Bernie's Birthday Bowl

I turned this large cherry salad bowl as a birthday present for my wife. It measures 13" across the rim and is 5 1/2" deep. (Holds quite a lot of salad!) The bowl definitely looks taller than 5 1/2" - I believe that is the effect of the sweeping curve from the rim to the relatively small base.

More laminated off-center pendants, but no pics

For reference, see the April 25, 2010 post. The laminated off-center pendants proved to be a best-seller at the Olbrich Gardens show. Unfortunately (?) they all sold out, and I didn't get any close-up pics of the display - you can see some of them in one of the table photos in the Olbrich post, below. I only had a chance to turn one pendant out of the brightly colored, laminated gun-stock material (see the bottle stoppers), which also sold. So I'll have to do some more, I guess....

Bottle stoppers revisited - 2010

I turned a number of new bottle stoppers for the Olbrich Gardens show, some of which were pretty colorful. These were turned from laminated, dyed beech gunstock material provided by a member of our club (and which I won at a club raffle).

Olbrich Gardens Show

For the past several years, in late October, Badger Woodturners, my turning club, has gotten together with the Madison Area Woodcarvers for a show and sale at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. On the woodturning side about ten of us had sales tables, and the club also ran two demo lathes throughout the day, and also had a raffle of a large number of turnings donated by members. This year's show was very successful, and most of us who had items for sale did reasonably well. Smaller items tended to sell better than larger, more costly ones, reflecting the overall state of the economy.

In the "Links" column to the left I've added a link to the Badger Woodturners' recently created website, where you can read our newsletters (which also include photos of members' work) and find out a little more about the group.

Harbor Athletic Club, where my wife and I work out, permits members to post advertising displays in a couple of windows in the club lobby. I used the opportunity this year to advertise the Olbrich show and my participation. The display drew a number of nice comments.

Natural edged cherry crotch bowl

This a natural edged cherry crotch bowl which I turned earlier this year. "Natural edged" means that the bowl was turned with the center of the trunk forming the bottom or base of the bowl, and the bark on the outside of the trunk forming the top or rim. (This is the reverse of the orientation in which traditional bowls are turned.) A "crotch" is the intersection where the trunk splits into two or more sections, or a limb branches off from the trunk. You can often get some very interesting figure there. This bowl measures about 9" across by 4" deep. I sold it at the October 2010 Olbrich Gardens show (see next entry).