ElderlyGent
Member
Hi all.
I am new to 'Fora' generally so please forgive me if this should be some place else. I hope it is not too long for this area on the site.
My name is Drew and I live on the Isle of Man probably known to our UK residnts, but maybe unknown to our members here on the site who live in far away places such as Australia or the USA etc. The Island lies in the middle of the Irish Sea half way bewteen the UK and Ireland. You can Google it if interested, it's well worth it. .
So why am I on here? I am 83 and have been retired many years after a very full life but recently my wife who is 20 years younger than me (Yippee) retired and decided to learn about Proof Reading as a possible addition to our income at some point in the future, so we still go our diverse ways at times. Mine to the shed.
Some time ago I met on the internet a blind wood turner by the name of Chris Fisher, who has a Youtube channel called 'The Blind Wood Turner' (He makes some fantastic stuff) of course and he was the inspiration for me to get back into turning generally.
Why him? Well I too am very partially sighted, Presently it is down to about 25% of what all you fully sighted folks have. I have some sight in one eye only. So I thought that if HE can do it so can I.
I bought a mid range lathe and started turning bowls and all the ususal stuff.
My wife is an American so every year we go on safari to the States to visit her twin sister and all the usual relatives.
The last time we were there my Brother-in-Law who is a woodworker suggested that I tried a pen or two on his lathe. I admit I was very reluctant to do this as it seems very fiddly at times, but he persisterd and so I had a go under supervision.
Amasing. I can do it. He also does some part time work in the Woodcraft franchise so we did a shopping trip to get all the starter kit I would need.
Since then I have progressed somewhat, but am eager to take it further, but this raises some questions. LIke the deeper you get into it the more expensive it becomes and more time consuming when you have to cope with a disability. So after looking at dozrens of videos on Youtube on the 'How to do it' theme, all there seem to have litterally hunderds of pens, as I am sure many of you on here do. Obviously they must sell them. You can only give so many away, and this is only possible if you can stand to lose the cost of the kits and materials.
I would like to be able to cover this cost, not to make 'money' at it, but as a hobby that is self sustaining. So can this be done.? Are they 'collectible', or do you just put them onto Ebay or similar? Craft Fairs come to mind but the total population of the Island includung men, women and children is onlyu 80,000 so very snall.
The photos are just very quick ones. The general one shows a very few of the items I have done in the past before pen turning and possibly shouldn't be here. Apologoes if so..
So that's me folks. Any advice will be more than welcome to help me go in the right direction.
Cheers
I am new to 'Fora' generally so please forgive me if this should be some place else. I hope it is not too long for this area on the site.
My name is Drew and I live on the Isle of Man probably known to our UK residnts, but maybe unknown to our members here on the site who live in far away places such as Australia or the USA etc. The Island lies in the middle of the Irish Sea half way bewteen the UK and Ireland. You can Google it if interested, it's well worth it. .
So why am I on here? I am 83 and have been retired many years after a very full life but recently my wife who is 20 years younger than me (Yippee) retired and decided to learn about Proof Reading as a possible addition to our income at some point in the future, so we still go our diverse ways at times. Mine to the shed.
Some time ago I met on the internet a blind wood turner by the name of Chris Fisher, who has a Youtube channel called 'The Blind Wood Turner' (He makes some fantastic stuff) of course and he was the inspiration for me to get back into turning generally.
Why him? Well I too am very partially sighted, Presently it is down to about 25% of what all you fully sighted folks have. I have some sight in one eye only. So I thought that if HE can do it so can I.
I bought a mid range lathe and started turning bowls and all the ususal stuff.
My wife is an American so every year we go on safari to the States to visit her twin sister and all the usual relatives.
The last time we were there my Brother-in-Law who is a woodworker suggested that I tried a pen or two on his lathe. I admit I was very reluctant to do this as it seems very fiddly at times, but he persisterd and so I had a go under supervision.
Amasing. I can do it. He also does some part time work in the Woodcraft franchise so we did a shopping trip to get all the starter kit I would need.
Since then I have progressed somewhat, but am eager to take it further, but this raises some questions. LIke the deeper you get into it the more expensive it becomes and more time consuming when you have to cope with a disability. So after looking at dozrens of videos on Youtube on the 'How to do it' theme, all there seem to have litterally hunderds of pens, as I am sure many of you on here do. Obviously they must sell them. You can only give so many away, and this is only possible if you can stand to lose the cost of the kits and materials.
I would like to be able to cover this cost, not to make 'money' at it, but as a hobby that is self sustaining. So can this be done.? Are they 'collectible', or do you just put them onto Ebay or similar? Craft Fairs come to mind but the total population of the Island includung men, women and children is onlyu 80,000 so very snall.
The photos are just very quick ones. The general one shows a very few of the items I have done in the past before pen turning and possibly shouldn't be here. Apologoes if so..
So that's me folks. Any advice will be more than welcome to help me go in the right direction.
Cheers
