Chinese Elm

 One of my neighbors lost a Chinese Elm about 6 months ago.  It just died suddenly.  It wasn't particularly large and Chinese Elm isn't particularly interesting but I grabbed a few pieces when I helped him cut it down and section it up.  He came over the other night and we did a small bowl from his tree

He'd never done any turning before but his father had at some point during his school years.  We decided to do a very basic thin walled bowl.  He did most of the roughing to get it into shape and I took over for the finer work and the last pass.  We didn't bother to sand as the bowl is still fairly wet and was just a practice piece.

It could have been a bit thinner in the bottom but is pretty good on the sides.  Thin enough to transmit light even though it's about half dry.  It was moving quite a bit as I was finishing the bottom.  Another reason we didn't bother to sand.

This hollow form is also from their tree.  I've been working on it off and on for a week or 2 and finally have it mostly done. 

I still have to take off the bottom as well as sand and finish the piece.  Before that I have to figure out exactly where the bottom of the piece is.  With an irregular edge at the top it's difficult to know exactly where the bottom of the inside is in relation to the outside.  I'll probably build a jig that uses a laser, something I've intended to do for quite a while.