Flowerform goblets

Ryan Mooney

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Apologies for the horrid lighting, I may try again later with a work light.

Anyway trying a few new things here so we'll see where this goes. The goblet on the left was the "prototype" (loml actually likes it better which I suppose good as its the one we're keeping). The one on the right is a much belated wedding gift (wedding was in October) for a friend that is made from some walnut I cut from his property.

The symbolism of the bulb type flower (spring, new beginnings) and the interlocked rings is perhaps overdone but were things I wanted to try anyway :D

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Personal criticisms:
  • The base on the walnut one is a bit small for the flower/bowl size.
  • Rings and stems could be thinner/lighter, especially the stem on the walnut piece.
  • More an observation, but the detailing on the base of the lighter colored one was a total waste of time and just made it painful to sand/finish.

C&C welcome.
 
It looks like a lot of work has gone into both of them. Your critique is more a list of things to watch out for the next time around because the two pieces are very well done. I like the tulip theme and am sure the wedding gift will be appreciated and treasured.
 
Managed to get a picture that looks a smidge less like it was taken with a potato. I need some better lights and maybe setup some place to use them! Its so much easier in the summer when there is sunlight you can use!

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Vaughn, the next rendition was an egregious offense against style, design, planning and execution. I still like the idea I had though so I'm rolling with it. Will follow up in a week or so once I get a couple of follow on pieces done (and just for giggles I'll throw in the "what were you thinking" version, or maybe versions if it keeps working out as well as it has...) - I'm adding leaves (err attempting to add leaves ok there are leaves on the next one .. umm wow leaves!) which is turning (turning! hah) out much harder than I'd anticipated.

Ted, thanks for the kind thought. I figure critiques should be areas to improve or parts to stop messing with (and there's a bit of both here I think). I can't quite see how far away the curve of the earth is from this point, so I need to keep walking.
 
Both are very nice. Are they functional as well as pretty? (i.e. Can you drink from them?)

I can't imagine how you made interlocking captive rings. Single or multiple captive rings, okay, but not interlocking. Can you share your secret, or give us a reference?
 
Both are very nice. Are they functional as well as pretty? (i.e. Can you drink from them?)

I can't imagine how you made interlocking captive rings. Single or multiple captive rings, okay, but not interlocking. Can you share your secret, or give us a reference?

The not walnut (it's wood from another friend who told me the species which I recall being done sort of nut but can't remember exactly) is theoretically functional in shape at least. Although it seems that the rings would be at best annoying in use. It's finished with shellac, so no alcohol anyway. The walnut is finished with walnut oil topped with three coats of wtf and two of paste wax (ran out of wtf or would have just gone to 5-6 of that which IMHO would have looked better). Because of the pointy top I would class it as nonfunctional, you could leave the top smooth and just carve the sides I suppose but that didn't have near as much depth.

The rings are actually pretty simple, I was doing them with just a skew which is tedious and not for the unsteady of hand. Last Saturday I had to much coffee so I ground as couple of undercutting tools out of some old allen wrenches which made it a whole lot easier (turn a bead, then undercut the sides).

As for linking them if you take a break to think about it, I'm sure it will quickly come to you and stick like glue once you figure it out :D
 
I figured that would be cheating, so I was looking for a more honest way. I think cheating looks really good.

Yeah, you could carve them like you would a chain, but that requires more motivation than I generally posses (I've carved chains but thus far have not found great enjoyment in the process although the result is nifty). The break and re-glue method is incredibly easy in comparison and if you break it with the side grain (supposedly if done carefully you can sometimes get only one side to break and just carefully spread it and only have one glue line - 0/2 on that theory myself) the join is really really hard to find. I used some thin CA to rejoin the pieces which worked pretty well (medium might have worked better I think, thin is what I have on hand at the moment - $1/3 oz bottle at the habitat restore woot!). One join you could see if you looked really close the other ones not at all (as in I knew which ring was broken and really couldn't find the break).

My friend said he might use it as a funky candle holder or something (I'm pretty sure final use will depend on what his SO decides :D). Maybe functional is in the eyes of the functionater.
 
Talked to my friend that I got the lighter wood from over the weekend and it is "Giant Chinkapin" http://owic.oregonstate.edu/giant-chinkapin-castanopsis-chrysophylla http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/giant-chinkapin/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysolepis.

Its really quite nice wood to work with, I have a couple more small pieces to play with still. If you ever get a chance to try some give it a go. It machines nicely and polishes up pretty easily. A smidge harder than cherry but otherwise this piece seemed sort of similar in its working characteristics (holds a crisp line well, carves easy, sands easy), I think I might have gotten a piece with a slightly tighter than usual grain.
 
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