sycamore potpourri bowl

Clark O'Neill

Member
Messages
177
Location
Decatur, Illinois
i've been lurking, trying to learn how to turn from dvd's, youtube, online articles and this forum. i finally received my photo tent and several lights yesterday so i tried it out today.

this little sycamore potpourri bowl is about 4"dia. by 3.5" with 1/4" walls. i used the maloof oil/varnish finish and then buffed with the beall system.

but i'm not thrilled with the backdrop in the photos and need to come up with something textured that won't wrinkle...like berber carpet?? you photo wizards can probably recommend something. also the lighting is going to take some time to figure out.

any suggestions will be appreciated.

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Clark, great form, finish and great wood too. Well Done :thumb: Looking forward to more pics from you. I can't help with the photography, but many others here will.
 
Great little potpourri pot, Clark. Everything about it looks great.

On the photo backdrop, I found that LOML's clothes steamer worked good to get rid of the wrinkles. I also found that I preferred the white, gray, or black backdrops. My blue, red, and green backdrops were too intense for my tastes, and they tended to distract from the turned piece I was photographing. Many folks end up buying gradient backdrops from places like B&H Photo. Here's the one I have. Other people have simply made a large JPG file with a gradient background, then taken the file to Kinko's and gotten it printed for a few bucks on their large format color printer.
 
stuart, my two granddaughters are grown and gone...they both like potpourri as do my wife and daughter. so i'll make a few more. but...this is really me learning how to turn and learning hollow forms. so i'm using inexpensive wood...this bowl came from a piece of sycamore that will yield three more HF's of this size and i paid $8 for it.

looking at the photography i see that it is really crap! can i say that? a little out of focus and the bowl is tilted in the middle pic. i appreciate vaughn's comments and ordered the tent following one of his posts. but i need to work on the photography as well as the woodturning.
 
barry, i took a caligraphy class years ago and saved the equipment. when i thought of signing work i pulled it out and practiced a little bit. but it's difficult to do any work without a place to rest the palm of your hand. so i used a cardboard box of the correct height and cut a hole in the bottom so i can rest my hand on the box with the bottom of bowls sticking through.

just thinking maybe someday one of my grandkids will show something like this to a child and say, "pop did this."
 
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