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A friend of mine had a bunch of old elm and ash trees removed on his property and was kind enough to let me come and collect what wood I wanted.  One of the elms had a nice burl on the trunk so I’m starting with that piece today piece today.   The wood is really green and cuts nice! 😀

I’m happy to have this piece finished!  It buffed up nicely but it wasn’t a lot of fun turning.  With the wood being so very old and dry the hollowing went slowly and I produced more saw dust than shavings.  I think the tree had probably been dead for over 10 years.  On the plus side there was no drying period to go through before finishing.  😀  More photos of this piece can be seen in the Hollow Form Vessel page.

The photo here shows some of the specialty equipment I use in hollowing deeper and larger vessels.  When hollowing, the piece can only be fixed to the drive end of the lathe and the use of the steady rest makes the process much safer and smoother.  The specialty hollowing accessories to my lathe were custom built for me by Keith Clark out of OK City.  I would highly recommend them for anyone considering this type of equipment ... I’m happy to give them a plug.  https://www.theokspindoctor.com/default.asp

I’ve got the basic shape and and most of the rough inlay in.  Have the steady rest on and am beginning the hollowing process.

So I started a new piece today.  It is from a really old and weathered piece of crabapple given me by an old friend.  I’ve made two other pieces from this same tree that can be seen on my website ... those were pieces WT #88 & #91.  I really love the colors and grain patterns in this Spalted old tree.  I’ve taken a couple photos thus far ... the piece I started with and a pic showing the rough inlay with the piece ready for hollowing.