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Lendrum wheel workshop on the way to the cottage

Lendrum wheel workshop on the way to the cottage

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Last post, we were chatting about the Peterborough Fibre Festival and my quest to find the new Lendrum wheel company (lendrumwheels.ca). I found out that a lovely young couple had taken over the company from Gord Lendrum and had moved it to Carlton Place (so much closer to Ottawa than Odessa). He would also be very happy to meet my Rook (a castle wheel) and my folding upright with the heavy drinking problem. We arranged to chat and set an appointment next week.

We had plans to drive back and forth to the cottage several times that week, it’s still a bit chilly to stay overnight. The trip takes us through Carlton Place each time, so we didn’t have any trouble arranging a time to meet James at his workshop.

The address is in an industrial part of the north end of the City. With a bit of guessing, we found the right door. One of the big machines was running, so it took a moment to have the door answered. What an amazing space full of exciting woodcutting and turning equipment!

Large woodworking machine 2.1) machine is making the maidens and mother of all

Rook, Lendum Castle wheel and the old single tredle folding upright also by Lendrum2.2) My Rook (a lovely castle wheel by Lendrum)on the left, and on the right, my folding upright with the heavy drinking problem, both went to Carlton Place for a spa stay.

 The rook has a problem with the drive wheel turning if nudged. The upright has a pin underneath that has either broken or had the glue let go.  We will find out shortly!

James was excited to see both of them. He said he thinks he may have seen a wheel that looked like the rook on a shelf at Gord’s shop. He also said that the upright was an early single treadle and was not exactly the same specs as the modern double treadle versions. He checked bobbins on both wheels against the modern version.

It was an amazing place full of spinning wheel parts, impressive looking machines and photography options! Let’s take a look around.

drive wheels sitting together wating to be added to the new wheels2.3) Drive wheels waiting to be added to new spinning wheels

spinning bobins drying in various woods 2.4) Drying bobbins

lath and bobin in the lath2.5) lathe and a finished bobbin showing where a new bobbin would be positioned

showing the making of the Madens and mother of all parts; the madens and the mother of all held in the jig to be cut2.6-2.8) making the pieces of the mother of all, and the maidens

spinning the flyer to make sure its ballanced2.9) balancing the flyer

a spindle head for the upright lendrum wheel3.) I didn’t know that Gord had made a spindle attachment for the upright wheel.

I hope you will be as amazed and impressed as I was. It was kind of James to let me take photos to show you some of the parts, before the pieces become lovely Canadian Spinning Wheels!

After a chat about the wheels and a tour of the workshop, we eventually let him get back to work.  I wished my wheels a happy spa time and got back into the car to drive to the cottage. We got there and over the day saw a few of the new neighbours.

2 photos of a canada goose at the cottage4.1) Canada goose

4 photos of Bufflehead ducks4.2) Bufflehead ducks

small turtle swimming in creek with reflections of trees in the water4.3) Small turtle swimming past the dock

I don’t have a dedicated studio yet, but I am taking over some of the space with fibre-related activities. We moved furniture to create workspaces for spinning and felting.

I have 2 of my castle wheels moved to the living room and the screened porch.

small casle flax wheel5.1)Wheel #1, a small flax wheel of unknown maker

small castle wheel with decritive drive wheel beside wooden wordrob near window with trees 5.2) Castle wheel #2, a more decorative drive wheel, but needs a new drive band before I can get her running again.

round table with green striped table cloth infront of window showing trees and creek.5.3) The table on the porch has moved to the west window so I can work and watch the creek.

dead bullrushes along shoreline in front of trees which are reflected in the water infront of the reeds. 6.1) a close-up shot of the bay

rocks covered in moss and pine needles with mostly pine trees to the left the corner of a wooden deck6.2) The rocky slope uphill from the cottage and deck

dark silowets of pine trees in front of creek with sky of blue and sundet very little colour just behind the trees. 6.3) sunset across the creek

Out the windows, I can see the creek, the swampy bay and the moss-covered rocks. I am sure such views will inspire lots of felting!

