It’s just a sip away

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2014-10-11 18.00.12I had so much fun with the other goblet I was thirsty for another one (just a bit of humor?) I have watched Mike Waldt turn goblets lots of times and it didn’t look that hard. Wrong. I grabbed a walnut chunk and started turning. I had the goblet part turned nice and thin, sanded and finished and it looked great. The trouble was the spindle. I started taking it down and when I got to the diameter I wanted, it snapped. I’ve learned not to let things like this upset me so I just threw it on the bench and promptly moved on to something else. A few days later I decided it was too nice to trash so I just turned a separate stem and base for it. I like the way it looks probably better than had it stayed together the first time.

Turned Lidded Vessel

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2014-10-19 16.12.18I have more fun turning these bowls than anything else. They are piling up at this point so I need to find a place to sell them. If you are interested, contact me. This one is from a Cherry slab that my son and one of his friends left at my house. The banding is curly maple and the rays in each piece are phenomenal. Just because I am a big fan of walnut I had to inset a button in the lid to add just a hint of darkness. I think on the next one I’ll go back to the finial type lid but for now this one is hand-friendly.

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For the light drinker

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2014-10-05 11.19.43I had a friend bring me some Holly branches (thick ones) I cut them into goblet length blanks and sealed the ends. This one little piece was left and was already beginning to crack so I thought, what the hell, and went ahead and turned a goblet bowl. After rough turning I put in the microwave for 2 minutes, let it cool and then hit it again. I was able to bring the moisture content down from about 24% to 9% which seems to be acceptable. It is very thin and has not yet started to crack or warp so I call that a success. This is some very white wood and looks good with the darker stem. I wish I had gone a bit longer but I didn’t really expect the piece to turn out.

Big Boy

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2014-09-21 16.26.52This vessel is quite large and came out of the board of walnut I have been working for several weeks. Even though I turn a lot of lidded pots I like to make each one unique. I had never turned one with this shape before and it did present it’s own set of challenges. The maple accent was a nice feature but I think the lid really sets it off. Perfect vessel for storing tea bags and the like.

All segmented bowl

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2014-09-13 17.40.03Sorry, I have not posted for a while — I went off on vacation and had other projects that needed to be done when I got back I usually do what I call “hybrid-segmented” bowls but I wanted to do one in all segments for the challenge. A friend brought me a walnut board 2″ x 11″ x 12′ so the least I could do is turn him a bowl out of that piece. All walnut, 6 rings of 10 pieces each and a solid bottom with a shellac and wax finish. It is as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

One good turn

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2014-07-20 16.37.00…deserves another. Several people wanted my Honey Pot from a couple of weeks ago, but so did I and I made it. So friends and neighbors, this one is up for grabs. I used the same basic technique and same big assed slab of walnut as I did on the first but I put 3 bands in the middle with just a shadow of very light veneer between each section. It’s all an experiment. I do like the way it turned out and more will be coming at some point.

Junk Walnut Turned Bowl

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2014-07-13 12.43.20Maybe no wood is actually junk. I grabbed this small log of walnut out of the wood room for practice. The shape was dictated by some damage to the wood, sap wood and the general shape of the log. I have to confess the longer I turned on it the more I liked it. The bowl is only about 5″ in diameter. I liked the purpleheart for the lid until I looked at it for a while and now not so much — but it’s not like I’m going to replace it at this point. The spindle is Brazilian Cherry.

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Honey Pot

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2014-07-06 12.13.02This bowl started out as a short bowl with a rim right above the ash banding. I thought the proportions were way off so I cut the rim off and added another layer of walnut and shaped it out like you see here. At 8″ diameter it is a bit larger than the pots I usually turn. I did have multiple requests for one of these so the design must be acceptable. I did learn a few tricks on this one that should speed up subsequent pots. I decided that maple would be a better wood for the banding though since the grain in the ash is a bit too grainy.More Views and comments

Waste No Walnut

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2014-06-22 14.54.37This pieces of walnut had some cracks at a knot hole but the graining was nice so I turned it any way more as a practice piece than any thing else. I like the look and the cracks look natural in it so it will sit on a shelf in my office. The other problem with the piece is the Brazilian Cherry lid. It came from a cut off someone gave me and had a tonne of some sort of “plasticy” finish on it. When I turned through that I found there was a glue seam which is a black like and unmatched grain pattern. Since it was a practice piece I went ahead and finished it. Not too bad all in all if you don’t study it too closely.More Views and comments

Auction Bound

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2014-06-08 14.28.33Another bowl for a silent auction – this one for the Trappe Volunteer Fire Department silent auction to be held the weekend of June 26th. This bowl is canary wood, the lid is cherry and the finial is walnut. I had never even heard of Canary wood but it turned beautifully and the color is spectacular. I may have to go and bid on this bowl myself so I can get it back.  The grain on the cherry lid seems to curl around the finial – totally unintentional but a great effect that I would have planned if I thought of it!

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