Christmas Cubed

Michael Poorman was the closest (and only) guess to the technique.  Here's the answer with the trick.  The blank started out as a cube.  I sanded off 2 of the corners of the blank to give the drive center and live center a flat spot to register.










The blank is then mounted on the bias, essentially corner to corner (except I've sanded the corners off to make it easier).  The 6 remaining corners will be the corners on the ornament.  3 on the top wing and 3 on the bottom wing.










With the lathe spinning this is the shadow of the blank.  You can more easily see how the 3 corners on the top and the 3 corners on the bottom are aligned.












The upper surface of the upper wing is turned first.  I also shape a small tenon that will be used later.













Then the under side of the upper wing can be turned.  I've left it a little thick at this point, it can be thinned and refined later.












Next the blank is flipped end for end (I'm VERY right handed and always prefer to work from the tailstock side) and the process is repeated for the lower wing.












Now the shape can be refined a bit and a tenon formed on the bottom end.  There are now 2 tenons and the wings are basically formed.  They may still be refined slightly but most of the work is done.











The tenon formed above can then be gripped in a chuck (I'm using a Supernova2 with a set of Pin jaws, they'll grip a tenon between .4" and 1.22" diameter.  This gives free access to finish off this wing.











To finish the other wing I had to get a little creative.  The smallest vacuum drum I have is 2" diameter, it was slightly too large for this piece.  What I decided to do was to thread on one of my drilled and tapped jam chucks, round over the face, and then apply some closed cell foam (yellow).  With the center cut out of the foam I was able to get just enough pressure to finish off the piece.  The other tenon was removed and the wing thinned and refined. I then drilled a hole through the middle to receive the cap and the drop finial.






And the finished piece.

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Take 2

My second (and final) attempt at this ornament. This one is significantly smaller, thinner, and lighter. I reused the same cap and finial. This time the body is Madrone burl. The cap and finial are still Ziricote. I think the color of the Madrone works well with the Ziricote.














One of the cool things about this technique is that the top and bottom curves are both triangular but they're offset by 180 degrees. This is due to the shape and orientation of the blank, it's all turning, no cutting, no carving, all one piece.










I did a sequence of photos showing the technique. Here's one from late in the process, have you figured it out yet?

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A little bit biased

Every year my club does an ornament exchange at our holiday party. Every year I try to do something unique. Last year I used a banksia pod, the year before that I used textured redwood, 3 years ago I turned and hollowed a multi axis Christmas tree out of Holly:

http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2011/11/next-month-is-our-clubs-annual-holiday.html?m=1

http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-ornament-birdhouse.html?m=1

http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2009/12/day-122-holly.html?m=1

This year I wanted to take a completely different approach, something I've never seen before and using a technique most turners have never tried, let alone heard of.





I'm not quite ready to reveal the technique I used. I will eventually, perhaps when I make the final one for the exchange. This one is primarily a proof of concept; the final one will be smaller, probably about 1/3 smaller than this version. Until then leave a comment below if you think you know how it was done.

A few hints. The body is all one piece and there was no cutting, carving, or anything else. What you see is what you get; straight off the lathe. There's also another hint hidden in the post, if you know what you're looking for.

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Banksia

Next month is our club's annual holiday party. As part of the festivities we have an ornament exchange. Everyone wanting to participate brings in a wrapped Christmas ornament and exchanges it for a raffle ticket. The last couple of years we've done white elephant type exchanges where stealing is allowed. This year I chose to do one out of Banksia pod and Holly. I did a rough sketch this afternoon and then headed to the garage this evening to make it a reality. It's very close to what I had envisioned and should be pretty popular.

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