Burned and Cratered Alder Bowl

Vaughn McMillan

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ABQ NM
This little alder bowl is about 7 1/4" wide by 1 3/4" tall, made from a piece of scrap. (The outer layer of sapwood that was cut off to make a square blank out of the log.) Since the tree had been dead for several years, this outer layer was pretty dry, so I turned and finished it in a single session a few late nights ago.

The wood has some bug holes and a little bit of spalting, but no real fancy figure, so I decided to experiment with the rim. I used a point tip on my woodburner to make a bunch of little craters, but that looked a little too much like polka dots, so I used the shading tip to blacken the whole rim. This is my first attempt at burning or texturing, so it was experimental from the get-go. The form's not quite right...there's a bump in the curve visible in the profile shot. One of those things you notice after you've parted off the tenon. :bang: Ah well, it was a practice piece anyway. I'm betting someone will still buy it. ;)

The finish is my standard Formby's Tung Oil mix, then buffed with tripoli, white diamond, and Renaissance wax.

Bowl 023 - 01 800.jpg Bowl 023 - 02 800.jpg Bowl 023 - 03 800.jpg Bowl 023 - 04 800.jpg

Comments and opinions (favorable or not) are encouraged. It helps me learn.
 
I would never have thought to do something like that. I like the outcome of it. Keep up the inspiring work.
 
...So... how much you gonna ask for it? ;)
That's proving to be the hardest part of woodturning for me...pricing. I'm still trying to research the local "prevailing rates" for turned bowls and hollow forms. Based on what I've seen so far at the local higher-end art shows (which I'll be trying to get into this fall), I'm guessing this bowl will be in the $50 to $75 range. In other markets, the price would surely be lower.
 
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