Spalted Silver Maple Bowl

I turned this bowl from a piece of silver maple trunk I'd had sitting around for about four years; it turned out to have a very pretty pattern inside.  This bowl is turned with no foot on the bottom - see the second photo.  It therefore will "rock" (or spin, if you want!), and does not sit "flat."  However, although it may seem odd, it won't tip over - it just rocks if you push down-and-release the rim.  Try that on a bowl with a foot - especially a small one. The bowl is finished with Watco Danish Oil (Natural) and measures 7 ½" across and is 3 ¾" deep.

DSC03986

 

DSC03989

 

DSC04004

 

DSC04012

 

Link to Video: Wood Carving in Germany 1926

Craft Supplies linked this you tube video on Facebook, and it's really pretty interesting to watch. The craftsman turns a bowl and a fitted lid, using only a screw chuck to hold the blanks. And he turns a knob for the lid that conveniently fills the screw chuck hole in the lid! Click the link in the left hand column and take a look!

Dyed and Etched Elm Bowl

This elm bowl measures 7 ½" across x 3" high.  On the inside of the bowl I was having a devil of a time getting a smooth surface on the grainy parts - elm can be very difficult that way.  So, difficulty being one source of creative opportunity, I used a rotary tool to etch along the grain lines throughout the inside of the bowl, as shown in the first two photos. The resulting roughness makes a nice contrast, I think, with the smooth areas.  I dyed the inside of the bowl with scarlet Spirit dye, an alcohol based dye, which produced a nice intense color.  Some of the dye penetrated all the way through, which created the colored areas on the outside of the bowl.  The bowl is finished with several coats of Minwax Wipe-on Polyurethane (Gloss).

DSC03979

 

DSC03980

 

DSC03983

 

DSC04007

 

Cherry Burl Vase

I turned this vase, which measures 7" tall x 4" across at the rim, from a section of cherry burl branch that I won at the club Christmas party.  As you can see, there were a number of bark inclusions and other irregularities (typical of cherry burl), which made the piece somewhat tricky to turn, but also very interesting when completed.  I also added some copper colored Inlace in some of the openings and fragile areas, to give them a little more support, and also to provide another unusual visual element.   Finish: Watco Danish Oil Finish. For dried flowers only - don't try to put water in it!

DSC03995

 

DSC03996

 

DSC03999

 

DSC04017

 

DSC04019

 

Homemade Photo Light-Box

After having spent a lot of time trying to find good places to shoot photos of my woodturnings, and after having watched Dennis Clayton of our club (a professional photographer) show us how to use a light box to photograph our work, I decided I ought to give it a try.  I found some useful suggestions in a blog at http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html, and employed pretty much that approach in constructing my box, which is much larger than his.  As you'll see in the photos below, my box consists of (1) a large cardboard carton (mine is 25" x 25" x 25"); (2) tracing paper to make the "windows"; and (3) artists/poster board for the shooting background.  All else is pretty much self-evident.  Here's what it looks like - and the next three posts (and probably many more) show the results. You can decide for yourselves if you like this better than the photos with "background."

DSC04022

 

DSC04020

 

DSC04021