25, 2014 – 6:10 pm
Dennis and two fellow woodturners cut down an ailing honey locust tree in Skyway during a warm spell in October. This little forest was made from the branch wood.
Branches are always challenging for the woodturner. They move and sway in the wind, so there may be unusual stresses in the wood. They are often nearly horizontal, which means that the lower side is more dense than the upper side, creating ‘reaction wood’ on the dense side. It can sometimes split when the weight of the branch is changed.
These trees are relatively easy for an experienced turner to produce. Some flaws add a record of the tree’s life to the project. Others may split wide open on the lathe, or even later as the wood continues to dry out.
Dennis made four different sets of the trees, with crushed stone added on the edges, and a lovely platter to organize the trees as a centerpiece or mantel decoration. The set pictured here includes crushed malachite.
A friend brought Dennis part of a Gambel oak tree that was damaged in the Black Forest fire last year. These oaks are a scrubby style of white oak, which rarely reaches a diameter that interests woodturners. Natural edge bowls make the most of trees with a small diameter, because the bark creates the rim. These 3 are exceptional for the clarity of the ‘rays’ in the wood. The largest bowl is 9″ on the long axis. The vessel was hollowed through the opening on the top. 
December 23, 2013 – 5:40 pm
This is the first time that Dennis and Kay have worked together to produce one-of-a-kind ornaments.
Dennis turns the four parts of the birdhouse: roof, body, perch, and bottom finial. Kay decorates each roof with permanent inks. The patterns come from Zentangle® forms and Kay’s own quilting patterns. They are done spontaneously, so each one is different. The Zentangle method is a fun way to create images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas.
The roofs are all turned from aspen, which takes the ink like a high quality vellum surface. The perch and finial are holly. The bodies are made from either American cherry or walnut.
After each part is completed, Dennis applies finish, and installs the hanging eyelet and hook. The roof and body are remounted on the lathe for a final polish before the birdhouse is glued together.
December 2, 2013 – 10:35 am
Dick Jones, Scott Longberry, and Milo Scott helped Dennis create a very magical Christmas for kids at the Boadmoor’s Christmas house over the weekend of Nov 28-December 1st. Dennis, Milo, and Scott took turns making tops for kids waiting in line to see Santa Claus. There is a certain magic to seeing something made right before your eyes that stands up well to the hysteria of ‘Black Friday.’ A special thanks goes to Larry Fox for loaning the group of Pikes Peak Woodturners the tent for a stellar display of Christmas ornaments and turned bracelets and bowls.
