June's Turnings

Well, again I procrastinated, but here are my June Turnings. Look forward to some beautiful turnings out of Aspen from my Grandpa Yates' cabin. They are gorgeous!

This bowl is out of Box Elder and is about 4" in diameter. I added some coves on the outside as well as the bottom. The coves on the outside were my first attempt at adding color to a bowl other than natural colors. I had some problems trying to sand out the extra paint so it's still a work in progress.

This bowl is about 6" in diameter and is made of Box Elder. It contains some decorative design on the outside of the bowl and a little hollowing out of the base.

This bowl is made from Box Elder and is about 3" in diameter with some artistic designs on the outside, the rim, the inside, and the bottom of the base.

This is a very different piece. It was originally a bowl but I got a little too thin in the bottom, as you can see by the gaping hole in the bottom. This can be whatever you'd like! It's about 3 1/2" in diameter and made from Box Elder.

This bowl is approximately 5" in diameter. It including some artistic designs including coves and beads. (Found around the base and the middle of the outside and the inside rim.) I had the opportunity to go to a demonstration by Richard Raffan, a very prominent turner in the world. He recommended doing such things to dress up bowls. This is my first try at coves and beads.

This turning is created out of Box Elder wood. It is a platter with approximately 8" in diameter. The underside is hollowed out so it can be turned upside down and still serve a purpose.

May's Turnings

Sorry for the long gap of no turnings. I've still been turning I just haven't had time to take pictures and post them to the web. So, with out further ado...May's Turnings!

This bowl turned from Box Elder had a wonderful hidden design. You can see it a little bit but the camera didn't capture the stunning look. This bowl has bright orange highlights along the outside and inside of the bowls. Box Elder is known to have a little orange/red marks in the wood but this bowl has natural beauty.

This bowl is about 6" in diameter and turned from Box Elder. I polished it with a lacquer to really make it shine!

This Bowl is made of a very different wood called Alnthis or also spelled Ailanthus. The Ailanthus tree is often called the "Tree of Heaven" and is found in China and Taiwan in temperate climates. It's Chinese name is 臭椿 or chouchun for those of us who don't know characters, like myself. It's my first exotic wood that I have turned and it looks great!

This bowl is about 3 1/2" in diameter and is made of Box Elder.

The four little ticks that are shown in the second picture are my ideas of creativity. (Really I just slipped while using the wood burning and one, two, and three little ticks didn't look right.

This bowl is 4" in diameter. It is made of Elm and finished with a lacquer to make it shine! (The pictures don't do it justice.)

April's Turnings

During the month of April I had some rather unique turning pieces. My turning skills have started to become a little more polished and I started experimenting with different styles and ideas. Most often I have found my inspiration comes from one of two things: either I goof something up and use a tool incorrectly (causing some serious reconstruction) or I simply watch the piece of wood turn around and around on the lathe until I see what the piece of wood wants to be. Here are April's Wood Turnings....Enjoy!

This is my second wand. This particular wand is made of Hard Maple. It is a very solid and firm wood which I've been told is strong enough to puncture and go through human skin, especially if there was a sharp point on the end. (It is dulled for that reason.)

This little bowl is rather small. To date it is the smallest I have made. To give you an idea of proportion, the mouth of this bowl would allow a regular sized egg to fix perfectly on top. This is the final piece of Yates Cabin Pine that I had and turned.

This bowl is the first bowl I have made out of Elm. It is a very beautiful piece because you can see a stark contrast between the heart wood and sap wood. It is about the size of an average cereal bowl.

Like the previous bowl, this bowl is also made of Elm and approximately the size of a cereal bowl. You can see a little bit of heart wood and sap wood near the base. My Master Wood Turner, Lauren, had the idea for the wood burning inside the bowl. (I nicked it pretty badly with a bowl gouge and didn't want to damage further. This is called a "design opportunity" not a mistake! Thanks to Lauren I never look at anything I turn as a mistake if something gets messed up or doesn't turn out right. The next piece will show that.)

This piece is very unique. It is made of Elm and was originally suppose to be a nice bowl. After trying to remove some tear out that wouldn't come out (I was not using a tool effectively) I kept chiseling down more and more of the bowl until I became fed up and threw it in the "to burn" pile. After some calming down and thinking through I put the piece back on the lathe and it turned into my favorite turning I have done thus far...a small and tall cake platter. It sits about 3 1/2" from base to the platter rim. For a size comparison this platter would hold a donut with about a 1/2" of platter left on all sides. The pictures really do not do it justice.

Well, I hope you enjoyed April's wood turnings. If you see something you love, talk to me and we can negotiate a price. ;-)