Gearing up for fall

I haven't posted much lately, mostly because I haven't been turning much. It has just been too darn hot. My "studio" is in my garage, and even with a small evaporative cooler blowing on me, July and most of August were just too miserable to spend more than about 15 minutes at a time in my shop.

The last few days have cooled off considerably. The storms that usually start sometime in late June have finally arrived, and the temperatures have actually been bearble. At 5am, it is actually nice outside.

I have a few shows planned this fall, so I need to build up some inventory of smaller items. These are the items that usually sell pretty good. They include Pens, Bottle Stoppers, Small vases, Make-up brushes, Men's razor handles and shaving brushes, and similar items. And yes, a lot of men still shave with Boars Head Bristle Brushes. I have to say I tried it, and it is an awesome shave. Men, if you have never tried it, I highly recommend it. I'll post a few pics of the ones I have made as soon as I finish a few more.

Once I get the smaller items finished, I can concentrate on some of the larger, more "artistic" items. They don't sell as readily, but they do command a higher price, and to me, they are more satisfying to turn. I also am doing a demonstration at my woodturning club in October that I need time to prepare for.

The best laid plans...

Have you ever started out to do something, only to have it go completely awry? How about when you moved on to the next project, and it blew up in your face as well? That happened to me today, twice.

The first project I worked on was supposed to be a hollow vessel made from Alligator Juniper. It is a very soft wood. Almost too soft to easily turn. It comes off in a powder. However, the grain is so beautiful it is worth the effort. This piece started out to be a really nice piece, but vibrations caused some micro cracks to become large splits. I tried some repairs with sawdust, CA glue, and some powdered brass, but it is not right for this peice. I will put a coat of finish on it just to see how it looks, but it is probably destined for the fireplace.

The second piece I turned, however, came out completely different. I knew this piece of cherry was rough when I started it. It started out as a very nice cherry burl, but it had very had rough edges and a lot of bark inclusions. The original plan was to turn a platter with a natural bark edge and some bark inclusions. A little bit into the turning, a very large piece came off and flew across the shop. OK, change in plans. It is now off center, and is going to be a shallow bowl/platter. It is also very punky wood. That is to say, there is a lot of decay and rotting areas. By all rights, this one should be headed for the fireplace also. However, I have bigger plans for this one. If I can keep it together, it is going to be enhanced with another clay dove my grandmother made, similar to the hollow form I did a few months ago. It means it will be a decorative piece instead of a natural edge functional one, but that is alright. If my plan comes together, it will be a nice tribute to my grandmother, and a special gift for someone.

Go big or go home

Today I started on what will ultimately be almost a year long project. I roughed out the largest bowl that I have ever done, and just about the largest bowl my lathe will handle. The blank measured just under 20" in diameter x 8" deep. the roughed out bowl is about 18" in diameter. It will ultimately be dried, re-turned, and I wm planning on embelleshing the outer surface with a flame motif of analine dyes and wood burning. It is going to be a gift for a good friend who is retiring from the fire department next May.

I was also able to core out the center and save a few bowl blanks from it. This not only saves time by not having to rough out the whole bowl, but it gets much more yield from the blank. This blank ultimately will get me 4 finished bowls. I would have had a 5th bowl just a little smaller than the biggest blank, but I don't have the large size coring tools and had to improvise a little bit. This resulted in losing the larger bowl. I'll still take what I can get. I'm happy getting the 3 smaller bowls out of the piece.

Clean up

I spent the last several days catching up on projects around the shop. Somewhere in the middle, I decided it would be a good idea to re-arrange a bit. It was a lot of work, but I think it will be much more effecient in the long run.

I also spent some time working on my vacuum chuck which will allow me to better finish the bottom of my bowls and vessels.

Half of the problem with turning is that my head gets ahead of my hands. I have several ideas for projects just waiting to be turned, but I have limited time in the shop right now. Besides that, I have to admit that as much as I love to turn, it is not near as much fun when it is 110 degrees in my shop.

Finally, hats off to Jason Clark, who is a great help and to Mike Mahoney. Mike is a production turner out of Utah that also does some really excellent art pieces. Mike is also puttin gup a blog and is a great inspiration for both technique and design ideas.

Improvements

Last night I went to a fellow woodturner's house. He is a great turner and mentor, and I was having trouble with a coring system. I think we were able to fix my problem. It was also great to spend time in someone else's shop. It always spurs ideas on things you could do in your own shop. It was also nice just talking about kids/shop/clubs/whatever with someone for a few minutes before heading home.

Today it is off to see my grandmother (who did the clay quail in the previous photo) to visit and to see if I can get some more! Below is a picture of some of her other work. I think it is really amazing, especially considering she is 86!Then I plan on spending the day with my family, and if time permits, to try and core a few more bowls. They are MUCH easier to core when still wet.

Check out Jason's work...http://www.fourcornerswoodturning.com/   or his blog   http://www.agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/

I also plan on completing my vacuum chuck and making a few shelves sometime this week. Time permitting. LOL. I will post pics as I get them done.

Collaborations

Family is such a great thing. The big debate of nature vs. nurture when it comes to artistic endeavours rages on. A little over a week ago, my grandmother was in hospice, and we were all sure it was a matter of hours before she would pass. Today, she is out of hospice, staying at my biological mom's for a few days to regain her strength, and tomorrow, she will go hom with some in-home care at night.

She is an amazing artist. She does clay sculpture. Recently, we have collaborated on a few pieces. The piece pictured here is a hollow form I turned with a chunk missing. What may have been a piece of firewood, turned out to be a really nice collaboration. I found the branch and quail in her pile of "extras." After seeing it, she decided she would start working on more of them so I would have a big supply to use whenever I wanted.

Saying goodbye to a friend

Most turnings don't carry a deep emotional attachment. You find a great piece of wood, turn it into something useful and/or artistic, sell it or give it away as a gift, and move on. Every once in awhile, a piece comes along that carries a deeper emotional attachment for one reason or another. Maybe it is where the wood comes from. Maybe it is what you did with the piece, or maybe it is collaborative effort with someone else.

That happened to me yesterday. Some time ago, I saw a demo by Molly Winton. She does a lot of burning as embellishment on her pieces. At first, I didn't think I would really like her work, but it grew on me, and she really inspired me with my own ideas during her demo.

One of the pieces that came fromthat inspiration was the flame hollow form. Yesterday at my show, it sold. Don't get me wrong, selling is a good thing, and if I really wanted to keep it, I could have kept it out of the show. I'm glad it sold and someone will really enjoy it, I just hated to see it go...sort of....does that make sense?