Holy Elm Burl, Batman!

Vaughn McMillan

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Continuing with the elm burl theme started a couple days ago by David Keller, this is the chunk of elm burl that taught me what a bad idea it is to put your thumb on a spinning blank that has voids in it. Nothing fancy, just a lot of cool holes, and a rim that's hanging on by a thread. Not really a good candidate for vacuum chucking, either. It's about 5" wide and 3 1/2" tall. It has a few coats of Formby's Tung Oil Finish on it now. I'll buff it out a bit with the finer grits of Micro Mesh and wax it in a few days. I don't think I'll be machine buffing this one.

Click on the pics to see a bigger view...











Comments, critiques, suggestions, and questions are all welcome.
 
Vaughn, I have a few questions....:D :wave:

1) Is it "harder" or more challenging to turn something with tons of voids in it? Does your piece tell the trained eye that you are very experienced?

2) Are you photographing it in a light tent? Something home-made?

It's very nice, BTW. Looks like something from outer space. :thumb:
 
1) In some ways it's harder, because you have to be pretty carefully with the cuts, especially those last few. On the other hand, it's easier because you can see the wall thickness pretty handily as you work your way to final thickness. You can tell I got a bit gun-shy as I got towards the bottom, as the walls thicken up a bit as they go lower. I knew I wasn't going to punch through the side, but I also didn't want to lose the piece to an untimely catch.

Dunno if it shows I'm experienced or foolishly brave. :p

2) I'm using a commercial light tent with three "daylight" (5000K) CFL bulbs in cheap clamp-on reflector fixtures. Here's a look at my photo setup...

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4380
 
That's a good setup. A lot more sophisticated than the one I usually put together with Bounty Paper Towels and Scotch Tape :rofl: Have you ever experimented with different color backgrounds or a white textured background? I'm not very fluent in photoshop, but I'm guessing you could do that in the program, no? without changing anything you have setup?
 
I've played with different colored backgrounds, but with very few exceptions, any color in the background tends to throw off the color tones of the piece being photographed. White textured material would work, although you have to be careful that the texture doesn't distract from the object that's being photographed. Pure white can also trick your camera into thinking it's shooting a lighter-colored object than it really is, so you either end up with the piece looking too dark, or washed-out due to the excessive brightness around it. Shades of gray just tend to be more neutral.

I've played a bit with using Photoshop to place the piece in front of different backgrounds, but haven't liked any of the results I've gotten. Doing it that way tends to remove the shadows, so the piece ends up looking like it's floating in space. It just looks wrong to me.
 
Holy elm burl,batman

WOW,that had to be fun turning.I remember another fellow that turned a great deal of burl,can't remember the name,(manzanita I think) but he turned that stuff less than 1/4" wall thickness.What he did was turn the outside to completion,then wrap it with clear wrapping tape,then do the inside.Anyway,I was just wondering if you used that technique?
 
I can see now how you got your thumb caught. Looks like there are more voids than wood!

I really like that piece :thumb:
 
It's time, once again, to renew my "atta boy Vaughn" as I think the last one expired a turning or two ago. As always, well done and well executed. Suffice it to say we have come to expect nothing less.
 
That's a really really cool piece Vaughn.:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:..
don't think you can use it as a vase though.. probably won't hold water....:rofl:

That's definitely one you want to watch though... if it starts coming apart, could be like dodging a load of buck shot... If you put it in your shows, you'll want to charge extra for the risks you took, the damage to your finger, etc.... :thumb:
I usually add to the pricing when I have DNA in a piece..
 
Way cool teach! I can see how an errant digit could become a casulty of the spin factor. I gotta find something to turn with a hole in it...one that I didn't put there anyway
 
Absolutely beautiful Vaughn.:clap: Nothing fancy you say, that to me is your signature work.:clap::clap::score:

Gotta be honest this is where i see you do the best work. You make these things look like a thousand dollars.

An ordinary mesquite bowl, is well inmho a little beneath your talent kinda like you took the day off or were goofing off at work:);). Best leave those to guys like me.:D
 
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