Working from photos, Dennis has turned a cannon for a model of one used in British naval warfare. The most difficult part was cutting into the oak used for the project–a piece of wood from the HMS Victory, now in drydock in the UK. This piece was painted on one side with multiple layers of the thick cream-color paint used in the interior of the ship. The wood came with a certificate of authentication. From time to time, portions of the ship are refitted, and a small amount of oak finds its way into special projects. As you might have guessed, Stuart Mortimer helped Dennis obtain this piece to make the cannon model.
Dennis will open the inner sanctum to the public on the weekend of September 15-16 as part of the Front Range Open Studios Tour. Although he won’t reveal all of the secrets of woodturning, he will be able to explain some of the magic of the craft made possible by tools, holding devices, and the four or five different lathes in the shop.
Natural edge bowls, Christmas ornaments, Harry Potter wands, and other turnings will be for sale during the Tour. To see all of the artists on the route, go to FrontRangeOpenStudios.com for the map. All of the studios are within a few miles of the Liggetts at the north end of the County.
Look over there! Is it Greenland?
Nick Agar spent several days in the Liggett woodshop between the Utah Woodturning Symposium and the AAW Symposium in San Jose. He demonstrated making a Viking Bowl for the Pikes Peak Woodturners, and then held two all-day classes so that we could all become Vikings, too.
The Viking bowl was inspired by Nick’s visits to Norway. He combines the drama of a northern sunset with a metalized finish that evokes a Viking shield. (Note the silver finger!)
Nick and Stuart Mortimer collaborated on a stunning vessel for the AAW Symposium which combined Stuart’s twistwork with Nick’s carved and metalized gears. We expect to see more gears in Nick’s work for the Worshipful Company of Turners’ exhibit in London in October.
Thanks to Nick for inspiring many of us in Colorado to try new decorating techniques in our own work!
Dennis has been making acorn boxes just big enough to store a special piece of jewelry or any memento about the diameter of a quarter.
Acorn boxes benefit from a threaded lid, because the top is larger than the bottom. Dennis cuts threads in the traditional English way, by using chasing tools and a good sense of rhythm.
Threads are always cut in very hard oily woods so that they do not crumble with use. These bases are boxwood, and the tops are turned from blackwood, cocobolo, and mopani.
Remember: mighty oaks start as a small acorn.
English woodturner Nick Agar will offer a full-day demonstration on Saturday, June 2, followed by a class on Sunday, June 3rd, at the Dennis Liggett woodshop in Monument. The two days of woodturning ecstasy are sponsored by the Pikes Peak Woodturners. The class is limited in size, but the demonstration is not.
Parking is always challenging, so the club will run shuttles to the FREX parking lot on the east side of Exit 161.
Nick is well-known for pioneering color and decorating techniques on woodturnings. Both the demonstration and the class will provide gazillions of new ideas for turners of all skill levels. You can see some of his work at www.turningintoart.com.
Call Dennis to sign up for the class: 719-481-8754
February 28, 2012 – 8:00 am
Just in time for the Ides of March, Dennis will demonstrate turning a canteen for the Pikes Peak Woodturners on March 7th. Vessels for water are usually called canteens, while those for other spirits may be known as flasks. When made from white oak, the wooden canteen is capable of either function.
Dennis learned the canteen form from Chris Stott. Chris makes a vessel about 3 1/2″ tall, which is illustrated in his book of Turned Boxes. It is considered a box by woodturner standards because it is turned in the spindle (or end grain) orientation. This form, however, also requires turning on the other axis, so it is technically a multi-axis turning. Canteens do not appear very often in exhibits and club galleries, although both Dennis and Nick Cook teach the canteen in demonstrations and classes.
Dennis turns the canteens with contrast wood inserts, threaded lids, and lids of various shapes. There are many opportunities for decorating the inserts, which gives the canteen project many opportunities for experimentation and decoration. The steps for making the canteen are listed on the ‘Project’ tab on this site.
October 15, 2011 – 9:34 am
Bigger bowls come from large trees with solid wood. Dennis picked up sections of a big hard maple from Missouri two years ago. He rough-turned the bowls and let them dry two years. The finish turned bowls have uniform wall thicknesses. The inlaid bands are turquoise, malachite, lapis, and pipestone.
How simple the form, and how varied the shape! One of these captures and holds its contents, and the other opens out to the dome of the sky. They are 15-17″ in diameter:
The finishing table at the Liggetts’ is filling up with bowls for the Tri-Lakes Cares Empty Bowls fundraiser (October 2011). This summer, Dr. Bob Gibbs is providing a steady supply of small bowl blanks cored from bigger bowls. Dr. Bob cuts quite a bit of his wood in Wisconsin, so the little bowls have a nice variety of hardwoods: walnut, elm, sycamore, fruit trees, and honeylocust. In addition to his help with the fundraiser, Dr. Gibbs also volunteers as a physician at the Tri-Lakes Cares clinic.
Dennis is back in the shop with a new group of bowls well before his scheduled recovery in August. He has already been to Missouri to pick up a new load of fresh logs. This time, the Paige Lumber Co. secured both cherry and persimmon wood. Dennis turns natural edge bowls from the persimmon while it is very wet. Here is a group of bowls drying on the windowsill (on the shady side of the house, of course).
You may remember American persimmon as a substitute for ebony. It was often used for golf club heads because of the hardness of the wood. Dennis has found that the wood holds a very clean cut when wet, and stays a beautiful creamy white. The bark is extremely dark, deep, and appears on the tree in big chunks. These chunks yield the lovely scallops on the bowls.
The curve of the bowls is an ‘ogee’ curve, which is a type of stretched-out S-curve used by cabinet makers for mouldings, and by woodturners for balusters and other architectural elements. This lovely curve emphasizes the bark edge, and creates the oval shape where Dennis has been cutting air instead of wood. It is a fascinating puzzle for everyone who has difficulty picturing the bowl inside the tree.
January 17, 2011 – 7:09 pm
Dennis has been on injured reserve since the Liggett family reunion in December 2010. The grandsons proved to be remarkably capable tennis table players. All woodturning projects are now on hold until the defiant rotators can be rewound this spring.
There is a video project waiting in England, fresh cherry logs on the ground in Missouri, and numerous masterpieces locked in the wood shop’s lumber supply. Nevertheless, Dennis has figured out that he can still do some small diameter spindle work. Magic wands, to be exact. Two grandchildren had broken their Harry Potter wands (made last year for Halloween), two more had wands on order, and then son James requested a gift for a co-worker with a difficult new assignment. Instructions for the Harry Potter wands are vague enough to allow changes in wood and general design. The photo is an early prototype which has found a home in the Liggett kitchen as a general purpose cooking wand.
Working from photos, Dennis has turned a cannon for a model of one used in British naval warfare. The most difficult part was cutting into the oak used for the project–a piece of wood from the HMS Victory, now in drydock in the UK. This piece was painted on one side with multiple layers of the thick cream-color paint used in the interior of the ship. The wood came with a certificate of authentication. From time to time, portions of the ship are refitted, and a small amount of oak finds its way into special projects. As you might have guessed, Stuart Mortimer helped Dennis obtain this piece to make the cannon model.
