new bowls on etsy today!

a selection of new bowls just went up on etsy today. you should probably go check them out.

fall sale in the etsy shop: 25% off!

hey yall,

despite what i think of as some nice results on the lathe, i am still pretty new to turning. at this point, i feel like most of my pieces are created purely to hone my skills. and those pieces quickly stack up.  i set up my etsy shop as a way to get my bowls out of my house and into yours and set my prices at a point that pretty much just allows me to keep buying stock to fill that drawer back up.

but the price of a new tool rest and a full drawer of backstock have inspired me to have a fall sale! so visit my etsy shop and use the coupon code "autumn" at check-out for 25% off anything.

this is a somewhat limited time offer, though i'm not really sure what time it is limited to.

oh, and sorry for a lack of pictures. i'm out of the house today!

a lathe update and other things

here we see 7 of the 8 bowls i started last week. unfortunately, a broken tool rest has lead to a pause in production. but i got my brother kevin, a machinist (among many other things), making a new and improved version.

now that my art obligations have eased up, i have started in on a number of new craft projects, with the lathe leading the march. a new stack of sycamore logs collected from behind the benicia state capitol and some interesting new design concepts should keep me busy for a while. look for etsy announcements soon including things like drink muddlers, matched bowl sets and maybe even an end of summer sale...

as for the blog- look out for new posts on my rad new chuck, that tool rest i mentioned above, how to make beeswax bowl finish and even a post on how to fix and operate a loom (once i figure out how to fix and operate a loom).

4 is one better than 3

you may remember a while back that i was gluing blocks to bowl blanks so i could mount them on the lathe. well, that's kind of a slow way to turn a bowl. since you cannot flip the bowl along its axis, you are forced to work the outer surface of the bowl up against the headstock, where there isn't a whole lot of room to adjust.

a much faster way, used by, as far as i can tell, most professional woodworkers, is the chuck. with this method, you mount the blank with a faceplate or a big ol' worm screw, cut the exterior surface of the bowl (away from the headstock) and then flip the piece, clamping the foot of the bowl in the chuck, so you can cut the inside. i've been playing with this method lately and find it to be mostly really great. but here is the problem- my chuck is a million years old, only has three jaws and is basically a piece of crap:

where modern chucks have 4 jaws that form a complete circle when clamped tight as well as a carefully formed inner and outer edges that ensure maximum grip, this one has three almost-comically-small-by-today's-standards "jaws."

what this all means for me is that if i work at too high a speed, or on too large a piece, or too aggressively, or with a dull tool, this happens:

note the dents. those are from when it flew across the room, hitting the garage door, the ceiling and another wall before coming to a stop.  i've been hesitant to use the three jaw chuck since then and am currently making room in my budget to make the upgrade.

i just can't help myself

more bowls:

clockwise from the big one at the bottom (6.5" dia.): plum; sycamore; sycamore; mulberry with charred exterior; sycamore. all are finished with beeswax. colors are milkpaint.

i've been having fun with the milkpaint, mixing slight variations and even playing with layering: the big one has a reddish undercoat that is just visible in some spots where i sanded through the blue coat. the charring was fun too: careful use of the blowtorch not only blackens the wood but also brings out some interesting grain texture. the wax coat seems to lock in any residual soot and keeps the black from transferring to fingertips.

i've also seen a vast improvement in my cutting speed and finished surface quality even since my bowlathon post. this is thanks in part to an intense sharpening session where i reset the cutting angle on my two favorite tools (read: ground them down on the wheel for a good long time) and worked them back up to a not-quite-mirror-but-still-pretty-good finish.  the other part is the use of an old three jaw chuck, but i'll get more into that some other time.

bowlathon

i've been trying to work through projects a little faster. i tend to dwell on little things or get too caught up in one part of the process to the detriment of all the other parts. or i move between projects so much that progress on everything slows way down. so yesterday i had a marathon wood turning session to see how much i could accomplish in a single day.

i prepped 5 blanks the night before:

(pine blocks are glued to the bottom so the faceplate screws go into cheap scrap instead of good wood)

unfortunately, the walnut blank was a little too wet, so i could only rough out the shape. but by about 5:00, the other four pieces had been waxed and parted off the lathe. and the results are pretty good:

new bowls

a few vessels from the new "series:"

clockwise from the big one: sugar pine, milk paint, beeswax; camphor, milk paint with lampblack, beeswax; bay laurel, walnut oil; beech, milk paint, beeswax.

seconds

i talked a while back about how i really like working on the lathe. but i didn't mention that now i have a bunch of wooden bowls of varying quality all over the house. and how many fruit bowls can one house handle? two at the most. and now that i've really started honing in my style and my technique, it is time to do a little spring cleaning.

so now is your chance to get a handmade bowl on the cheap!

first is this one: (note: dibs have been called)

locally milled urban soft maple with blue milkpaint interior and beeswax finish. this is a second for a couple of reasons: the exterior has some sanding flaws- not terrible, but not great either; the form is a little on the heavy side and not really my 'style.' note that the milkpaint is crackly. that's part of the charm. dated 2010.

then there's this one:

light walnut of unknown providence with beeswax finish. this is the first lidded vessel i have made and the form seems a little dated to me. the exterior bottom is less finished than i would like and there are some sanding flaws esp. on the lid. dated 2011.

either can be yours for $15. and if you live within the diamond shape formed by oakland, walnut creek, richmond and napa, i'll deliver. (if you don't live there, we can work out shipping). drop me a line!

if this works, expect more in the future. and remember, wooden vessels don't hold liquids.