It hasn't been too long since I had an epiphany about turning bowls that has helped me a lot so I thought that I would share it for whatever it is worth.
My efforts at turning bowls always seem rather dumpy compared to turnings done by other club members. I tried to pick up what the difference was that made my turnings look ordinary by comparison and after a lot of struggling, I think that my results look considerably better now than they did a few months ago -- not that they still couldn't stand improvement -- I still sometimes have difficulty getting an acceptable curve on the interior.
My first discovery was that my model for making bowls was all wrong -- I had my breakfast cereal bowl on my mind -- you know, flat bottom followed by small radius curve and end up with an almost vertical sidewall. OK for treenware, but I wanted to make more decorative bowls and not think about Post Bran Flakes every time that I looked at one of my bowls.
After I figured that part out, I proceeded to make an improved bowl, but the improvement turned out to be marginal, at best. That was before I figured out the second part of the equation -- start out with a plan -- I mean more of a plan than just "make a bowl". I found that I was just getting a piece of wood, turning a moderate sized tenon on one end and then aimed for using as much of the wood as possible to get the maximum diameter and depth out of the hunk of wood. The results, alas, usually resulted in a bowl where the sides at the rim would now have an angle of 60 - 70 degrees instead of the earlier bowls with 90 degree sides. And, because of the large tenon, they wound up still have a flat bottom on the interior.
So I decided that I needed a "real" plan -- see the illustration below. I decided to get really radical on the slope of the sides and aimed at 45 degrees. I also came up with a plan for the overall final shape rather than just sticking the wood on the lathe to see what happens. This included having a definite height in mind and a definite foot shape and a newly discovered understanding of less is better when it comes to curves. I had fears that the results would look more like a plate than a bowl, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the results were pleasing to me. That inspired me to try using a shallower angle of about 30 degrees for the sides and I was even more satisfied with the results. I also found that it was much easier to turn the interior of the bowl with this type of shape than it was with the cereal bowl design that I previously used.
This may not fit everyone's taste, but I wanted to share it just in case some other beginner wants to try something different.
Bill