I take a lot of pleasure in making wooden items for friends and family. I seem to remember that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Here some recent examples – I think they have been, and will be, well received:

A wine bottle coaster for my cousin Graham and his wife Nicola, whose birthday(s) drinks party we recently attended in London. (I forgot to take a picture of the actual item, made in walnut, so here is an earlier one to the same design.)

My brother Darryl, and his wife Libby, have recently completed some major refurbishments to their lovely cottage, and were looking for some roller towel holders. Commercially available ones are too wide, so I have made a couple of made-to-measure ones.

Much as I espouse hand tool woodworking above machines, the groove in the side pieces and, even more so, the “keyhole” grooves in the base for wall mounting, both called for the use of an electric router. I don’t like using these tools. They’re noisy and throw dust everywhere; and they can kick back and ruin the cut. Happily, the result was good.

The roller is beech, turned to size on my lathe, and the frame is oak. I feel a little guilty for using glue-and-screw butt joints rather than hand-cut mortice and tenon joints, but Darryl says they are to be painted (!!). I salved my conscience somewhat by strengthening the joint with a 6mm rod dowel.

Still, not many people can boast having a handmade pair of bespoke roller towel holders!

Meanwhile, another pair of planks is almost completed on the clinker dinghy, and I’ll post a photo of that landmark moment soon.