Random Shots

I haven't posted in a while, but a lot has been going on. Here are some random shots...

Gallery opening a few weeks ago...

This image features two bowls turned a couple years ago (upper left), a brand new spalted maple platter design (upper right), a spalted maple pepper mill (lower left and lower right), my new favorite project (lower middle left), and a weathered maple pedestal bowl  

Here we've got a couple star platters (upper left) and a bunch of carved bowl/platters. 

More carved bowl/platters 

Showroom area showing Ryan's maple dining table with a bunch of my work on top. I built the dark pedestal table a few years ago while working with Paul at Stowe Restoration. It is stained tiger maple with a tilt top. I'm proud. : -) There are a couple wall hanging experiments.

Another angle of the showroom, this one with sofa. A nice place to rest after a long day of making shavings, but the dust shows up on the black velvet like stars in the sky. 

Here I am caressing a maple platter, comforting it, reassuring that its new home will be a good one. 

Star serving platter with chopsticks and ceramic holder. This platter is a slice of yellow birch. My lumber supplier had just finished drying a bunch of this material so I loaded up on it. It came up to 14" wide! Gotta love that!

A fan base. 

Demonstrating at The Burlington Artist Market 

I turned mushrooms and sold them to the audience right off the lathe. The money went to benefit a friend whose house  was wrecked by Irene. Notice the woodturned lathe stand. I love those things. They disassemble easy and pack up nicely. 

I think people were as interested in the giant mess as they were the turning.  In subsequent outings I have developed a technique that controls the amount of wood shaving mess. The new technique is doing smaller projects. And fewer people are interested in smaller projects.

Carving and painting

Ryan and I have been collaborating on some interesting work lately. I thought you'd enjoy the photos. 

My new favorite project...

I've discovered a new style of goblet that takes advantage of the natural shape of a tree or branch. I usually try to leave the bark on the rim of the goblet to show the natural edge. They are a lot of fun to make, but challenging. The designs are created on the fly. And I never really know what the final shape of the rim will be. That's always the fun part.

This is one my favorite pieces of all time. It's made from one piece of beech. It was the crotch section of the tree where two limbs joined together. The rim still has the bark on it. The had been sitting outside for some time and it had began to spalt, which added color to the material. I was so excited when I finished this piece. Then I let it dry and it began to crack a bit. Then it cracked a bit more. And then a bit more. You'll notice the crack in one of the photos below. I don't mind. If no one is interested in purchasing it, I'll keep it with much joy.

Here are some goblets made from butternut...

Poplar Legs

About a year ago, I met a member of the Vermont Guild of Furniture Makers, Joe Breznik, at the lumber yard. We started chatting about figured woods because he was picking out some nice tiger maple boards. I wanted to steal some of his picks to use for my platters, but that would be like taking a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup from a child because it was the best candy in his Halloween bag. Also, he's stronger than I so I would have lost. We exchanged business cards and went on our way. 

He called me a couple weeks ago to ask for 4 large table legs. They're 4.5" in diameter, 29" tall, laminated poplar. Poplar is the color of lemongrass after being eaten then vomited back up. On the rare occasion, you'll find some purple radish colored streaks as well. All in all, it's a pretty unappealing wood. Joe's plan was to distress the legs and paint over them. Thank goodness...

Bottoms Up!

Here is a collection of emblems I turned on the bottom of some star platters. Each star platter is turned by hand and has a unique emblem on the bottom. This helps keep the production process enjoyable...

Woodturning Adventure - Ed Moulthrop Vessel

 Pictured here is a vessel turned by Ed Moulthrop, a pioneering woodturner known for his exceptionally large hollow vessels and bowls. This particular piece is Figured Tulipwood. Ed signed the bottom with his signature, brand, and type of wood.

I came across this piece at my friend Paul's restoration shop in Stowe. He said a customer brought the piece in to have it refinished. Paul tossed it in a large tank of chemical stripper designed to deteriorate the finish allowing for easy removal with a metal scraper. He let it drown in the tank for a while, removed it and tried to scrape the finish off. The finish proved to be rather difficult to remove so alternative methods had to be utilized. Chisels and hard, hard scraping were used to remove most of the varnish, which is about as thick as two playing cards. He wasn't quite done when I saw the piece. In the photo, the white part is the varnish and the darker areas are where the varnish has been removed.  He has some work left and a ton of sanding.

