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Joey Richardson

Piercing and decorating

with Joey Richardson

Joey returned to talk about how she achieves her thin bowls with piercing and decoration. She spoke about the design process and the influence of Binh Pho on her work. Joey uses main sycamore because it is white and close grained, which she freezes before turning to keep it white, and means it is still wet when turned. The bowls she turns have to be around 2mm thick at most but need weight in the bottom so she turns, then microwaves them to get the moisture out of the bottom, filling them with kithen roll and then microwaving for 20 seconds on high twice.

Joey demonstrated turning a bowl and using a light inside to see how even the wall thickness is. She then showed us how she transfers images onto the wood with a laser printed/photocopied picture taped on and a Xylene pen then pierces with dental burrs, cutting clockwise with the tool perpendicular. She pyrographs on an image which helps stop the colours leaking and also to create texture. She also showed us how she air brushes on her designs and cuts out shapes with a mini-jigsaw.

Information on the tools she uses plus some hints and tips can be seen on her website https://www.joeyrichardson.com/sheets.