Second time around wood ; this piece started life as a wooden lawn bowls ball. Found in a second-hand sale, slightly dented but still the strength of the wood underneath. The old lignum vitae ball has a new life, hollowed out and well polished as a small hollow vessel. Still tactile, can be rolled on its side and has many years of life left.
Recycled wood plays an important part in modern woodwork.
The bowling ball was over 40 years old. Other pieces on the Grey Lynn Woodturners website are recycled timber from renovations of older houses. Door lintels; veranda posts, roof rafters and many other bits can all be used. The neighbourhood watch often lets me know about timber coming up to use. My car is well used to having dusty bits of timber poked in all sorts of places for transport back to a workshop. I live in an area where the majority of houses are between eighty and 100 years old. Renovations mean timber coming out of these houses are from sources not available in more. The timber has plenty of life left to be made into all sorts of items – practical domestic or visual artwork.
I gain a lot of enjoyment out of getting this wood back into action. The new life is not by accident, rather than by design to get the best out of it.
Do you have something you think could be turned into a piece?
