Spring Time

 Another copy, well its a copy with my slant and improvements made to the one I saw,

now it looks different as now it has bigger hand on the clock, the base has been carved and coloured to look like grass, the spring and base have had a few coats of rattle can lacquer.

The piece I saw only had 3 coils to its spring, he had painted his base and spring green his clock face was white with a small clock set into the flower so it had numbers.

However this is my version, it was at first a daunting challenge, the good part was that the guy who I have copied had shown how he had formed the spring so while it all took a long time to make some of the brain storming was taken out of it.

I did not want to show a clock face so I bought a clock mechanism that I have had to house into the back and make a cover for.

I have glued the spring into the base but the clock face lifts off the spring, and yes it does spring.

Second chance

 My wood turning buddy was given a heavy dry piece of wood he was probably given it because it had big splits in it from the drying process, the wood is pohutukawa a New Zealand native that is well known for splitting as it dries.

My buddy had screwed it onto a face plate and began to turn it on his wood lathe, it was evidentially out of balance and sheered all the screws it leapt off the lathe hitting him on the wrist  leaving him to nurse a wound, he wanted nothing else to do with the wood so dumped it on my man cave floor warning me of the screws still in the wood.

After a few weeks I picked it up and routered out a recess so I could hold it with a lathe chuck, once on the lathe I cut around the screws and removed them, as I turned a bowl the extent of the splits became evident I pondered what to do and settled on turning it thin and piercing away the split areas it then became apparent that it could become 2 halves and putting another bowl inside became an option, then I wanted to see through as much as possible and see the contrasting light wood of the inner bowl (rimu), there was a slight plan but I was never quite sure just how possible it was until I had done it.

 I was at least the third person to consider using this on a lathe I think I have done it justice, it has taken a long time but then good things are worth waiting for.

It is 190mm diameter and 95mm high, the black part is pyrogrophy using a ball tipped nib, as the heat was applied the resin would bubble out of the wood and scorch, the finish is satin from a rattle can, inside the bowl I applied a gold guilders paste before I lacquered it.
 

 

 I watched a online wood turning demonstration of a lady who turned a bowl to 1.5mm thick wall she then showed how she went about piecing it in a pattern, some of it she left solid and painted it with flowers, during the demonstration someone asked if she had thought about doing a tree, this is my idea of that tree.

This tree is made in 3 parts I first turned the outer branches so it was like turning a large cup, the top of the wall was about 3mm thick and it was after I had started doing the piercing that I realised how thick the lower part of the wall was and the bottom, by then it was too late to change however in the end it all worked out well, next I turned the tree trunk not knowing what I would do I left the top and bottom parts big, I had always wondered if I could do an inner and an outer to the branches, only one thing to do, try it, I set about turning a long narrow cup and again I ended up with it too thick in the bottom, it was when I was doing the sculpturing after I had done the piecing that I was pleased I had that thickness, as I have never done this before it was all trial and error I did constantly think don't rush there was no time limit, eventually I glued the outer branches to the trunk I was then able to continue the sculpturing, I am still able to return the whole piece to the wood lathe which I had done so I could drill right through the trunk and cut a small recess for

the inner branches to sit in, it was about this time I decided to put a small LED light in the top of the trunk so I went shopping for a light, the root ball was another experiment that just grew (pun intended) and turned out as good as I could hope for, I did not want to leave the trunk plain but also did not want to sculpture it, I had seen a pyrogrophy pattern I liked and wanted to try making the wire nib for the pen, because of my previous experiments I have had a lot of luck with one, the whole pattern I am so happy about, it was a mistake that I put some gold paste on the trunk as I coloured the branches but when I saw the look of the gold over the pyrogrophy I put the idea of sanding it off away and continued the gold over the whole trunk, I have purposely left some of the black lines showing, the root ball is ebonised then the whole tree is lacquered using a rattle can.

This tree stands 250mm tall and the wood is rimu. 

I Don't know what it is

Other than me seeing an idea and wanting to try making it this has no use at all, I have had fun making it and there are a few things I have tried for the first time.

The process has involved me making 2 of the top pieces so the fun is not over yet, I will soon start to make a base for the second one.

When I first saw something similar it did look impossible which is what drew me to having a go, the one I saw was in a dark wood it was also photographed at an angle that made it difficult to see how it had been made

I chose a light wood thinking that this one was just an experiment and that I would use some dark wood at a later date.

The base is made of another native wood of New Zealand and is turned to 2mm thick where the piercing is, the piercing is all new to me, I won't go into the difficulties I encountered but to say I am pleased with the results even if I was 3 days doing it, anything good takes time.

My statement of this having no use is not true as I do like to see it and brings me pleasure just knowing that I have done what at first looked impossible.

 
 

 

Just for the Record

 I was asked to make a yarn bowl again, this one was a great success
so I set about making one with some embellishment to take to the market, the wood is totara but being a young tree it is pale so the embellishment has helped lift it to another level.

The colour I used is some tints I have for use in fiberglass gelcoat for this reason I have used a rattle tin to put a clear coat on it.

The texturing is done with a micro motor carver, I also used pyrogrophy for some of the patterns.

Spinning out of control to a finish

 And this is what happened in the end, I finished it with a gloss rattle can so it is all shinny which does not come through in the photo.

There was an exhibition happening as I finished it so it went up on the wall there.

Two years on

Past and present

 Its just over 2 years since I made a Saueracker shell and painted it yellow, last week I started to fulfill my promise to make another and a larger one, this one is 350mm across but in order to make this I had to start with a piece of wood 600mm across it also has to have a backing board glued to it, all in all it took me 3 days to prepare the wood before I could put it on the wood lathe, it was too big to turn it as I would normally so I had to turn the head of my lathe to the side, it is a heavy piece so I started at a slow speed until I became comfortable and had the piece balanced.

I first saw a picture of this on The Canadian Woodworkers web site I was thankful that Lisa Chemerika posted the instructions, this time I went back to TCWW site and the instructions were still available, even with instructions it is not all plain sailing, there is a lot of stopping the lathe and looking at what I had done, stopping the lathe with such a large heavy piece traveling at 600 rpm is also not easy I needed leather gloves when I went to hold the hand wheel on the back of the lathe that acts as the brake

The first action is to turn the eye that is in the center when that is done and sanded the whole piece is removed from the lathe the 350mm piece that becomes the shell is unscrewed and rotated about 40mm when it is returned to the lathe the second part is turned, there are 8 parts to be turned so each time the whole piece is removed the shell rotated before it is screwed back in place and returned to the lathe, there was 3 days of turning involved, my days are short but it was a slow process.

The wood I have used is Tawa a New Zealand native that is heavy easy to cut but very plane so I have started to process of embellishment which will become another post here.

I have the choice of using the outer crescent but at the moment I have no intention of using it.