Just lumps of wood

This is the current project - cake stand/platter, from New Guinea rosewood. I promise it'll look better when complete.

Two pictures of a lump of Raintree wood, turned to resemble a vase.


This comes from then same piece of timber that the art student keeps her pens in.



It's finished as far as shaping goes, but doesn't yet have a polish/sealer/coating of any sort. A finish coat of something will bring up the grain and brighten it.


Should look good.


all the best,
vsquared.

woodturning - bad for your mental health?

camphor laurel bowl

I said I'd post picture of the bowls I've been working on. Herwe they are!

The bottom one (upside down) was the first one, and the top one, made from New Guinea rosewood salvaged from a tree removed from m y workplace, is the second.

The other photo is the upside down one, right way up. It's turned from a pice of camphor laurel.
A very pretty timber, though not without practical problems for the wood-turner.

Birthday present - the cheap way

The making of lutes, lyres and zithers seems to have ground to a halt for the time being.
The craft known as woodturning has me by the throat at the moment. I had intended that woodturning would be just one more skill to use in my pursuit of a usable musical instrument. But for some reason I find great satisfaction in taking a perfectly good piece of timber and reducing it shavings and dust.
And that is woodturning for you.
It does have it’s uses though. The photos herewith are of three items I salvaged from the debris on the floor, and which provided a cheapskates birthday present for my favourite arts student.
The little bowl (more of a saucer really - it started out much bigger) is from a nameless tree my back fence neighbour gave me after he had chopped it down. The thing that looks like a miniature beer barrel is a miniature beer barrel, and is turned from a 20 year old lump of Oregon, that was at one time part of a post holding up my pergola. These were made in my back-yard on the world’s cheapest lathe.
The biggest of the three I made in the timber workshop I attend once a week. This workshop should be called “Woodworker’s Heaven”. It smells of new and old timber, sawdust and glue, and the lathes whirr instead of clanking and rattling, and the chisels and gouges are sharp.
Anyway, this bowl is made from a piece of timber I rescued from a park after the city council had been lopping some trees. I was convinced it was a piece of black wattle, but Ian, the guru from the workshop, says it’s Raintree. He’s the expert, so it’s Raintree.
A nice bit of timber anyway, and I’ve got enough left to produce two more things.
Happy birthday my love.
Vsquared.