Bill has been interested in making things and messing about in boats for most of his life. He served an apprenticeship as a shipwright in a naval dockyard and subsequently became a scientist.
In his spare time he designed and made enough modern furniture to fill several houses and completed the woodwork of a number of racing dinghies.
Whilst making furniture is a relatively slow process as each piece can occupy several weeks or months to make, Bill finds that woodturning is a pleasing contrast as several pieces may be completed in a day and at one end of the spectrum the process is akin to sculpture. More recently Bill has been experimenting with the use of sawn veneers and a vacuum bag veneer press to produce large platters.
Although wood is Bill’s primary medium he also works with other materials including brass, acrylic, leather, porcelain, and pewter; the latter lends itself to being worked by relatively simple craft methods including spinning with a wood turning lathe.
Bill is secretary of the Wight Woodturners.
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Pewter jug (15 cm high) spun
on woodturning lathe |
Ash vase (18 cm high) with olive streak |
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Cherry vase 22 cm high. |
Dining chair, Ash and African Teak |
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Spalted Walnut doughnut 22cm diameter. |
Spalted Sycamore doughnut 29 cm diameter. |
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Elm bowl 26 cm diameter. |
Veneered platter. Tiger oak rim, leather centre
47 cm diameter. |
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Ash platter (41 cm diameter) with
mahogany inserts |
Beech platter (37 cm diameter) with
Wenge inserts. |
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