Painted Ash Bowl

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. This ash bowl - otherwise quite pretty - developed a nasty crack all the way across the base and up into the sides. While I was able to fill and secure it quite well with a mix of CA glue and sawdust, it nonetheless was quite noticeable and did not, shall we say, lend to the beauty of the piece. So I added a little paint, and I think the result looks okay. The bowl is 9" across and 5" tall. The wall thickness is 1/8".

Small Elm Crotchwood Platter

The crotch in a tree - where the trunk splits into branches - usually has very interesting, and often quite beautiful, figure. I think this small elm platter nicely brings that out in this case. It measures about 9" across and 1" deep. The finish is natural Watco Danish oil.

Cedar Yarn Bowl

Cedar is a good moth repellant (hence cedar chests and cedar-lined closets), and my wife knits using wool yarn. So a cedar yarn bowl seemed like a good idea. The piece is unfinished (except for the colorful stripes) and smells great. It is about 10" in diameter and 4" tall.

Ivy Thin-Stemmed Goblet

Here is my third thin-stemmed goblet. On this one I used a little decoration - an ivy vine - painted on with indelible marker. This little goblet stands 9 1/2" tall; the cup is 1 1/4" across. The oversized close-up photo is a little coarse - like looking at your face in a magnifying mirror (well, my face anyway).

Honey Locust Bowl

This shallow honey locust bowl was turned from the same tree trunk as the bowl in the April 22. 2007 entry. I also had rough-turned this one about a year ago. It measures about 11 1/2" across and 2" deep. I really like the wild figure in the wood.

Thin-Stemmed Goblets

One of our wood turning club members gave a demo last month on how to turn tall thin-stemmed goblets. The secret (other than using very sharp tools and avoiding catches) is to start from the cup end and work your way back to the base (toward the head stock), turning the thin stem only about 1-1.5" at a time. As is usual after such a demo, our "challenge" for February's meeting is to turn a thin-stemmed goblet ourselves. Two of my efforts are shown in the photos. They are turned from maple and from maple and padauk (the red-colored wood), and stand 11" and 12" tall, respectively. The stems are about 1/8"D. I'm also working on a smaller (9 1/2" tall) goblet with ivy drawn on it, but it is still in the shop.

Figured Asian Satinwood Bowl

This small bowl (about 5"D x 2.5"H) was turned from a blank of figured Asian Satinwood (a wood I'd never heard of before seeing it at the store). My wife gave it to me as a birthday present! The figure is not easy to see in the photos (blame the photographer - me), but dances when you look at the bowl itself.

Two Spalted Bowls

These two bowls are turned from different spalted woods - Sweet Gum (the bowl on the right in the first picture and on the left in the others) and White Bay. They are a little over 7" in diameter and stand 3-3 1/2" high.

Multi-axis Cherry Vase

This vase is turned from a piece of cherry (actually half of a piece I'd been saving for a bowl, but which split as it dried), and stands about 11 1/2" tall (not counting the iris). The bottom end was variously mounted on three different centers, resulting in the off-center configuration. (Same techniques as the multi-axis candlesticks posted earlier.)