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The candlestacks started as a way to use all of the leftover ‘beads’ from the sculpture totem in the Creative Gambit show in July 2019.  My favorite leftover bead was the teacup and saucer, turned off-center.  For the show, I painted the teacup/saucer chartreuse, but these two are showing off the figure in the aspen.  Each section of the stack is turned separately, and then the stack is joined together using a wooden dowel.  The stacks are around 10″ tall.  The top is sized to hold a 2″ diameter pillar candle, a large tealight, or a 3″ round candle.  The one on the right also holds a 5″ coach candle with the taper-style base.

All wooden candlesticks are safer with the battery-operated lights.  There is a reason we don’t find very many old wooden candlesticks.

Many famous woodturners (Michael Hosaluk, John Jordan)  have turned teapots in varying degrees of functionality.  It something of a modern standard that the spout is part of the original turning, and not added to the body, as it would be in a ceramic teapot.   I decided to start with the basic shape as a bead for a candlestack.  So it is solid, with a hole for the dowel, and a handle made of this amazing flexible wood.  This one is quite a bit smaller than the two teacups in the photo above.

The use of a central dowel to connect parts comes from stacking toy blocks.  I’ve also used a 2″ plastic pipe to build the hatstand.  It allows me to make much taller turnings than I could fit on my shortbed Vicmark lathe.

  I have quite a set of caps, so I have been thinking about ways to store them.  These two products were inspired by the sketches I have been doing for the ‘Creative Gambit’ show in July.   Both of them are turned from some 6 x 6″ recycled redwood posts.

The pawn is a nice table-top stand from a classic shape in chess.

The hall tree is built like a totem – small turned sections on a central 2″ plastic pipe.  I have always wanted to make larger spindle turnings, but I have a short-bed Vicmark lathe.   The totem design is a great solution.  The sections can be rearranged, too.  This totem includes finishes with charring and black milk paint, painted faux beadwork, metal reactive paints, and one bead that is upholstered with a batik fabric.

I have always been interested in products on the cusp between treen and furniture.  Here are two!

Continuing my interest in making towers with cupolas, I set up a Pinterest board (Cupolas, turnips, onions-Kay Liggett) to collect inspirational images.  This one is all turned wood, with various finish options, free-hand pyrography, and gilders paste.  The block of green twistwork is a simple 3-start twist.  11.5″ tall

A special thanks to Austrian artist Hundertwasser, for inspiring some brighter colors, and to global wood artist Nick Agar for teaching me how to apply different colors to wood.