I had a few hours between prepping for the family gathering and leaving for the family gathering and I decided to play with shapes and colors so did a couple of quick turnings:

The first was a piece of "curly" maple pen blank that I wanted to play with shapes. It originally had a collar on it that was the same shape and slight smaller than the foot but my thumbnail caught it while sanding and it broke so I went simpler. Then after it was turned I saw that the "curl" had mostly vanished so I decided to play with some dyes: Black sanded off followed by yellow, green, blue, purple, and black. CA finish rubbed out to 0000 steel wool. Hollowed with a sharpened nail and a modified dentist's pick.

2012LastTurning-1.jpg 2012LastTurning-2.jpg

I learned that if you want even dying you really need to seal the wood and airbrush your colors on. Letting it soak in makes for very uneven coloring.


Then I still had some time and a piece of "scrap" Honduran Rosewood Burl was calling my name so I made a small "micro platter". I was going for that nice ogee shape; I think I got it on the outside but failed miserably on the inside. This is "unfinished"; just sanded to 400 and then rubbed out with 0000 steel wool. 3.75" diameter, 1/2" height, 1/8" thick.

2012LastTurning-6.jpg 2012LastTurning-4.jpg 2012LastTurning-5.jpg 2012LastTurning-3.jpg

For scale...
2012LastTurning-7.jpg

All comments and especially critiques greatly appreciated so I can grow my skills.

Happy New Year, everyone!