I was at the tail end of a week long head cold and just grabbed a piece of log and started turning for medicinal purposes. I really liked the piece I had done with the added neck and wanted to revisit that technique. The urn itself is sycamore and the neck is a piece of cherry. The lid may or may not be temporary — I’m not that pleased with it but had an unsolicited complement on it so we’ll have to see. There were other projects I wanted to try but I just wasn’t into getting out the chainsaw to prep new blanks so I worked with what would already fit on my bandsaw and lathe. A few more coats of lacquer may be required though.

I had an old project sitting on bench– the piece called Fall Colors that just needed a little something different. Plus, what wasn’t in the original post is that the bottom was just a wee bit too thin and I got a hole in the bottom. It was too nice to toss so I ended up making a base which led to adding a new neck just to balance it out. The base and neck are both cherry and I turned a solid walnut lid. Now if you look through the top hole it is too dark to notice the small hole in the bottom plus the piece had a totally different look.

Another forest type project yesterday –also taking advantage of a dip in the wood where I left the bark on. This is a piece of sycamore that needed to be something other than a piece of wood. It stands about 6″ tall and almost 5″ and the widest part. I used a base coat of yellow and light green water based dye as a wash and after drying over night I switched to alcohol dye and a fine sharpie to do the stylistic tree motif. As of yesterday I was up to 6 coats of lacquer but I think it needs more so I rubbed back the finish in preparation for the finish coats. I also need to do a lid for this one. More Views and comments

I fell behind a bit on my project a day because I didn’t have my camera out in the shop but here is yesterday’s project — a lidded vessel for lack of a better description. I had a wee bit of oddly shaped spalted oak sitting on my bench left over from an earlier project and wanted to use it up. I was able to get about a 5″ diameter out of it but only in one section so it screamed out loud to have a base added. The base and lid are both walnut which accents the colored oak very well. The spindle is maple with black ink. The whole piece is lacquered by brush and will get a good rub down before being sprayed — if it gets warm enough soon. I may flock the inside if I can find my flocking materials this weekend.

Another Project a Day — this one actually completed last week but never shown. Using rattle cans of lacquer I was able to achieve a very high gloss over some colored junk wood. It is amazing how you can make ugly wood transform into something beautiful.  I spent at least an hour and a half on the lid because I wanted something totally different. Yesterday I got a late start in the shop and I couldn’t get the temperature up to where I needed to do dye and finish work — it looks like winter may have finally arrived. I did get a really different piece turned that I should be coloring today. I was going to give a preview but I think I will wait on that til the project is complete.

More Views and comments