Rest in peace. Scott

An old mate died recently. Because one tends to feel pretty useless at times like that I offered to make an Urn for his ashes.

It ended in 3 urns, not one. The lower photo is the main one.

I'm not entirely happy about any of them, but I did my best.

New guinea rosewood, finished with Rustins plastic.

All three made from the one rather umipressive branch, so at least it was a good use of resources.

Bowls - different shapes, sizes, timbers

Three new bowls, none of them quite finished.

I'm in the throes of re-inventing the lute, (or one of its many forms), and each of these bowls started out as a sound-bowl or part of a sound chamber for the lutes (there are to be two).

In the photo with three bowls, the one on front left. New Guinea Rosewood, was to be a sound-bowl, i.e no lid, but it has gradually lost favour and will probably end up just a bowl, for peanuts and popcorn perhaps.

The dark one at the back, Darwin black wattle, was to be the bottom of the sound chamber for lute no. 2, but it also is probably not going to get the job.

The one on the right, pinus radiata, is now favourite to be the open sound bowl, and the sound chamber will probably also be in pinus. I have two blanks prepared for the sound chamber, and with luck will turn them this coming weekend.

Why all the changes? Probably I'm not good at planning, and projects get made up as we go along. Change is inevitable. Sometimes, change is good. Sometimes, its just easier to change than to finish what we started.

The lonely photo in the left corner is the black wattle. We have been fighting for two weeks now, as it really did not want to become a bowl, and declared it was willing to self-destruct at 2500rpm if necessary.

But I was too clever for it, and although it is now 20% glue, we have declared an honourable draw, and it is a bowl.

(NB It is not yet finished, and if you look closely it is still in the chuck, destined to go back on the lathe within a couple of days. Hara-kiri is still possible. I will report further. For those who are interested in detail, the finish is olive oil, and looks great. I'll keep up the oiling until saturation is reached.)

all the best

vsquared

Finished - at last

And it's better than it has any right to!

It started in The Guru's workshop, when I said I thought I'd turn the blank upside down and try a natural edge bowl. ( You HAVE noticed the edge isn't nice and flat and even, it's all wavey!)

The Guru said "Hmmmm. Whatever you reckon".

You need to know him to understand what that revealed of his opinion of the idea.

But I went ahead, and received the usual guidance and assistance. And all went fairly well.

At the sanding stage I took it home, intending to finish it on my newly acquired Jet mini-lathe. But I found I couldn't mount it, as the spigot on the bowl was to big for my only chuck.

Dammit!

I shelved tlhe bowl (literally) for a while, then had a brilliant idea. I drilled the base of the bowl and turned and fitted a pedestal. Wundebar. You are bnrighter than Einstein even...

Unfortunately, the pedestal wasn't quite exactly straight, or centred, or perhaps both. And when you put a slightly off balance lump on a lathe, the unbalance is magnified.

I shelved it again!!

Then, a few days ago, I plucked up my courage, gritted my teeth, put my shoulder to the wheel, my nose to the grindstone... and found it was impossible to work in that position.

So I attached the bowl to the lathe via the pedestal, and spent an uncomfortable hour or so sanding and polishing with the bowl thumping and bumping in unbalance.

And the result is OK. Not perfect - [perfection is for the gods).

But OK is OK.

Natural edge bowl on pedestal, New Guinea rosewood, finish Rustins Plastic.

all the best

vsquared47