This is my first effort at a hollow form - more of a vessel I suppose than a true hollow form since it has a footed base. My wife wants to use it for flowers or scent sticks or some such thing, so I think it'll work out fine. Turned from a piece of spalted flame box elder, but I lost most of the red flame coloration in turning and I'm really not too jazzed about the gray spalting - it's interesting I suppose but I don't really like the color.
Dimensions are about 10" tall by 5" wide. Sanded to 600 grit, a couple coats of danish oil and then buffed with the Beall buffing system.
Lots of firsts here:
* First time using the Monster articulated hollowing rig. I'm really happy with it, just need to learn how to use all the different cutters. I only succeeded in making the inside bigger than the outside in one small place and was able to patch that with some super glue and sawdust. Had a couple of other really thin spots but will do better next time, as I watched a video the other day that suggests offsetting the laser by your desired wall thickness - when the laser starts to "enlongate", you're pretty much at that thickness. Good idea.
* First time using a bowl gouge to turn a "spindle" type of turning. I find that I have a lot more control with the bowl gouge (3/8" Thompson V) than with a traditional spindle gouge.
* First time using the Beall buffing system. I'm not terribly happy with how the piece looks after buffing, I was wanting a "deeper" finish and suspect I should try either a thin CA finish or maybe laquer before buffing.
* First time trying to photograph my work. I've done "small piece" photography before and have a light tent and tried to set it up for this piece but ended up with the wrong camera settings (ISO 3200 wasn't necessary...) So I'm sharing the quickly-taken "sitting on the counter" photos that I snapped before setting up the tent as well as a couple using the tent but they're awfully grainy.
Comments and critique are very welcome -this is really a learning piece for me and you can't hurt my feelings by telling me what I could do better!
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