One bench · hollow-form turning

Hollow Craft

Vessels turned thin from storm-fallen timber and finished with oil, nothing else. Everything the studio actually does is below.

About the studio

Hollow Craft is one lathe, one set of hollowing tools and a rack of blanks that were all once standing trees somewhere nearby. Pieces are rough-turned wet, left to move for a season, then finished thin.

Nothing is made in batches, so the lists here change often. If a link points at something that has already gone, the studio card at the foot of the page says what is next.

October drop — Vessel No. 118 New Spalted beech, three millimetres at the rim. One piece, listed once the oil has cured.

Studio card

  • This month's drop

    Vessel No. 118 — spalted beech, 240 mm across, turned to three millimetres at the rim. A single piece, released when the oil has fully cured.

  • Stock

    The bench list is rewritten every Friday evening, so a sold piece never lingers and a new one appears the week it is finished.

  • Commissions

    The queue runs about six weeks. Oak, elm and spalted beech are usually in the rack; walnut appears whenever a tree comes down nearby.

  • At the lathe

    Four benches per two-day hollow-form intensive, Saturdays through November. Beginner spindle evenings run once a month, with the sharpening clinic slotted between them.

  • Studio notes

    Issue fourteen is about wall thickness — how thin is honest, and how to stop before the vessel decides for you.

  • Timber

    Every blank is storm-fallen or salvaged, logged by tree and by the week it was rough-turned, then left to move for a season.

  • Care

    Re-oil once a season with a soft cloth, keep a vessel off the sunny windowsill, and let it move gently with the room.

  • Open bench

    On the last Sunday of each month the yard door stays open: shavings underfoot, questions welcome, nothing tidied away first.