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The Telluride Autumn Classic Fine Arts Festival is coming up Sept. 23 thru Sept. 25. I was fortunate enough to be selected to show my art again this year! 😀https://tellurideautumnclassic.com/experience/fine-arts-sculpture-festival/

Last summer I managed to collect a really large ancient Ponderosa Pine stump and root ball from the Uncompahgre Plateau here in Western Colorado. It was probably a 350 year old tree that had been logged off over a 100 years ago.  The stump and roots were preserved by all the pine resin left and over the years the interior wood has turned a lovely rich gold and brown color and is very heavy with resin.  Here are 3 recent vessels I’ve created from a couple of the main root branches.

The piece isn’t finished yet but at least the hollowing and inlay are done.  This was the most difficult piece I’ve had to hollow due to the combination of size and because the sycamore stump this came from had laid out in this desert climate for about 7 years and was very dry and hard which made the turning process a real chore …. so I’m very glad that part is done.   It has been sanded to 400 grit and I’ve applied a heavy coat of walnut oil inside and out which needs to soak in and polymerize for...

I’ve gotten this large Sycamore vessel mounted in the steady rest since I’ve finished the outside shape of the vessel and the hollowing work has started … still a long way to go.

After 3 days of turning I’ve got the shape of the piece most of the way there.  I’ll start hollowing tomorrow after I get it mounted in the steady rest.  The wood is completely dry and that made the work thus far pretty tedious, but at least I won’t have to wait thru a drying period to get it finished and I shouldn’t get much if any warping from here till the end.