Sunnyslope

It's October, that means it's time for the Sunnyslope Art Walk. A 4 hour show held each on a Saturday evening each April and October. I've done this show 8 or 9 times now and have started to develop a few repeat customers. Turnout was good but sales were a bit slow. Still well worth it.









Maple burl hollow form. All of theses forms have been hollowed through the bottom and the plugged. The hole in the top is a illusion. Large enough to have the appearance that the hollowing was done from the top, but also small enough for people to be impressed. This one is basically flat across the top, not something I usually do.








Bottom view.













Figured Myrtle. This one has a top that curves slightly inward, requiring a slightly different approach when hollowing.











Bottom view.














Last one, red striped Box Elder. This has a more typical shape, curving up slightly at the top around the opening.












Alternate view.
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Back to the drawing board

The club challenge for October in inside-out. I had an idea to incorporate my multi axis turning on the inside face. So I chucked up a piece of Home Depot redwood and turned a prototype.















I had to leave the ends square so I had some area to glue once its turned inside out. Normally I would turn all the way to the ends of the blank. Because this is only a prototype I didn't do the preliminary glue up.














Instead i turned it as a solid piece and then quartered it on my band saw before turning the sections inside out. The results weren't what I had in mind so it went in the recycling bin and I went back to the drawing board.














My second idea was more successful and closer to what I had in mind as my concept. I started by gluing 4 pieces together with a paper joint and turning a wide cove.











The paper glue joints were the split apart and the 4 pieces turned inside out and glued together permanently. I opted to turn on 4 axes with a 90 degree twist to match the 4 diamond shaped openings formed by the inside-out process.









It's not perfect but it proves the concept. The glue joints could be much better; that's one of the reasons I'm not a segmented turner. I'm also not sure how this concept could be incorporated into a finished piece. For now I'm just happy that I was able to get my proof of concept done.

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Curly maple tool handle.













Turned on three axes with a 120 degree twist.















Olive hollow form











Approx 5.5" x 5"













Seized air compressor piston.

















Carob roughout.













Approx 7" x 3.5"













Figured maple winged bowl.













Slightly downsloping wings.













Bottom view with a bark edge on the one side.

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Photo log

 Tempe Center for the Arts has put out a call for entries to celebrate their 5th anniversary.  Traditionally the 5th anniversary is the wood anniversary so they will be having an exhibit entitled "2012 TCA Biennial: Wood".  Artists are encouraged to submit up to 5 pieces for consideration.

This is my first entry.  I decided to call it 'Round the World as the black line spalting on the top reminds me of a map.  It's spalted figured Maple (half way between curly and quilted) with lots of bug holes and a giant void (not visable in this photos).  The collar is out of Ebony or African Blackwood, I can't remember which.

 My second entry, Acer Falls.  Box Elder burl natural edge hollow form with natural edge burl base.  The bottom on this piece is completely round so a base was necessary.

 Side view.  This wood was part of a trade I made last summer with a guy up in Idaho, I did a demo for the Woodcraft Guild of Idaho Falls while I was in the area on vacation.  I traded some Mesquite, Ironwood, Olive, and African Sumac for Box Elder Burl, Russian Olive, and Osage Orange.  This piece was turned out of the Box Elder burl I received.

 #3 is a 4 piece nested set of Arizona White Oak Burl.  I harvested this burl off of a tree out in the woods and let it sit in my garage for several years.

 I'm calling this set Blanco Arizonica.  Sizes range from 13.75" X 4" down to 4.5" X .75"

4th entry.  60 West.  Spalted and bug eaten Palo Verde.  Roughly 9" diameter and 9" tall.

 This one has a semi pointed bottom so it needs the round donut in order to remain upright.

 This was to be my 5th entry but upon my last reading of the submission guidelines I realized that the pieces had to be made in the last 2 years.  This piece is at least 3 years old so I had to withdraw it.  Because I was so far along in the application process I elected not to replace it on my submission form.

 "Off Broadway" Eucalyptus Burl 9" X 4.75" to 5" X 2".  This blank was salvaged off a tree in the Phoenix metro area.  The cracks are filled with coffee grounds and epoxy.  This piece was included in the 2009 Chandler Center for the Arts "Beneath the Bark" exhibit.

 A few more photos of some recent pieces.  This is from the same tree as above.  I'm still working on the finish.  Approx 15" diameter.

 Sissoo with Macassar Ebony pedestal and finial.  This wood was sourced from Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

 Another piece of Sissoo.  Also sourced from BTA.

Last is a piece of Silver Maple burl sourced from Mike Mahoney.  It also has a round bottom so I turned a small ring out of Desert Ironwood for it to sit in.

A thousand words

I'll let the wood speak for itself tonight.















Silver Maple Burl courtesy of Mile Mahoney.


















This one also has a round bottom. I set it into a ring temporarily for the photo.


















The blank used for this piece is the darker piece on the top left of this pile.


















While I was at it I also took a better photo of the Box Elder Burl hollow form I just finished. I'm still not happy with the base. I have Monday off so I plan to try a couple other options.

















Side by side.

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Two down, two to go

I finished the first two of the four hollow forms I have in progress right now. The smaller piece on the left is Spalted Beech, the larger piece on the right is Curly Maple.










The Beech has been left bare, the Maple has one coat of Danish oil so far. It's hard to get a sense of scale on both of these, the photo below should provide a comparison that everyone can relate to.










A standard U.S. penny is 3/4" diameter (.750"). The openings on both of there are well under 3/4", they both measure 21/32" (.65625"). In fact a standard U.S. dime (.705") is larger than both openings.










The bottoms both have a small base with a slight concave surface. The bases are slightly larger than I've been doing lately so they're a little more stable.











Profile view.

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Variety show

I have back to back shows coming up in April so I'm trying to get a few more pieces done. I'm also working on a piece for the next President's challenge. Today I started work on 1 hollow form and continued work on 3 others.













This one is some highly figured Maple I got from Mike Mahoney this past summer. I rough turned the outside of this piece a few months back and I'm finally getting back to it.










Next up is a piece of Spalted Beech. I got 2 pieces of this wood 4 or 5 years ago, the other piece was made into a box and given back to the guy I got the wood from. It's a little bit punky on the end grain so I've applied a coat of oil to stiffen the fibers.













Next up is a chunk of Sissoo from Boyce Thompson Arboretum. I rough turned this one a couple months ago, today I trued up the outside and got it ready to finish hollowing.














Last is a piece of Box Elder Burl I received in a trade this past summer. It's my intention to use this piece as my 'Natural Edge' piece for the President's Challenge.




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