Main point of this whole post is: boy do I have a lot to learn!
Here is a pic of my first bowl. I have tried two others so far with no success as the cheap face plate with the first bowl cracked when I had a catch. So that bowl was put aside as it was a lot smaller then the bowl shown. I had a bigger face plate and when I received my chuck from Terry Richards, I turned the piece of Ambrosia Maple I received from Jim Ketron.
I had a very difficult time getting used to the bowl gouge. I was following to the best of my ability what I learned on Bill's DVD, and I think I need to watch it again more carefully. Anyway, when roughing the outside of the bowl, the gouge would clog up. Anyone ever have this happen? It was very frustrating. So I ended up taking a 1/2" scraper to the outside and finished roughing it up then used the bowl gouge one last time to get it relatively smooth.
Then the inside of the bowl was a little difficult to do but I was just about to get the hang of it when I hit my desired rough-out depth. When I would start the cut from the outside going in, the cut would be smooth until the tool was about parallel with the lathe and it would start to bounce and kick around. I did lose the bowl out of the chuck once, but luckily I turned everything at 450 RPM so it didn't go far.
Anyway, it was fun, regardless of the initial problems. The inside is NOT smooth at all, and so I hope that doesn't affect the drying.
Oh yeah, and that is my new lathe in the picture.