News RSS

I’m so happy to have successfully finished this piece ... hollowing cedar with holes in it is risky and challenging but it turned out great!  More pics and details can be seen on the Hollow Form Vessel page.

After 6 hours of work I have made good progress on this piece.  I have the basic exterior shape that I like and have it mounted in the steady rest and have started hollowing.  I have to progress carefully as there is a hole in the side of the vessel that will be midway up the finished piece. The lathe speed is relatively slow while hollowing and I really don’t want a catastrophic tool catch in that hole.  So far so good ... wall thickness in down to about 2 inches ... 1.75” or so to go.

A friend of mine gave me the stumps from a couple trees he had removed ... I’m pretty sure it is Eastern Red Cedar which is actually a type of Juniper.  It is beautiful wood ... full of colors and smells so good while working with it.  It can be difficult work with as it fractures easily and will likely crack a lot while drying.  That will likely give me plenty of opportunities for inlay work.  I’m thinking I will probably use malachite for the inlay.  This photo shows the piece I started with.

I had started this piece several months ago and it has been drying.  It is 7.5” diameter x 6.625” tall with a 1.375” opening.  Gambel oak is very slow growing and even though this piece is only 7.5” diameter it has over 80 annual rings in it.  This tree was killed by the Bull Draw fire on the Uncompahgre Plateau in 2018.  I’ll get some more photos later and they’ll be available in the Hollow,Form Vessel page.

Hollow Form Vessel from Spalted and Riddled Aspen with Turquoise inlay.  6.25” tall x 7.00” diameter with 1.5” opening.  This piece if from the same log as the one I posted yesterday.  I’ve had it drying for a while waiting to be finished.  More pics and info can be seen on the Hollow Form Vessel page.