Elm bowl

Mark Cothren

Member
Messages
271
Location
Pickles Gap, Arkansas
Turned a NE bowl a while back from a chunk of Elm and lost the bark. Wife persuaded me to finish it up and brand/burn the rim. So here it is... I'm not real crazy about it, but hopefully someone this weekend will like it.

ElmNE01.jpg
 
...what about it doesn't appeal to you?

Easier to see in this side shot... it gets kinda fat and flat at the bottom. It also has some uneven wings. That by itself doesn't bother me, but put together with the bottom it just doesn't ring my bell.

The plus side is that the wood is beautiful and has a great feel to it. And it looks much better after the nekkid rim was burned.

ElmNE02.jpg
 
Mark, I appreciate you have set yourself standards in form, and maybe this piece does not meet some of those pre-determined criteria, for myself being an individual that looks at a piece of worked wood for its ability to show off natures beauty, it is fine as it stands. I've never perceived a tree as imperfect (what does an imperfect one look like?) although I've never seen two the same and am never bothered by an asymmetrical turned form.

I'd be happy to give it shelf room and like the informal edging you have achieved, mimicking a bark edge with a finish better than a less than perfect natural one.
 
Mark,
I gotta get out and start cutting some bowl blanks out of my elm... that is a NICE piece... I think the uneven wings are what sets it off and is an embellishment not a detriment

I do see the bottom where it doesn't curve smoothly, but frankly wouldn't have notice it if you had not pointed it out. It's still a fine piece.
 
My regular burn tool is currently broken down, so I improvised and used a method I learned from a fellow woodturner in Kentucky. I took an old wire coat hanger and bent it, then heated it with a propane torch until glowing red, then branded the wood. It takes a lot longer this way than with the homemade burner I normally use (rigged up on a battery charger), but it works.
 
Top