We usually make a few snowmen at Christmas time. These were for Debbie in Bracknell. The taller hats are Dan's take on the snowman model. Steve's snowmen this year went in the Ryedale Woodturners sale.

Awards for Malton School's annual Celebration Evening, for the students in Key Stage 4 and 5. These are individual awards for students to keep, for excellence in subjects and school activities. Other years' trophies

A chunky burr oak cheesboard made for Andrea in Nantwich. It is twelve inches in diameter, and is finished with three coats of food-safe oil. Have a look at more wooden kitchen items

A selection of notable and interesting trees in and around Thornton le Dale have been added as a page in the woodland section. This one is on the Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Register

A bowl turned from heavily wormed lime, tunneled in all directions. It has been microwaved, chemically treated, then sealed with Danish oil.The inscription says: "Time could only be seen in the falling leaves, a wound that healed, a woodworm's tunneling, rust that spread, and hearts that grew weary." (Felix J Palma). More bowls.

Despite horrendous weather caused by Storm Arwen, Ryedale Woodturners held a successful exhibition and sale in Thornton le Dale this weekend, at which our work featured prominently. More pictures are on the Ryedale Woodturners website.

A wall clock turned from a plank of spalted beech. Spalting is caused by fungal attack after a tree is felled. Once dried and seasoned the fungal spread ceases and the pattern stabiliises. Hence the quote: "Fungi are the great recyclers of the planet, the interface between life and death". (Angie Langevin). This clock is for sale. More about clocks

Rebecca in Hertfordshire requested three trophies for sports achievement, music achievement, and an eco-award. These three large oak trophies are the result. More about these school house trophies

Emma from Clacton on Sea wondered if we could make acorn keyrings that were hollow, for putting a small message inside. The answer was yes, using a small brass threaded ring to join the two pieces together. More wooden keyrings

A yarn bowl made for Veronika, for holding a ball of wool while knitting or crocheting, made from oak. This one is 8 inches in diameter. Veronika also asked for two mice and some cheese to go with the bowl, all as Christmas presents. More on hand turned wooden bowls, and wooden mice.

November 2021 The annual Celebration Evening at Malton School this year required slightly fewer trophies, with no sports trophies being awarded due to curtailed activity during the lockdown. More on hand turned wooden trophies

A yarn bowl made for Ruth, for holding a ball of wool while knitting or crocheting, made from spalted beech. This one is 9 inches in diameter. Ruth also asked for two needle cases to go with the bowl, all as Christmas presents. More on bowls

A bowl of eggs, turned from a variety of timbers: ash, iroko, lignum vitae, padauk, rippled ash, sapele, sycamore and western red cedar. More on hand made wooden eggs

More pictures from Scampston Hall gardens and their Capability Brown parkland, following a very enjoyable visit last week on a sunny, cool autumn day. For the autumn collection, some walnuts from an American black walnut, papery cones from an Atlas Blue Cedar, chestnuts from the 250 year old sweet chestnut - which sadly has lost a large branch since we last visited. Could make some interesting turning?

Pictures of the trees at Scampston Hall gardens.

A chess trophy made for Norwich Dons chess club, in memory of a former member. Also another trophy, available for sale. The first is made in Brazilian mahogany and oak, the second in box and walnut. Both are 6" diameter, 10" tall.

More chess trophies, and trophies on plinths.

A recent holiday on the Isle of Mull saw us spending lots of time in the oak woodlands along the side of the sea lochs where we were staying. As well as being delighted to spot otters and fish eagles almost every day, it was equally delightful to look more closely at the woodlands and their wealth of curiosities, from contorted forms to lichen, fungi and mosses. More about Isle of Mull woodlands.

Ceramic artist Paddy Hartley commissioned a wooden spinning top to use in creating a cast for limited edition porcelain replicas. Very precise requirements.

Read more about this fascinating project.

Craig in Kent requested four of our castle keyrings, pyrographed with the text "An Caisteal", which is Gaelic for "a castle ", and no doubt refers to a place visited by the four recipients of the keyrings, probably the Munro (Scottish mountain) near Crianlarich. Oak with gold plated keyring kits, about 4½ inches tall. More keyrings.

Josh in London requested a platter similar to the Old Malton Priory platter, but with a little more in the way of dedications. The result is this 12 inch sycamore platter, with a pyrographed picture of Youlgrave Wesleyan Reform Chapel in the centre. More pyrography examples.

Just some of the items we made for the Ryedale Woodturners sale this weekend. Held in Thornton le Dale's Hill Institute, it proved very popular, with 12 members of the woodturners' club exhibiting, and 122 items being sold over the two days.

More on Ryedale Woodturners' sale

What do you do when you have a really nice piece of elm, but it has developed a crack in it? Well, one idea is to make the crack larger and make a feature of it. There are many ways of doing this, and I take no credit for this being an original idea, with zips and laces being used in a similar way by woodturners such as Dave Lowe and Emma Cooke.

More goblets and vases.

Eileen in Cambridge requested a trophy for her golf club. 8 inch diameter, with a plinth left blank for a metal engraving plaque to be fixed for recording winners.

More on sports trophies and trophies generally.

Kate in Cheshire requested a golf trophy for a cricket and golf club, in memory of her father. The design took shape through a number of emails, which resulted in this life-size cricket ball turned in rippled olive ash, plus two golf tees in plainer ash, on top of an oak post. The trophy is 4 inches square by 11 inches tall.

More on this memorial trophy, sports trophies and trophies generally.

More pictures and information for the growing tree section of this site - this time trees, and a few statues based on trees, from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park at West Bretton, near Wakefield.

The park is well worth visiting as much for the trees and parkland as it is for the sculptures. At times the boundary between the two is very thin, many trees being very sculptural.

We had an enjoyable visit to Scampston Hall (near Malton, North Yorkshire) last week. Its parkland has many fine specimen trees. This Spanish chestnut has been there since the reign of George III - over 250 years old.

More work on the woodlands section of this website means there are quite a few new additions to the Scampston Hall page. Also an example of a turned sweet chestnut trophy cup.

Some bud vases turned from oak offcuts. Three to five inches tall, these vases are suitable for displaying dried flowers and grasses. They do not have a glass reservoir in them for plants needing water.

More vases and goblets

A collection of six yarn bowls, five of which are available for sale (one is already sold).

All the bowls are made from spalted beech - spalting is patterning which is created by fungal attack after a tree is felled. Once processed, as with this wood, the fungus is no longer active, and the pattern (and the wood) remains stable.

More yarn bowls and other textile craft items

I am gradually improving the section of this website devoted to trees. Eventually trees I have visited and photographed will appear on alphabetically labelled pages, and places with notable trees will have their own page. Breezy Knees, Constable Burton and Raby Castle have been added recently.