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.

Woodworking Expo wrapup

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Woodworking Expo in the parking lot of the local Woodcraft.  Our club had a booth that we used to demonstrate woodturning, promote the club, recruit new members, and socialize.

Over the course of the day I turned 5 bowls: 2 Sissoo, 2 walnut (both square), 1 Birdseye maple, a small lidded box out of Olive, a 3 sided spindle with a  120 degree twist, and a set of 3 mini hollow forms in Maple burl.  A very productive day.

Desert Ironwood Hollow form

There were probably about 20 booths total, including the Arizona Fine Woodworkers, ArizonaWoodcarvers, Festool, Sawstop, Freud, Easy Wood Tools, and a wood vendor.  They also had a woodworking contest with entries divided into 4 categories: woodturning, wood carving, furniture, and other.  I opted to enter 4 pieces into the woodturning category.  3 prizes were awarded in each category.  The pictures on this page are of my 4 entries.

Oak burl nested set

After seeing all of the entries I thought I had a really good chance to place, if not take first place.  There was some nice work, including several very nice segmented pieces.  I took 3rd place in the woodturning category 2 years ago and took 2nd place last year.  This year I had my heart and sites set on 1st.

Sissoo (Indian Rosewood) hollow form with Macassar Ebony pedestal and finial.

This year the judges were noted turner and featured demonstrator Ernie Conover and Easy Wood Tools owner Craig Jackson.  Last year the judges were David Marks and Marc Spagnuolo of The Wood Whisperer.

The prizes in the Woodturning category were announced first and my name was the first one they called.  The judges has selected this Spalted/Quilted Maple hollow form with Ebony collar (this photo shows a Desert Ironwood collar, I replace it with Ebony after this photo was taken) as the best piece in the category.  My prize was a variable speed Rikon mini lathe, worth about $350.  Last year I won a Supernova2 chuck with insert (~$175) and the year before a close quarters angle drill (~$60).  I still have and still use both of my previous prizes.  Is it too early to start thinking about next year?

Art festival prep

I found out on Tuesday that I was a late addition to an arts and crafts festival that's taking place this weekend. Now I'm scrambling to get a few extra pieces completed.









This 4 piece nested set in oak burl was tonight's effort. I've had this piece of wood for 5 or 6 years and finally got around to roughing it out about 6 months ago. Since then it has been kicking around the shop waiting to be finished.









I'm ecstatic with the results. I think it's probably the best nested set I've ever done and should be well suited to this event. It will undoubtedly have a prime spot in my booth and I need to take some quality photos in case it sells.








Next up is a hollow form I've been working on for a while. It's mesquite with sapwood and the natural edge surrounding the opening. I had a near disaster with this piece last night. I don't have time to go into detail.







Suffice it to say I was able to salvage the piece, even after being within 30 seconds from tossing in the bin. In truth I would nave cut it in half before tossing in the recycling bin to see how consistent the wall thickness is and where it could be improved.







Last is a hollow form I started a while back. I finally got around to turning the pedestal, lid, and finial. The lid and finial are 2 pieces, the pedestal is one solid piece. Both the pedestal and lid/finial are made of Macassar Ebony.






Overall size is 7 1/2" diameter and 17" tall.







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Works in progress

 More work on the Oak Burl set today.  The core was remounted, turned true, a tenon turned, and then the blank was cored again.

I repeated the process 1 more time and I ended up with 4 bowls total.  I should end up with a 5th bowl as I have a small cutoff I cut off the side of the blank before I started turning.  It won't go with this set, but will be from the same blank.

The largest is just under 14" diameter, they step down from there, the smallest is about 4" diameter.

 I also remounted and trued up the outside of the Eucalyptus burl I cored the bottom off of the other day.

This one has a ton of voids.  I have to figure out what to do with them and I don't think I can progress much further until I figure out what I'm going to do.

Big Burls

I've had this chunk of wood laying around for 4 or 5 years.  It's a Eucalyptus Burl that was cut off of a dead tree that was sitting in an empty lot.  I've debated what to do with it and finally decided on Saturday night to do a natural edge nested set.

The blank was mounted on a faceplate and put on the lathe.  I can swing 20" inboard and as you can see from the next photo I needed every bit of that.

Clearance on this corner was about 1/16".  If the gap in the bed was filled It would have scraped.

The outside was shaped and a tenon turned on the bottom.  While working on the shape I decided that I would core off the bottom of the blank to form a standard bowl and then the rest would be done natural edged.

This also ensured that more of the burl figure ends up on the natural edge set.  Some of the wood closer to the tenon isn't as figured as the rest of the burl.  Initially I was planning to fill the voids with a filler like coffee grounds and epoxy but I think I've changed my mind now.

Sunday morning I chucked up another big piece of burl, this time an Oak Burl.  I neglected to take a before photo.  This burl also has a number of large voids.

Top view, I used my new Stebcenter to drive this blank, I don't think I'll be doing that again, it should be very useful on spindles and small bowls but on something this large and hard it didn't work very well.  Perhaps the 1" version would be better (mine is 5/8").

Tuesday night I decided to start the coring process on both blanks.  The Oak Burl was up first.

I decided to leave the blank thicker than normal because of all the voids, I didn't want it to fly apart.  It's just under 14" diameter.

 I still need to sand it inside and out as well as remove the tenon.  The core removed also needs to be cleaned up, I think I can get another core out of it, leaving me 3 bowls from this blank.

Next up the bottom of the Eucalyptus was cored off.  This photo is a pretty good representation of how that was accomplished.  The curved blade cuts in from the side rather than the top.  This is made a little more difficult because the tool support gate has to be held back from the entry point.  Normally the gate would be as close to the blank as possible to minimize overhang and maximize tool control.

 I wasn't sure how well I was going to like this bowl, I was thinking it was going to be much plainer than this, I like the way the straight grain runs through the middle of the bowl, almost dividing it in half.

In this photo you can better see how much straight grain there is on the outside of the burl, especially on the right hand side.  This one is slightly larger, just under 16" diameter.  It was also left slightly thicker for the same reason, I didn't want it flying apart on the lathe.

 The core out of this bowl (the natural edge from above) will be turned and cored and will hopefully produce 5 or 6 bowls.

The 2 bowls together, the lower right on the Eucalyptus is a partial natural edge, not a chunk missing.