The bowls below are either segmented pieces, or are glue up sections.

The bowl with the spheres was my very first bowl that I made for my wife, and the spheres are made of the scrap cutoffs from trimming the block into a circle on a band saw. The pale wood is Red Oak, and the reddish stripes are African Padauk.


The bowl below is Maple and Bubinga, it was the first deep form I have ever made, and I was super excited while making it and learned that anything deeper will need some type of tools that are designed to go farther over the tool rest that I have with me. It will be going to a school fundraiser, hopefully it will be well received!


The teacup and saucer and spoon below, is a set I have made to go to another auction. This auction was to help benefit the Lost Girls of Sudan, my wife's Great-Aunt was in charge of the Sisters of Mercy at the Omaha School, and I found out that some number of the sisters she worked with, were bidding themselves out of it, so they could be the one to win it - and then give it to her; she has just recently retired, and i don't yet know of anyone who would say she by-far, deserves the world. As I have learned, the Sisters of Mercy have a creed of sharing a cup of tea; I don't know the whole story, but what I do know, was the inspiration to make this project. And, I learned a whole world while working on it. I had not been of the news enough to really know anything of the Lost Boys of Sudan, nor the Lost Girls of Sudan. The stories I came across while researching them, broke my heart.




The links below, are very informative websites that I came across, and often look to for information on woods and lathe techniques that I don't know much about.
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/padauk/
http://woodtreks.com/

Solid Turnings

These are cups and bowls I have been making from solid pieces, learning how the tools work with grain direction, and rapidly learning that bowls really want Super-SHARP tools. The Bowl above, is Purpleheart, I was trying to separate some rings out of the center - before it all got hollowed out into sawdust, just trying to salvage Something out of all that waste! The ring shape still attached in the center, was too narrow for the lathe tools i had at the time, and I wound up leaving it alone. Its a little tempting to remount the bowl and finish the inside, but I wanted to wait until I was done with another task first. (At the time, I was demonstrating Lathing at a gala event, and wanted to move on to some easier projects to show people. The purpleheart was dulling the tools and the small groups of attendees were coming through too quickly to go sharpen the tools.