Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Happenings

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been swamped with work lately so my shop time has been dramatically reduced. 

I've only been in the shop turning 3 times in the last 2 weeks.  Bernie was over a week ago to rough and core a piece of the Olive I got recently. 

Saturday I turned and cored this set of Olive.










The biggest bowl in this set is 11 1/2" diameter.  I'm undecided about the voids, I may end up filling them in or I may end up leaving them natural.











On Sunday I roughed and cored this set. 

The biggest bowl is 16 1/2" diameter. 















These 3 also have big voids that I'm undecided about.  I've got a while to think about that, it will be at least a year before I get back to finishing these.











I'm headed to Flagstaff to demo at the Peaks Woodturners on Saturday.  I'm going to do the same multi axis demo I did earlier this year in Phoenix and Prescott.  This will be my first trip to the Flagstaff turning club, I'm looking forward to heading North on Saturday morning. 

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Sunnyslope Art Walk

Last night was the Fall Sunnyslope Art Walk.  It's a small 1 night show from 5-9PM in central Phoenix.  Things started out pretty slow but a flourish at the end of the night that culiminated in 2 big sales made it more than worth my while.

The pieces below have now found new homes.



Desert Ironwood and Holly




Desert Ironwood












Douglas Fir Burl (set of 2, smaller bowl not pictured)










Central Avenue Olive

I also sold a few other smaller pieces including some magic wands, some pendants, a small burned hollow form, and a lidded box.  A very successful and profitable show.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Warped Olive

A small Olive hollow form I turned yesterday.  I turned it green and quite thin and put it through a couple of microwave cycles to speed dry it.  This piece came from a small burl like area near the bottom of the tree and the stresses in the wood caused a significant amount of warping as it dried.












I'm not sure how much you can see the wood movement.  It's pretty easy to see that the piece is no longer round, what can been seen is the leather like look and feel of the surface.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Weekend work

In progress picture of a 17" Olive platter I roughed out on Friday night.  To start pieces like this I sometimes jam the blank against the jaws of my chuck.  This ensures that the top of the blank is relatively flat and I can easily adjust the position of the blank if it's off center or heavily out of balance. 













The blank is only held in place by pressure from the tailstock, it's driven just by friction.    The underside of the platter has been roughed out and the tenon has been formed.  I neglected to get any more in progress photos.  From this point the blank is turned around, gripped in a chuck, and the top side turned so the whole piece is a uniform thickness.












This piece will end up with a partial natural edge on both sides.  It's right at 17" now and will spend the better part of a year or more drying.











Saturday I spent several hours working.  First I had to sweep up all the shavings from this week.  Second I finished up 10 seam rippers for my wife's quilting groups.  Next I cut up some more of the Olive from earlier this week.  Last I roughed out some lidded boxes from the same Olive.  I convinced my daughter to try some turning.  I had control of the tools, she was holding on for dear life.  She's now certain that she doesn't want to be a woodturner when she grows up, she's currently got her heart set on being a Kindergarten teacher.









3 roughed out lidded boxes.  They're cut in half and hollowed to about 1/2" thickness.  All 3 were tossed in the same paper bag and placed on a shelf.