I went online searching for some info about Ed Moulthrop. I was familiar with him enough to know he was an accomplished turner. Pioneer. Turned bowls big enough to sleep in. Invented stuff that a lot of woodturners use everyday without knowing he invented them.

EdMoulthrop.com. Check it out online for yourself. A sister vessel to the one pictured below. Seriously, check it out. I haven't investigated the website's authenticity, but I can only imagine it's legitimate.

Translucent Maple

 A friend gave me a few chunks of maple. This bowl / goblet is the first piece I turned from it. I turned the lights off in the shop and positioned a light above the bowl for this photo. I turned the walls thin enough so light shines through. This is a new style that I am experimenting with. I like the concept and think there is potential. I just need to refine my method and figure out proportions. I like this one, but there feel there is room for improvement. I have more of this wood so there will be more samples soon.

Why I am a woodturner...

Let this photo be explain why I chose woodturning instead of furniture making. This is a 16' long x 5' wide table that needed to be refinished. An old confidant at Stowe Restoration called me to ask if I would help him strip this conference table because it was badly scratched up from years of use. He had me use a cabinet scraper to scrape the thing. The cabinet scraper is the metal thing sitting on the glove in the photo.

For individuals not familiar with cabinet scrapers in relation to the size of this table top, take a potato peeler and peel the paint off of a two-door Honda Civic.

There are a few different ways to remove finish from furniture. One is by using a scraper, another is by using chemicals which deteriorate the finish turning it into a slimy goo. The chemicals are effective, but messy, expensive, and can discolor wood or leave nasty chemical debris behind in the wood. This particular finish was brittle and came off rather easy, but took a few hours. By the end of the project my thumbs felt like pain. Pure, tender pain.

Oops and Goobers

SSometimes things don't go as planned. I was real proud of what I envisioned for this birch bowl, but it ejected from the chuck when I was working the center cone down and it didn't survive. I had the natural edge thing going too. It was going to be a tall vase-like piece similar to Jerry Kermode's work. I like his signature vase-ish design and have been inspired to try similar pieces. Hopefully the next one will not fly from the lathe.

After the accident described above, I started in on a piece of spalted maple. What I found in the wood, or should I say, what came out of the wood was a slimy white creature the likes of which I never really wanted to see ever in my life. Yes, I'm grossed out be slimy white goobers that slither and contract when confronted with bright light. This little sucker, I'm guessing... or hoping, was sliced in half by my chisel as it passed the sharp cutting edge at about 1200 rpms. However, it's more likely that the centrifugal force of 1200 rpms launched the thing 20 yards across the room onto the concrete floor, perhaps impaling it on a sliver of wood scrap much like an olive on a tooth pick. He he he...

Weathered Work

I finally had a chance to attack the wood that was buried under a large snow pile since the first snow fall several months ago. I had some spalted maple in the pile that was awaiting an epiphany on my part. The spalting was concentrated toward the bark of the logs so I decided to make natural edge bowls. The wood was quite stable during turning, although there was some atrocious tear out which I decided to leave. The wood is pretty saturated so I don't know how stable they will be when they dry. 

Speaking French

 My favorite turners are the French. They have done a lot of unnecessary stuff that's really cool. The Australian turners are big headed and turn bowls and boxes faster than you can blink an eye. Yippie! The English... sighhh. American turners are what Americans are supposed to be. A little bit of this... a little bit of that. Mutts. Jack of all, master of none.

I don't know how the hell I turned the bottle stopper in the photo to the left. It is one piece of wood. At some spots it's as thin as pencil lead. The gravitational pull that day was just right, because I haven't been able to do it again.

Here's another one. What was I thinking? I suppose this is how I speak French.

Garden Dibbles

 Tis the season to be planting. These dibbles dig holes in the ground so you don't get dirt up your fingernails. (That is not guaranteed...)

 I though it'd be cool to plant one in a wine bottle and take a photo. I wasn't too impressed...

...so I did it again.