Art Show Project-Finial turned for the Ash Wood Box

Hi Everyone,

Well, I put the lid back on the lathe this afternoon and turned the finial on the top and that went along without any problems. Here are a couple of photos:

I also took off the red wood stain from yesterday.  I think it looks better with it left in its natural color.

Ok, this whole thing needs a lot of sanding and finishing but I'm satisfied with it. Not ecstatic mind you but ok.

I'll work on this off an on over the next several days and post finish photos when I'm done.

I have to have a tooth pulled so the shop will be closed and I won't be actively posting next week.

I plan to return to the shop on September 15 so stay tuned.  There's always something going on the wood shop so grab a coffee and your computer and drop by.

See you all soon,

VW

Fall art show/black ash box-lid construction continued, and Additional Projects

Hi Everyone,

Well I went down to the shop and took a look at the lid and decided that it needed a finial. So here are the process photographs for this part of the construction:

I think bubinga wood will look the best as the finial:

I put it back on the lathe and turned a small tenon onto one end:

And drilled a corresponding sized mortise on the lid:

And glued them together. I'm going to let this set for the rest of the day and probably will turn it late tonight:

Other Projects

Another art show project involves a box made from a linden tree branch that fell in my neighborhood in late June. Here is a photo of the top:

And here is the bottom. I wanted to add some exterior adornment to the box but as I'm not a trained artist and I don't know any thing about color, painting, etc, I was hesitant to try this and possibly ruin the box so I've gathered some thing birch bark from a tree in my yard and I'm going to glue on some pieces of it back on to the sides of the box. More about this in a separate posting:

This is a box that I made out of applewood. It distorted while drying and I'm unable to finish the insides so this one is going on the shelf until I can come up with another use for it:

And here is a small dried flower vase out of the same linden tree branch above. I need to get ready for the annual Blue House Sale in December and this year I'm going to sell flower vases and salt cellars. More about this in a separate post a little later:

VW

Fall Art Show-Box lid, continued

Ok everyone,

I had a late breakfast, some coffee, and I thought about the lid. And as they say in that great Jim Carey film Mask, "Hold on to your lug nuts, it's time for an overhaul!!!"

Here we go,

When last we met, I had just finished roughly shaping the lid out of hickory. Now it's time to do some intermediate shaping so back on the lathe it went:

First I narrowed the diameter:

Next, I began to shape the top of the lid:

After several minutes of turning this is what the lid looked like. I could have stopped there and had a perfectly acceptable lid but I decided to take it further so I turned it more:

And this is where I stopped. I added a second rim and got rid of the button in the center:

And then I sanded it smooth:

 I was going to stain it red, but I remembered a had a cabernet-colored stain left over from a project last year and so I applied the reddish purple stain to the lid after I applied a sealer to it:

This is what it looked like from the side. I decided to stain it again:

And so I put it back on the lathe and applied another coat of stain:

The next question to answer is does it need a finial? Is the top too flat for the box? I'm not sure so I prepared the purpleheart and bubinga blocks by turning them both to a cylinder shape. This is the purpleheart block:

 And this is the bubinga block on the right side.

Which one will I use? Well if I decide to attach some wood and turn a finial, first I'll put the lid back on the lathe tomorrow after it has dried and flatten the top. Then I'll attach a piece of one of the blocks onto the top with glue and a wood screw and then turn it into a shape of some sort.

So come back tomorrow and we'll see where this goes.

VW

Fall Art Show-Black Ash wood box-the lid

Hi Everyone,

Well, I've been thinking about the lid for the black ash box. Yesterday I wanted a red colored wood for the top and as I'm without transportation today, I'm going to have to choose a different wood for the top.

Here's what I'm up to at the moment:

I had originally planned to purchase a small piece of either jatoba wood or Goncalo Alves at the cabinet makers but that isn't going to be possible so I decided to look around the shop and select a good, hardwood that I could stain to a red color. I happen to glance down and found a piece of hickory that I've been saving. Here is a photo of the board:

It's 1" thick and has a strong grain pattern so I decided to go with this and cut out a blank:

If you look at the next photo below, you can see how rough the surface is. This was probably put through a planer in an effort to flatten it out and as you can see, that didn't work. Not every piece of lumber can be machined. But happily, a lot of this "reject wood" can be turned on a lathe very successfully. I often look for beat up hard wood like this as it often masks a lovely grain. So I'm going to sharpen up one of my smaller bowl gouges and very gently shave the surface until it's trued up and smooth:

And here it is several minutes later:

I flipped it over and proceeded to true up the underside and shape it for the box:

I like hickory. It's a good strong wood that turns beautifully no matter what it looks like to begin with. It holds up well in kitchen environments and it looks great with food on it. It finishes well too. Here is the lid after its been cut and smoothed:

And here it is on top of the box:

The colors look well together and match up even though these are two different species of wood. The problem here is after all the shaping and cutting, we don't have enough wood left in terms of thickness to shape the lid the way I had wanted to.

