Roller coaster

It's been a roller coaster the last 3 weeks. I had back-to-back shows, a demonstration, family in town, a museum exhibit opening, my wife's birthday, plus my normal 9-5. I'm hopeful that things will settle down soon.


The "Mesquite" exhibit opened at the Tohono Chul Park in Tucson on 4/26. I took my Mother to the artist's reception as she was in town and my wife was attending my son's 4th grade music program (I went to the 1:30 showing). The piece above is mine and is one of the first pieces visible as you enter the exhibit.

















I have 2 other pieces in the exhibit, the hollow form on the left and the 3 piece nested set on the right. The small natural edge piece in the center is by a turner from the Tucson club. The little blue sticker indicates it has already been sold.













About a week ago I got word that a local club member was having some health issues and was liquidating his shop. The lathe and most of the other big equipment sold almost immediately and it was mostly small stuff left at this point. Last night I found out that among the pieces left over was a Teknatool Titan chuck. I've wanted one for a long time but they've been out of production for the past 3 or 4 years. Ironically they were just reintroduced but the specs changed enough that the one I had ordered was returned completely unused. Safe to say that this is an older one with the original specs (made in New Zealand, not China/Hong Kong where I believe they're being made now) and I got it at a really good price.





He also had a pair of Supernova 2s for sale and even though I don't need another one the price was too good to pass up. This photo illustrates the size difference between the Supernova 2 and the Titan. The Supernova 2 is a sizable chuck and I've used it to turn bowls and platters up to 19" but it's dwarfed by the Titan chuck and there's even a set of jaws larger than this that's next on my shopping list.


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The Gleatons

A trio of mini hollow forms in Ornamental Plum. The wood came from my neighbor's back yard. I actually turned these about a month ago and gave them to a good friend. He was hosting our monthly poker game and both him and his wife had just celebrated birthdays a day apart. Their daughter had also just turned 1 so I did a family set. Normally when I do a trio like this they're all the same diameter and just vary in height. This set vary in height and in diameter. The wife is taller and thinner (and older) the husband is shorter and heavier. The baby is 1 so she's the smallest of the bunch.


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Base 10

A little more work on the new base tonight. I spent about 30 more minutes picking away more bark and cambium. Then I used a paint brush to apply a coat of oil into all the nooks and crannies.












After the oil has been applied. The color is significantly darker now but that also means that some of the reds and they grays stand out more too.














I think that the dark bottom of the hollow form works well with the dark base. They aren't from the same tree but the almost look like they could be. This is supposed to be for the April President's challenge but I don't know if it will make it. I will not be at the April meeting as I have a show that day. I also have a show the week before that. If it doesn't sell at either of those shows I'll display it at the May meeting.

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Hiatus

Today was my first real shop time in the last 2+ weeks. I got about 1/2 hour earlier this week but used it for cleaning and some organization. I had 2 projects in mind for the day and I think both were successful.












First is a bowl turned of some Ornamental Yew. I roughed out the bowl about a year ago and it seems to be the right size and shape for what I plan to do next. I plan to wrap the outside with leather. I purchased the leather earlier this year and never quite got around to do the leather work.












Next up was yet another base for my natural edge Box Elder Burl hollow form. It took me a while to find the exact right piece of wood. It's a small natural edge burl cap, also Box Elder Burl. This time I finally think I nailed it.













The top is slightly dished so the hollow form sits nicely but is also secure and stable. The natural edge was completely covered in bark so I spent as much time removing the bark as I did turning.












I didn't want to leave the bottom completely flat and plain so I ended up turning a small half bead and a shallow recess where the tenon was. No finish is applied yet. I still have some small bark pockets to take care of.

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Keith Gotschall demo

Saturday was the Keith Gotschall demo at the Arizona Woodturners Association. We had about 90 people in attendance, 75% of which were AWA members. We usually do 2 of these all day demonstrations each year, one in the spring and another in the fall.










Keith was a very good demonstrator. He was informative and very knowledgable but also didn't talk down to the audience. He did 4 projects over the course of the day and flowed easily from one project to the next. Short of a lathe, a chuck, a grinder, and a turning smock he was fully prepared and well supplied.










His first project was a multi axis bowl. It's started as a spindle project and was used to demonstrate basic turning technique (beads, coves, skew, rubbing the bevel).













The blank was prepared in such a way that after the spindle portion was complete it was split in 2 pieces and then oriented in side grain orientation and the wings and bowl portion turned. The whole project was also used to demonstrate the proper way to cut with the grain direction.












The next project was a small salt shaker. It's turned end grain in 2 pieces. The body was hollowed with a spindle gouge in a technique called back-cutting, I'll have to give it a try sometime.

















The unique part of this project is the use of the finished project. It doesn't have holes in the top like a normal salt shaker. It also doesn't have a mechanism like a normal pepper grinder. The hole in the bottom is at the top of an inverted cone. As the salt shaker is shaken up and down a small amount of salt manages to fall through the hole in the bottom and onto the plate.













Third was an off center plate with a series of beads on the top and the bottom. The grooves were highlighted by pressing a small piece of Purpleheart into the groove while it was spinning. The friction and heat darkened each of the grooves slightly.













The back side also has some offset beads as well as some decorative beads that help disguise the final chucking method. I'm not a big fan of the final form but I think the technique is interesting and is something I can see myself playing with in the future.













Last up was a best perfect sphere. I've turned my share of spheres but the technique he used was different than my method. You can't argue with his results. It's very nearly perfect, 30 seconds of sanding would have made it absolutely perfect.













While there a fellow club member gifted me with some Desert Ironwood. I don't have any projects in mind at the moment but in grateful that he thought of me.

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Accepted!

Last month I submitted 5 pieces for possible inclusion in a museum exhibit down in Tucson.  The Tohono Chul Park museum is having an exhibit that celebrates the Mesquite tree.  All entries must be made of or feature images of the Mesquite tree.

I received notice today that 3 of the 5 pieces I submitted were accepted and will be in the exhibit from April 26th to July 22nd.  The email indicated that they had 160 pieces submitted for consideration from nearly 70 different artists.

Now I have to get them down to Tucson before the April 26th opening.  Not an easy thing considering I have 2 shows between now and then, not to mention my day job.

The 3 piece set was turned from wood I received in the 50/50 raffle at the local club a couple years ago.  The first hollow form was from wood sourced at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  I'm not certain where the wood for the other hollow form came from.

Put a ring on it?

I had the day off today, the first weekday I've had off this year not due to illness (my own or my kid's). I spent most of it on the shop making 4 out of the 5 pieces seen here. These are the options for the support base for the 2 recent hollow forms.

Which do you prefer?







Option 1 - Box Elder Burl cup base. This is the piece in the upper left in the group photo.

















Option 2 - square Box Elder Burl with natural edge. This is the top middle piece in the group photo.


















Options 3 & 4 - Box Elder Burl solid wood rings. The 2 pieces on the right in the group photo.


















Option 5 - Desert Ironwood solid wood ring. Bottom left in the group photo.


















I also worked on this piece of Eucalyptus Burl. This piece was actually cored off the bottom of of a larger burl about a year ago. http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2011/04/big-burls.html?m=0 I've had it kicking around the shop since then.












I wanted to do something different with the base, what I came up with is a small integrated ring. I had some issues vacuum chucking it with all of the voids so the bottom isn't quite as nice as I'd like but I'm still pretty happy with it. Now I have to figure out how to best get oil into all of those voids.

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