Drop Spindles

Back in 2006 my wife sent me to woodcraft to take a class on turning.  Well that class resulted in a pen, that I promptly gave back to my wife.  But what it also did is got me hooked on turning.  So, I started looking for a lathe that I could afford.  What I ended up with is a Jet Midi lathe that  bought off ebay.  It has a 13" length capacity, so I thought "Now what can I turn other than pens under 13"".  Well I settled on making crochet hooks for Amber.  That later lead to making a few drop spindles, and even later, nostepinnes. 

In hind sight, making nostepinnes would have been an easier, and less adverturous place to start. :)

Anyway, recently I have been tossing around the idea of making some more drop spindles.  I have made 1 turkish spindle, which was rather fun.  20-30 top and bottom whirl spindles.  Here are some of my favorites.

This last one if one of my favorites.  It is currently at Latta Plantation being used for demonstrations.  One of these days, I will have to go visit it again.

Here is a video of Amber using it not long after I made it.