First post

I've just been watching a video by Robin Wood about turning bowls on a pole lathe.  It led me to his blog and I thought I'd have a go myself, [at blogging that is].

I've been a woodworker for most of my life apart from 13 years  in London where I earned enough to buy a house...and at which point I moved out to Devon and set up as a furniture restorer [www.walshrestoration.co.uk].  Prior to that I'd lived in Ireland for 12 years making and repairing stringed, fretted musical instruments.

These days furniture restoration is suffering from the recession, it's getting harder to find work and I've been playing around making various things with a view to possibly being able to make them from a home based workshop and sell them via a website.

Brown trout on the lid, Skate on the rest of it.  Ebony stringing with a french polished finish.

Skate skin and ebony with pencil cedar lining.

Same box as above

Green shagreen and ebony stringing

First I made a few trinket boxes covered in fish skin which I cured myself using alum.  I used skate from a local fisherman as it was a type of ray and I was interested in producing a type of shagreen [stingray skin].  I also did a box with brown trout skin on the lid which looked great .Eventually I bought a dried stingray skin and dyed it green as was the fashion in the 1920's.

Next, I discovered the joys of making bows from green timber and did a beginners course in archery..........