We're at one of those forks in the road:

Should I go ahead and shape it anyway and stain it?

Should I shape it differently and add a finial to the top?

If so, what color should the finial be?

I do keep small pieces of strongly colored wood just for moments like this. I currently have three pieces-in this photograph you will see a block of bocote wood, which is orange and black:

This is a block of purple heart:

And this is a block of bubinga:

What to do?

I haven't had breakfast yet so I'm going to go and make something to eat, put on a pot a coffee and come back after I've thought about it.

More later,

VW

Gifts

Good Morning Everyone,

I'd like to share a poem with you: 

Wild Geese

By Mary Oliver 



You do not have to be good. 


You do not have to walk on your knees 
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body 
love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. 

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain 
are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees, 
the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, 
are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, 


the world offers itself to your imagination, 
calls to you like the wild geese, 

harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place 
in the family of things.

I've been asked to share my thoughts about my wood shop with others and here is what I think:

For me, my shop is a special, sacred place. Yes it's almost always a big mess with wood shavings and tools scattered across my workbench but when I walk in, all the cares in the world suddenly take a back seat. I have found that creativity and imagination are the greatest of gifts.

Working in my shop often puts me in a meditative state-as I work the wood I get to experience it in it’s fullness. I see the amazing grain patterns and beautiful colors, and I smell the wonderful scents that each kind of wood has. I can stop and listen to birds calling one another and hear the movement of air across the landscape.  I contemplate about the amazing diversity of our world, both natural and manmade and I wonder if wood turners in the past wondered about all this. I bet they did.

August 31 was the 6^th anniversary of mine being laid off and since this coincides with Labor Day here in the US, it’s always an unpleasant time. For better or worse, we are defined by the labor we perform.  It acts like a script that tells a person where and what their place in the world is and it directs a person’s generative spirit. When that script is suddenly gone, the experience can be bewildering and it’s very easy to loose yourself.

This year, however, was different. I’ve come to understand that gifts are something inherent in people and they cannot be taken away. They are here to help us to navigate the world. And yes, they are the gift of a gracious God who knows we will need them for the journey.

Creativity and imagination are gifts have helped me find my place in the world again and I’ll never loose those gifts no matter what happens in life.

 

VW

Art Show Project: The Black Ash wood Box

Hi Everyone,

Well, it's a lovely, pre-autumn afternoon-warm, dry, no wind, birds chirping like crazy-my favorite time of the year.

And since it's so nice out, it's time to return to the art show projects and I'm going to work on the black ash wood box first.

If you recall, this box had a black ash wood box and a black walnut lid. I got very busy at the beginning of August and had to set it aside.

Here are some photos:

The box needed more hollowing out so I put it on the lathe and proceeded to do just that:

The walls are about 1/4" thick now and I've sanded it to 600 grit:

I like the color and the grain patten. I looked at it and decided to apply a natural colored stain with is a honey colored stain to the surface and interior and I'm glad I did. I think the color is really pretty. This is a photo of the box with just a wood sealer applied to it:

And here are two photos of it with the stain on it:

I'm satisfied with the box and it's color so it's basically done-no more turning.

As for the lid, since I've widened the inside of the box, I'm going to have to make a new lid for it. I originally wanted to use a red colored wood on the top but I didn't have any. I still don't have any but I do think a red colored wood is the way to go so I may have to make a trip to the cabinet makers tomorrow in search of a small piece of red colored wood so more about that tomorrow.

VW

Gift Boxes Project-Completion Photos and Happy Labor Day

Hi Everyone,

Here are the completion photographs for the gift boxes. I'm pleased with the way they came out:

This is the hackberry box with a linden wood lid:

Camphor wood box with a white ash wood lid:

And the Cedar of Lebanon box with a southern yellow pine lid:

I'm going to deliver these tomorrow.

I'm going to work on the art show projects later this week so stay tuned for that.

And as it's Labor Day here in the US, I'm taking the day off. I hope you all have a day off and a great rest of the year as well.

Best,
VW