Black, Blue, and a Little Curly, Too

Vaughn McMillan

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Well, actually more of an emerald than blue, but it's hard to find words that rhyme with "emerald"...

This is a piece of maple I turned on my last trip back home. The blank was from some blister maple I got a few years ago, although there was pretty much no blister figure in this particular chunk. The top shows a bit of tiger curl, but other than that, it was pretty plain stuff so I got out the airbrush and dyes. It's about 5" in diameter and 3 1/2" high. After the turquoise and black dyes, I built up a fair amount of spray can lacquer, then wet-sanded and buffed it to a grand piano finish. I know some people don't really like glossy wood, but wet-sanded and buffed lacquer is one of my favorite finishes. It's glass smooth like poly without the plastic feel. But it's a real bear to photograph. These were done outdoors in my photo tent under direct sunlight. (Too lazy to set up my lights.)

VM%201039%2002%20-%201024.jpg


VM%201039%2001%20-%201024.jpg


Comments, questions, critiques, finger-pointing, and laughing are all welcome...
 
Very beautiful Vaughn. The perfect gift for St. Paddy's Day. By the way, your turning is again placed in the most prominent place on our tree.
 
I do not turn at all, having no lathe, related tools, or any experience except for a 7th(?) grade class in woodworking, so I'm about to really show my ignorance in this subject. Please bear with me.

In looking at Vaugn's, and other's bowls there appears to be a small dia "hollow" at one end of the bowl. This may be a cleanup of the tail stock support(?), but I just don't know. In any event, I wonder if the bowl is hollowed out more completely with special angular knives???

Alternatively, are the bowls parted, hollowed out separately, glued back together, and then finished? Also, do you use a template to contour the bowl to maintain consistent shapes for multiple bowls?
 
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I do not turn at all, having no lathe, related tools, or any experience except for a 7th(?) grade class in woodworking, so I'm about to really show my ignorance in this subject. Please bear with me.

In looking at Vaugn's, and other's bowls there appears to be a small dia "hollow" at one end of the bowl. This may be a cleanup of the tail stock support(?), but I just don't know. In any event, I wonder if the bowl is hollowed out more completely with special angular knives???

Alternatively, are the bowls parted, hollowed out separately, glued back together, and then finished? Also, do you use a template to contour the bowl to maintain consistent shapes for multiple bowls?

Al, a piece like this is commonly called a "hollow form", and as the name implies, it's hollow. The walls on this one are about 1/8" to 3/16" thick, all the way to the base, which is probably about 1/4" thick. Hollow forms are challenging to make, and the smaller the opening, the tougher they are to do. They start as a single solid piece, then they're hollowed out bit by bit with specialized tools. (Typically called a hollowing "rig" or "system".) There are several or styles types of hollowing systems. Some are simply hooked tools that are handheld much like other typical turning tools. Other systems actually attach to the bed of the lathe to resist the torque - there's quite a bit of torque when cutting with a bent or offset tool - and even have a laser pointer attached to indicate where the cutting tip is in relation to the outside of the wall. (It helps the turner avoid making the inside diameter bigger than the outside diameter.) ;) I use a rig like this one, although other guys here have homemade rigs that can also produce good results:

http://monster-lathe-tools.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=262&category_id=63

To address your other questions, some guys do indeed make 2-piece hollow forms, where they essentially turn two bowls then join them together. Not really my cup of tea, but properly done the results can be nice. Templates are used by some turners who want to make matching pieces. Here again, that's not something I do, since I like each piece I make to be unique. I have made a few sets of matched bowls, but in those cases the forms were simple and I just did it by eye. To me, much of the fun of turning is taking a raw piece of wood and treating it like a blank canvas. I prefer to arrive at the shape of the piece by eye and by feel. Sometimes I don't know what shape something is going to be until it's almost done.
 
Well Vaughn you have done it again. THis is a beauty committed to my memory forever. Nice work Man.!!!!! I can see photographing it is a beast. But the color and grain and glossy go together wonderfully. Generally i am not a wild fan of the small opening hollow form but this one aces it. Would be a really cool display piece.

Thing that strikes me following Als question is just how many people when seeing these artworks have any clue of the difficulty involved in making them. Thinking now to your booth general public coming across your work at a art show. See when we see a painting or sculpture most have some idea of the skill involved simply from having tried themsleves to paint. Dont know how or if this could be conveyed to people and have them appreciate it more. Guess we all do because we have some idea of what it takes to pull off a piece like this.
 
Thanks for the compliments, Rob. :thumb:

...Dont know how or if this could be conveyed to people and have them appreciate it more...

For a lot of people, the "ah-ha" moment is when they pick up a piece like this off the table and feel how light it is. Or they stick their finger inside and find there's nothing there. Both of these actions are only possible when seeing it in person.
 
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