More Things!

I've been doing a lot in the shop lately, and wanted to keep you all informed. For one, I've got more wands up on Etsy, which is cool. Here's the link to the shop: Septimus' Emporium of Handcrafted Geekery

And here are some pics of what I've been up to:

That's a Tormek T-7 wet sharpening system. It's a beast. I suck really hard at free hand sharpening and the Tormek uses a collection of jigs to make things as easy and repeatable as possible. It has completely revolutionized my turning. Woods that frustrated me to no end before now turn easily. Shapes I couldn't accomplish are now possible. Sharp tools really do make all the difference and a few minutes on the Tormek keeps everything in the shop crazy sharp. It's a big investment, but has been absolutely worth it for me. And this is without even sharpening knives and scissors and all the rest. That will come soon enough, I'm sure.

So here are my tiny brooms. Jenna suggested I make some tiny brooms for Christmas ornaments for friends, and I was originally struggling with them, as you can see. None of them really made me happy.

However, the fourth time was the charm on these. I'm super pleased with it and I learned enough to be able to do more of them, for one, and also to be able to use the same technique on full-size brooms, which I think I'll be trying before too long.

Also, I started trying some face turning. Or hollow form turning. I'm still fuzzy on the terminology, but I'm making cup shaped things. This is how they start. Kind of a rough cylinder.

Then we get to hollowing.

Then you kinda rough shape a goblet thingy out of it, I guess.

And then you take pretty pictures. See how easy that was?


And of course, plenty more wands. But everything I've made is on the Etsy site, so you've already seen it. So there you go! That's what I've been up to recently. So much crafting, it makes your head spin.