Black dye, copper leaf, and plain...

[Steve Vaughan]

Hey everyone, finally able to post a few pics. The large pecan bowl had a lot of punky wood, but lots of other wild grain plus a little bit of bark. It's 11 3/4" by 4".

The cherry bowl is ringed with black shoe dye after texturing. I thought about gold-leafing the pitch pocket but I'll find something easier to learn on. It's 7 1/4" by 5".

The platter is pecan platter is 11 1/4" by 1" deep. I copper leafed that little band around it just to add something. Was gonna be gold leaf till I was getting ready to use it and opened the brand new, days old, package to discover that someone had lifted the gold leaf out. It was the fake gold stuff but I'm not sure they'd realized that. Anyway, went ahead then and did copper. My inexperience with leafing buffed it off in a few places. Bummer.

Overall, I'm satisfied with 'em, and learned a bit along the way. All are finished with Watco Natural (the pecan bowl absorbed nearly a pint), followed by Deft spray laquer, then wax and buffing.

[Mark Burge]

Steve, These pieces are great. I particularly like the Cherry. I think that the dark band and the dark bark complement each other very well. IMHO using gold, or any metallic leaf, would draw attention away from the feature because of the similarity to the wood color. Just a thought. Beautiful execution and finishing.

[David E Keller]

Great forms on all of them, but I really like the color of the cherry piece with the black band. Nice work.

[Michelle Rich]

these are super pieces. Nicely done!

[charlie knighton]

very nice.....

[Mike Peace]

Beautiful work! How were you able to keep such crisp edges with the coloring?

[Bob Bergstrom]

Nice job on all of them. I think the wood in the platter might have looked as good as the cherry bowl with just a black ring. That is a very nice looking wood with a lot of character. I would have framed it like a nice picture that has a simple black frame around it. My interest is drawn to the picture and not to the frame. The cherry bowl is awesome. The hole looks like an old piece of steel had pierced it. What did you use for the texturing tool. I like how it gives a lateral motion to the ring.

[Steve Vaughan]

Thanks for the kind words and thoughts. Mike, the bottom edge of the black (and the edges of the copper-leafing for that matter) is a small groove I turned, so that became the border. Along that edge, and the top edge, I used masking tape, pressed firmly along the edge. On the top edge, I used a razor to cut along the edge of the bowl to give a clean line.

Bob, my first thought was to use a black band, might still go back to do that just cause I really messed the leaf job up. I just had leafing on the brain and couldn't get it out so quickly until i did the copper leaf. Then my brain was satisfied which is not to be confused with simply being satisfied. I used the Robert Sorby texturing tool to get that texture around the edge.

Thanks again y'all!

[Mark Hubl]

They all look good to me Steve. I agree with David, your forms are very nice. I think your embellishments work well on the pieces. Having just used leaf for the first time myself I can't really lend any pointers. Nice work.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice work on each of these Steve!

I really like the look of your Pecan platter - the ring of copper is really different! The black band on the Cherry bowl is a nice touch - not only does it look good now but will look even better as the Cherry ages!

[John Keeton]

Steve, nice work on all! I like the platter, particularly, but the cherry bowl is kinda neat, too. I admire your efforts on the pecan bowl - you did a good job with some difficult wood.

[Cathy Schaewe]

I really like these a lot. What did you use to texture the band on the cherry bowl?

[Steve Vaughan]

Cathy, I used the Sorby texturing tool for that band, the large one. And, John that was some seriously punchy wood on one side. Not sure there's a lathe tool sharp enough to cut it clean...60 & 80 grit does wonders! Just finished rough-turning another one with worse punky-ness, so I soaked it in a couple of quarts of laquer for several hours to see what difference that would make. Thanks y'all!

[Baxter Smith]

All of these are very nice!