This piece has been sitting around since I turned and colored it months ago. It originally had a black top and just didn’t excite me. Last week I decided to revisit the top and here is the result. A bit whimsical but certainly better than the original. 
i still need another half dozen coats of lacquer to shine up the apple and lid (which I found out was some sort of particle board material which did give it an interesting texture for coloring).
This bowl was going to be another black one to replace all the ones that sold but I just wasn’t pleased with the finish. The answer was to cover the bulk of the bowl with my acrylic flower motif. The lid is a piece of cherry with an inset black spindle with is a deviation from the spindles I normally turn.
It just helps with the lift on the top half of the bowl. I had thought about bringing the flowers all the to the top but I think just bringing them up the sides was just enough. The bowl is maple and has been left naked inside.
This cherry plate has been sitting on my bench for at least a year now with no particular purpose. It was time to move it along. I wanted to see how well the cherry would take dye and wasn’t really impressed with the results of the green but once on there, it stays on there. The perfect solution was to flowerize it. My wife has now claimed this piece.
The magnolia was so much fun to turn, let’s just say one good turn deserves another. This one has a base and lid turned from some sycamore
re that I cut into boards last year. The spindle is Brazilian Cherry. I just got a big load of maple this week so that will be used for quite a few upcoming projects.
I have a lot of projects going on in different stages. Many are back logged waiting for lacquer and the weather has just not been cooperating with me. This piece was from a log someone left me that I thought was poplar due to the grain and coloration but the donor showed up and told me it was magnolia. What a joy to turn it was. The whiteness screamed for color but the grain patterns were wonderful. This one wanted an indigo blue which I had to custom mix from some batik dyes I had been wanting to experiment with. My wife thought it was the best color job yet. With practice comes proficiency. I was able to take it outside and put a sealer coat on yesterday since it was sunny and fairly warm but the winds were a bit much to do a lot of spraying so I have 2 other projects waiting in the wings.
I had colored many pieces of this spalted oak so I wanted to leave one natural — it hurt because I so wanted to color a project this weekend (I eventually did and will post that later). Of course there is some color if you call black a color. Any other wood I had that was the right size for the lid would have had too much grain pattern to conflict with the look of the spalting so I decided to use Sycamore and dye it black (with India ink of course) and then use the oak for the spindle to carry the look upwards. I wanted the spindle to be more delicate but it was a bit punky which is one of the characteristics of spalted wood. The whole piece is coated with lacquer.
I got an unexpected free day in the shop when we awoke to a good snow storm. I finished several works in progress and even had a bit of time to play a bit. This time with acrylic paints on a black ink background. This bowl was a “toss away” since it had a big gouge in it so it was perfect to practice on. After the “spatter job” I coated the whole think in satin finish lacquer.
Bowl #2 with acrylics
Another black bowl, this one with the top left natural. I originally was going to make the top black but the piece of cherry looked so nice natural that it seemed a shame to blacken it. I did have an industrial spill with the ink making a Rorschach Test on the plywood floor where I was working. The spindle is 
more of the cherry which is ink stained as well. Bowl is maple and measures about 7″ in diameter.
I still had a small piece of that spalted oak sitting around basically taking up space. The grain was much too nice to chunk it so I arrived at a shape that both the wood and I could work with. There was a lot of black in this piece and the grain was all over the map which made for a pretty interesting dye job. It also needed a bit of a base to keep it stable so with the lid and base I used some cherry off cuts making this whole bowl a scrap project. 
There was a lot of “rippling” in the finish due to the nature of oak so I had to wet sand after every 4 coats of lacquer. I think I may have to go another 2 or 3 yet to get the totally flat surface.