Another day, another project. This a piece of Sycamore with a nice bluish green motif. I duplicated the shape from the spittoon (roughly) project a few days ago. This also has a lacquer finish which started out as a high gloss but was converted to an almost satin finish by rubbing down with progressively finer abrasive pads (Mirka). The inside was left with more gloss but the gloss on the outside was distracting on top of the colors. Also there is a band of black on the outside rim to break up where the color meets the natural rim.

The ebonizing project was a resounding success. It actually started out as a dyed project that went horribly wrong. It sat on the work bench for almost a year before it was time to decide whether to bin it or do something with it. The process was so simple yet elegant. With my old stand by — the common Q tip and a bottle of India Ink, I was able to go from trash to treasure in a matter of minutes and end up with a true black. I wanted an ivory colored lid but this piece of quilted maple was the best I could do and it just looks right against the stark black. And since it was a sunny 70 degree day (on a December  27th) I got out my new spray gun and did multiple pieces that had been waiting for just that kind of weather. This one only got one coat to seal in the ink and it ended up with a nice low luster sheen just like I wanted. I really needs to be handled to be truly appreciated though. This one will be residing on my mantle  since it was a Christmas gift for my wife.More Views and comments

Tis the season to lose a lot of shop time due to putting up Christmas decorations and other holiday related tasks. But I did get several smaller pieces completed that had been sitting around and one bowl nearly completed that I turned out of a hunk of discolored maple. I wanted to try a solid color rim and I just happened to find paint pens in town Saturday morning and thought I would give that a try. It worked just as expected although it may have been easier if I had sealed the raw wood first but you learn by doing. overall the bowl has a nice green color and I love the  contrast of the natural wood on the inside. It’s a keeper.

I call it a small fruit bowl but is is about 9″ in diameter. This was an experiment in turning wet wood. This piece of Beech was cut last week and I normally wait a long time for it to season but I really wanted to see what I could do with it. My process was to turn it thick, put in the microwave, turn some more, put back in the microwave, turn some more….. you get the picture. Oh, it also involved a lot of slinging water!  I think it took 5 trips to the oven before it seemed dry enough to color. Now I have it sitting in the house on the “wait and see” program. If it warps or cracks I’ll write it off as a learning process. Update: Dec. 22 – still no sign of any cracking or warping. Update: Dec 25 – gave it as a gift to the hostess, my unofficial mom during the annual Christmas Eve party. It was a huge hit!

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