Ehhh... What's up, Doc?

While Carrotwood (Cupaniopsis anacardioides) is considered an invasive weed in Florida, it can grow to 35' tall and is often used as an ornamental shade tree.
Even though it has very non-descript grain, it tends to be a pleasure to turn (big curlies!) and can be turned quite thin.
This bowl is 7" in diameter, and has been tinted to reveal whatever slight amount of grain it has.
Turned to 3/16" walls and finished with 2 coats GF Seal-A-Cell and 4 coats Semi-gloss Arm-R-Seal .

carrotwood_bowl_01s.jpg

carrotwood_bowl_02s.jpg


As always, comments and critiques welcome.
 
Very nice, Steven. The proportions look great for that form, and the finish looks excellent. I've never heard of carrotwood, but from your description, it sounds like it might be a good candidate for embellishments like dying and burning.
 
Very nice, Steven. The proportions look great for that form, and the finish looks excellent. I've never heard of carrotwood, but from your description, it sounds like it might be a good candidate for embellishments like dying and burning.
Vaughn:
Yes. It does take dyes well. I've never tried burning, but as you said it would probably take that kind of embelishment well.
I've got one more piece and I was thinking about trying some piercing as well. If it comes out worth a hoot, I'll post it here.
 
BTW, do you know if it holds that color? Or does it darken with time and exposure to light like so many woods?
Frank:
This bowl has been tinted (see original post). The actual color of the wood is much paler, although it does have an orange color sapwood just under the bark.
I used an orange trans-tint (powder) dye in a 1/2# cut of dewaxed superblonde shellac - which I prefer to use over straight DNA.
I find that when tinting with straight DNA, the colors tend to bleed when I put on my top coats. If I use a weak shellac as the tint medium, it not only helps seal the wood giving me a smoother finish, but it seems to hold the colors better.
There is very little you can not put over shellac, but I tend to use either the Seal-a-Cell/Arm-R-Seal combo, or Waterlox.

From hwat I understand, Carrotwood spalts easily. I was thinking of scraping (or turning) off the sealer that is on my 2nd piece and trying to get it to spalt a little.
 
Very Nice Bowl!

Hello Steven,

I like your name by the way...:D Great looking bowl! These types of pale timbers without strong grain make excellent "whiteboard" project material. That's a term from art school that means you have a blank canvas from which to start your artistic explorations.

It looks like the timber would be a great one for coloring, burning, carving, inlaying, piercing and more. Also, don't forget embellishments that would totally obscure the grain like patinas, metal leafing, overwraps etc. If you can reliably get your hands on this timber, great. It looks like its a nice timber to work! Good luck to you and best wishes in all of your woodturning endeavors!
 
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