Report Tulips demo by Shay Nolan
Reported by Michael Forde
Tulips in December cannot be found in many gardens, but Shay as part of his introduction placed an arrangement of his tulips at the end of the bench, and the white, yellow, and dark blue colours of the drooped heads over the rim of his wooden vase looked very much like the real thing; - the tulip that was brought to Europe from Turkey many centuries ago, and is the national flower of Holland. Shay started by telling us the background to his getting interested in tulip making; he first saw them being turned out by a local turner when on a trip to Holland.; he later saw them for sale in the U.K. he then took up the challenge of turning them himself. He told us that to streamline and simplify tulip making and to have equal sized tulips in an arrangement or bouquet; measurements and initial preparation of the wood must be accurately carried out . Shay uses a low density wood , pine ,white deal or poplar (also known as tulip wood), and prepares each piece accurately squared , 95mm. long and 45mm.square. The centre of each end is accurately located, and a pencil line drawn centrally down each of the four sides. Then mounted between centres and a short spigot or dovetail formed at one end for chuck mounting,, then when mounted in chuck a 20mm. or 22mm. hole is drilled in other end with a Forstner or saw tooth bit to a depth of 45mm..Then a Vee (for petal separation) is sawn centrally in the same end ,15mm. wide at the top and 23mm. deep. Then mounted in chuck turning down to a cylinder (45mm.) is done with the roughing gouge,- at this point Shay checked the accuracy of mounting by observing that the four lines
drawn centrally on the sides were all but gone equally. Shay then marked a point back 65mm. from the nose, as the max. dia. ; and a point 20mm. further back, as the end at the stem. Shaping of the curves from the max. dia. point to nose and end was started with the spindle gouge and finished with the skew, to define the desired shape. End shape is almost half a circle.) When shaping is completed tulip is left attached to its mount by a narrow spigot. Sanding was next done down to 180 grade only. As regards colouring,, the advice was an application of sanding sealer on first will assist in getting a more even colour. Some discussion took place at this time on the type of colouring to use ; water base ,spirit base or food colouring, which some in the audience suggested was ideal. Tulip then removed from chuck and twisted from its base at the slender spigot , a bradawl was used to indent for a 4mm. hole which, when drilled, was used to mount the tulip on its stem and a garden plant stick,35cm.approx. long was used for this. Final sanding is done by hand ,around the edges of the Vees, and if necessary, the tips of the petals so that they appear even around the tip of the bulb. T his is done prior to any staining. Leaves for an arrangement are produced by shaping (cutting by knife and sanding) and staining ,strips of balsa wood , usually available in model shops. since balsa absorbs the stain greedily, care is required. Shay keeps his tulip arrangements mounted in oasis pads so as to maintain their relative positions in their vases. This ended an excellent demonstration where attention to detail and check - list preparation combined with well practised skills, produced eye catching flowers. Many thanks Shay for showing us how.
P.S.At the Dec.20.Northside Woodtalk Meeting at Grange Comm. College Mick Healy arrived with one of his classic vases displaying an arrangement of drooping head tulips, which he made after seeing Shay’s demonstration .Mick did not have the garden plant sticks for use as stems so instead used fairly stiff green plastic covered garden wire; I thought the slightly drooping tulip head result achievable an added bonus. This goes to show Shay’s Demo. was well taught and Mick Healy is a great mature Student. M.F.