 

 

Inspiration Photos

Inspiration Photos

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The photos of the felt piece I was going to blog about today didn’t turn out, so I thought I’d share some photos I took recently for inspiration. I was up early enough to enjoy some morning sunshine in the back garden, so took lots of photos of anything which caught my attention. The first thing was these little wild geranium flowers which grow everywhere in Spring:

They look nice, but they are really invasive and have a pretty unpleasant smell. I know lots of people hate Dandelions, but I’ve always really liked them. I had no idea the centres looked like this until I got a camera with Supermacro settings:

The next thing was this little glass cabochon. I used it as a weight on a stencil a few weeks ago and it got flecks of spray paint on it:

I’m not sure what this plant is or even if it’s something I bought or something which found its own way here, but it’s another thing whose detail is lost (to me, anyway!) without the Supermacro camera setting:

I’ve taken photos like this before, and I’m pretty sure I’ve shared them on here. This is a leaf from a teasel plant. I love the way it looks when it starts to die/decay:

I love the texture of Sage leaves, especially when they are young:

I’m not sure what is clinging to the ‘hairs’, but here’s a cropped close up:

If any botanists know, please enlighten me! The cat who has adopted us joined me in the garden, she enjoyed rolling around in the dust. She has nice patterns and markings anyway, but the sun seemed to make them more obvious. Even though this is really soft, it reminds me of a hedgehog:

I took this photo because I really like the soft hair behind her ears, but when I looked closer at the photo, I noticed that on just one small part of her head she has lots of different types of hair/hairs:

I only took this photo because I think the cat’s chin is really cute:

But when I looked closer, the fur seemed to be in a kind of pattern, kind of like the pattern of Sunflower seeds or a Dandelion seed-head. I’m not imagining it, am I?

I took these last photos a few weeks ago at the park near the well being centre. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve shared photos of these trees here too, they’re at the entrance and always make me want to photograph them. I thought it was interesting the way the clouds matched up with the trees.

This tree has a really unusual trunk, it seems really fibrous:

There’s a tree behind it which has really interesting seed pods, at least that’s what I think they are! I thought this might be something which Ruth might find inspiration in:

I don’t often sit down and plan a project directly from the inspiration photos I take, but I’m pretty sure the textures, colours and patterns influence my work anyway. Do you take or collect inspiration photos? What do you do with them? Please feel free to use any of these photos for direct or indirect inspiration.

Inspiration

Inspiration

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I was running out of ideas for a blog post since I haven’t had a chance to make or do anything this week, and Ruth suggested an Inspiration post. We’ve had a lot of rain recently, but actually had a couple of dry and even briefly sunny days so I went out in the garden to get some inspiration. I was hoping for a variety of colours and textures, but after a 3 1/2 month long heatwave, brown is the dominant colour in the garden! The first thing which caught my eye was a large teasel plant. The leaves at the base were really interesting:

This one has a spider on it too:

I got a photo of a whole seed head:

And a close up of the spiky edge:

One plant which does have some nice new growth is a large sedum I have. I rescued this from a house at the end of the street about 20 years ago when the previous owners moved out!

This has more interesting colours, the whole top will flower then turn deep red:

I don’t even remember this Centaurea (cornflower) flowering, but it has a really interesting seed-head. I don’t know if it’s just me, but it reminds me of owl feathers

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This is a common ‘weed’ in the UK, a Plantain (plantago). The little seeds look like oats:

I don’t know if you remember Ruth’s post about Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) recently, but I had quite a few really big ones in my garden, we call them Rosebay Willowherb here. Though I’ve just been looking it up on Wikipedia, and I might have actually had a related plant, the Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum). Either way, both plants have really great seed pods, and seeds, here are some from mine:

The last plant I managed to get some nice photos of is my small Sage shrub. It has really texturey leaves, quite hairy too when they’re young, and they turn interesting colours if they die too:

I hope you enjoyed those photos, feel free to use any for inspiration, and if you do, it’d be great to see what you make!