Two Evenings With Graeme Priddle
This is a Point Break - a surfer's dream. A safe place to get in -no paddling out - and a long ride to the beach.
This is a Graeme Priddle piece - aptly titled Point Break.
Guess where the inspiration for the piece came from.
New Zealanders seem to be a unique lot - proned to head down The Path Less Taken. How else would you end up out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by ocean - and find both fjords AND tropicalesque beaches perfect for surfing? And when the Euros arrived, the indiginous people - the Maoris- already had an Immigration Policy and, by formal treaty, set down the conditions for landing on their shores. Subsequent "visitors", who ultimately became citizens of New Zealand, came not as Colonialists, but as visitors or immigrants who liked the place and, subject to the Immigration Policy, called the place home.
Graeme Priddle is typical of the Kiwis I've met - independent, friendly, outgoing, a self depricating sense of humor, proned to laughter, informal (when was the last time you saw a demonstrator in T-shirt, baggy surfer bathing suit - and flip-flops?)
and
willing to try just about anything, preferably if it's somewhat dangerous. Who in their right mind would take a piece of bare Nichrome wire, run some insulated wires to it and attach the other ends to a 12 Volt Battery - and then touch the glowing red hot bare wire to a piece of wood - held between his knees - while surrounded by dry wood shavings - and wearing a bathing suit?! Who would hold a piece of wood with his knees and take a grinder with all sorts of sharp bits to it? Why Graeme Priddle of course. And he does - quite often.
Among many other things, Priddle is a turner, a carver, an innovator - in addition to being a husband, father, surfer and explorer, etc.. The former has brought him to the attention of Turners and Collectors worldwide - and hopefully - a comfortable income, sufficient to let him keep doing what he's been doing - for as long as he wants to do it.
Most of what he does is a reflection of where he lives, the native people and what he likes to do. Living close to the ocean, the sea and the creatures in it are inspirations. As a surfer, waves and coastlines are inspirtation. And then there are the Maori people, with their carvings and tatoos - both telling the story of the people and The Seven Canoes which brought them to what is now called New Zealand.
Most demonstrators jump right into demonstrating HOW TO. Graeme starts with a slide show of, and talk about, where he lives, what he does - other than turning - and how they influence his pieces - the missing WHY. Once you have that information, and a feel for the man, the rest of the "demonstration" takes on a different meaning - going beyond just HOW TO.
For Priddle, turning is just part of the process of creating his pieces - a relatively small part. But let's start with some of what he does on the lathe, then get to his Wood Vaporizing equiptment and techniques and some of his tips. On the lathe he does basic hollowing and multi-centers turning - of arcs.
When it comes to doing the "carving" Graeme doesn't reach for traditional carving tools - knives, chisels, gouges and mallet. Oh no, not this guy. He breaks out his flex shaft and a plastic box filled with all manner and sizes of cutting burs. And when it comes to holding the piece - he don't need no fancy fancy Three Axis Pivoting Stainless Steel Carver's Vise. He's got knees and a spare hand. Give him a chair and a something with lots of places to put his feet and he's got everything he needs to do his carving.
Here's a Strafish piece nearly done. Note the "lip" identified as "C" in the earlier illustation of the turning process. And note that the "piercings" result where the hollowing process intersects the low spots of the carving which was done prior to hollowing. This piece is the result years of evolution of form and technique and the Starfish series will likely continue to evolve and become more refined.
Go back to the top of this page and look at the first photo - focusing on the "horns". Note that they reflect the outline of the body of the piece. They evolved from lobster antenae - filled with epoxy to give them some strength (remember - the ocean is a major part of this man's life and a source of endless inspirations). Now the're made from three pieces of wood - two dark, one light. Where they start is obvious when you look at the following photo.
Then the question is - How do you get the curves which follow the shape of the piece? Well - you could - get one of those store bought profile gauge things - or - you can take a piece of heavy gauge copper wire and . . . (remember - this guy lives out in the country - on acreage - 100 acres - 30 Km from Whangarei - on an island - out in the middle of nowhere - so he has to be good at adapting things on hand to meet a need).
So, with the three board glue up, a piece of wire, a pencil, band saw and a knife - maybe even a spoke shave - you can make "horns".
