Tight fitting wine corks

Over the last year or so I have been having problems fitting pre-drilled wine corks to the dowel on a bottle stopper. They seem to be excessively tight, leading to problems like splitting or getting stuck part way onto the dowel.

At first I thought maybe it was just a bad batch, but as time went on I realised I had to do something about the problem. It was costing me too much in broken corks and wasted time. After some thought, I decided to test the hypothesis that they were too dry and had either shrunk or become too hard.

For my first test I threw some in a pan of boiling water for a few minutes. Anyone who has made homemade wine knows that corks have to be boiled to make them pliable enough to ram into the bottle. Anyway, this worked, but the corks were really too wet. It made the glue very runny and great care had to be taken not to get glue or water over the finished turning.

I treated the next batches a little more gently by steaming them. I used a saucepan with an inch of simmering water in the bottom, and a collander over the rim to hold the corks. I put a wooden board over the top just to keep a little more moisture in. I didn't use a metal lid as I didn't want condensation dripping on the corks.

Anyway, this works like a dream, the stoppers slide on easily, and I think I have a solution to my problem.


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ASU exhibition

The Arizona State University Art Museum have announced their forthcoming exhibition, “Turning Point: Inspired by the Edward Jacobson Collection of Turned Wood Bowls.” It opens April 22 and runs through to August 12.

In 1989 Edward “Bud” Jacobson donated his collection of turned wood bowls by contemporary American artists. This collection has since influenced the museum's collecting of wood art.

This exhibition shows 60 works from the museum's permanent collection and includes pieces from the Jacobson collection but is dominated by newer work. If you can't get to see this exhibition this summer, the museum plans to create a permanent display in recognistion of Jacobson's contribution to woodturning.


Technorati Tags: woodturning, art, exhibition, arizona

More woodturning blogs

It's always good to find more woodturners writing a blog. I recently came across two that I wanted to share with you.

First is Dennis Laidler from Cape Town in South Africa. This is a new blog where David shows some of his work in woods like Araucaria excelsa, camphor and silky oak, as well as pictures of work in progress. My favourite piece so far is the Silky Oak Bowl which incorporates some wonderful textures, beading and pyrography.

Dennis also links to the blog of Andi Wolfe who many readers will already know. Andi's blog is not solely about woodturning, but as a professional botanist I'm guessing that she gets a lot of inspiration for her work from the natural world which is the theme for many of the other posts in her blog. I'm pleased to report that Andi has one of her works on the cover of the latest edition of The Crafts Report. This is good for both Andi and the craft of woodturning as a whole.

I hope that you enjoy reading these other woodturning blogs. Maybe you should start your own?