I've just finished the most exciting few days of my woodturning life so far - the British Woodturner of the Year competition (I didn't win...) and Makers Central 2019.

 Well, it's been far too long since the last blog post, that's for sure!  But I haven't been sitting around idly. Honest! This weekend saw the start of the Artists Open Houses as part of this year's Brighton Festival. And it was the Open Houses that got me onto the internet with my website and YouTube videos just over two years ago. And it's been fun ever since - especially getting the opportunity to go to other woodturning clubs and demonstrate some of my colouring ideas.

In the last two years, this wonderful activity has also taken me to UKIWS 2018 to demonstrate, and this year to Makers Central (next weekend - gulp!), and later this year to Chestnut Products Woodturning Weekender. And on Thursday this week, I'll be in London at the Oxo Gallery for the British Woodturner of the Year competition as part of the Celebrating British Craft Exhibition. It's been a bit of a whirlwind to be honest.

I hope to see lots of you at both Makers Central and the Woodturning Weekender - don't be shy:  come and say hello as I don't bite (well, not often!)

My latest video is currently exporting as I type this and I'm really pleased with this one, though it might not appeal to everyone. This is one of the shallow bowls I've made that had more meaning for me behind the decorative element. It was an idea that was floating around in my mind for some time - connecting lines in a haphazard pattern with circles of colour at the intersections. As with lots of the decoration I've added, I didn't want a solid block of colour, rather a build up of different layers and shapes. On this bowl, this idea worked well for me. I see the lines as connecting and joining and linking up and the circles as the points of joining with a depth to the colours and I hope a sense of light coming through. In the video I came up with all sorts of pretentious ideas for names until my wife said 'Dreamscape', which I've gone with. I like it a lot. For her, it suggested something of the visions seen in a shamanic experience. On a more prosaic level, but for me no less beautiful, is the suggestion of sunlight through leaves. My daughter says it reminds her of bokeh patterns in photography. So, at least three different responses there - let me know if you have a different one!