Now to the matter of attaching the "horns" to the piece. Once again, remember where he lives - and he was a radio tech - which means he's got all sorts of wire on hand - flat braided wire - and - if you live near the ocean you know that steel and iron tend to rust - while copper - doesn't. So you probably have copper nails and tacks on hand as well. Starting to see how where he lives affects what he does and how he does it? Kind of an simple, elegant solution to a problem yes? And it WORKS!
One of the things Graeme stressed during his intro slide show and talk was - "Personalize your work. Make who you are and where you are, maybe with a bit of how you got there - integral parts of each piece. That way, each piece will be uniquely yours - and will have significance to you and anyone who knows you" ( even second, third or fourth hand ) THAT is great marketing advice.
The Canoe pieces, like the Point Break type pieces, uses the intersecting arcs idea and three more centers for turning the "paddler holes" - the latter turned using just two opposing jaws in a scroll chuck.
You'll note that the internal diameter of the "paddler holes" determines whether there will be holes in the sides of the canoe.
Now to the fun part - Das Wood Vaporizer.\
Here's Graeme's home made "pen". Nasty looking booger ain't it?
If you want to see some ways to make a Wood Vaporizer System CLICK HERE - then come back - there are details to get to.
Now to the TIPS:
If you've done any pyrography you know that keeping wood adjacent to a burnt/scorched/vaporized wood clean, or cleanable, is the difference between a crisp detail or a messed up, dark smudged, sort of blurred detail. Keeping stuff off that wood is critical. One approach is to get a finish like shellac or lacquer on the piece before burning patterns. That works pretty well when laser cutting and laser burning on a piece - the shellac lets you wipe off any residue from the burning that got away. Doesn't work quite as well - when you're VAPORIZING adjacent wood - in a bright FLASH!
Priddle doesn't put shiny finishes on most of his pieces, prefering to sand really really fine - polished look fine - as in 100. 150, 180, 320, 600 and then 0000 steel wool. So he uses masking tape to protect areas adjacent to where he'll be vaporizing. But he doesn't use the stuff readily available at The BORG - oh no. When you're doing curves, and some relatively tight curves, and you DO NOT want ANYTHING getting under your masking tape - AND you want it to come off CLEAN - you go with special tape - 3M's Scotch (R) Perfromance Masking Tape (233+ and 26343). It's Festool Green so you can't mistake for any other masking tape and it comes in widths down to 3mm (that's just under 1/8") and it'll handle up to 250 degrees F without a problem. Here's the link to 3M's info on it. (close that window when you're done).
So for curved lines this stuff in 3mm width is perfect. For his circles he uses the wider tape, circle punches and plastic lids from things like butter tubs, cream cheese and the like. The plastic lids are sort of sell healing so and you can punch then peel the dots off cleanly and semi-easily. He punches up a dozen or two of various diametersm, puts them on a piece of plastic - plastic milk containers work - and lifts off what he needs with an Exacto type knife, and places them where needed.
When you vaporize wood with a red hot piece of wire - you'll get build up of stuff on your "branding iron". If you don't get it off it'll build up and you'll start losing the crispness of the brands. So Graeme keeps a steel bristled brush at hand and brushes off the crud - after each FLASH. This guy has his techniques down to a fine art - everything needed close by - everything done quickly and efficiently. He may appear Laid Back - but when he works - and it is his job - he does it very methodically - and precisely. His work feeds his family - and gives him time at the beach or on the water.
No matter how careful you are with the Wood Vaporizer - you're going to need to do some black touch up. For that he goes with Dick Blick Micro Point Archive Quality felt tip pens. The ink is jet black - and won't fade. (Dick Blick is an arts supplies outfit you can find with Google).
When it comes to sanding Graeme mentioned a hard to come by "paper" which, rather than abrassive particles, has an undercut etched metal surface on a flexible substrate and backing. My notes have both Sandvic and Astra. This stuff apparently stays sharp longer and doesn't load up like "paper". I have found a reference in a luthier pdf that mentions "a metal sand paper product from Sandvik, called Sandplate. Apparently Sandvik sold the division that made SandPlate to Bahco and Bahco has discontinued SandPlate. This stuff is apparently highly prized by woodworkers of all sorts - so if you find a source - PLEASE SHARE
(see LINKS - Astra-Dot source
Links
Our newsletter article on Graeme's demo
An interesting article about Graeme that fills in some WHY and an exercise in design
Astra-Dot Source (in New Zealand)
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