Woodturning Gallery

" Yes, I know! "

There's an entire story to this piece.  Let's just say that it's final form isn't what I had in mind at the start.  Natural edge Poplar with piercing. About 8" diameter.

A nice piece of highly figured boxelder. No red color to it but great figure all over that entire huge tree.  Thickness is around 1/8".  22" tall x 8" wide at rim.  The inside is lined in 24ct Gold (not leaf) and buffed to a high shine.

Simple spalted soft maple vase.  1/4" thickness, 20" tall, 3" wide.  Had to modify the rim a bit after it got damaged at a charity festival.

Innovation is the Crutch of Art

A zippered bowl.  Blackjack oak with a little natural edge bark on there.  It started to crack so I figured I shouldn't fight it.  Threw a zipper in there and it's one of the most handled pieces of mine at shows.  The form of this piece is terrible but what I like (and others too from how much they handle it) is that the finish is such that you can actually feel the incredible grain pattern.  You can't tell from the pictures, of course, but people just sit there running their hands over this thing for a long time.  Feels great!

" Flame "

Flame Boxelder.  This was a throw-away endcut that I just threw onto a lathe to test it out.  Came out with a really nice looking bowl.  Nice moddeled figure in there.  Carved the rim and the bottom/foot. About 13" wide, 3.5" tall.

Spalted Sweetgum.  Made this for an art gallery charity drive.  Base is walnut (I think).  Cut out one side of this piece as a statement on many woodturnings where the "artist" only focuses on the outside and doesn't want the inside to be experienced too.  A little piercing on the side as well.  5" tall, about 4" wide.

A very early hollowform of mine.  Basic form.  Sycamore wood.  Look closely at that crack.  It goes from bottom to top and was there when I started turning it.  I believe this tree had been hit by lightning and cased this crack.  A bit over 1/8" thickness, 4" tall, 2.5" wide.

Myrtle with a Texas Ebony bottom.  Left the top a bit natural edged.  Carved bottom/foot. Nice color, form is what I was wanting to achieve on this piece.  Modeled after an ancient Inca form.  5" tall, 3" wide.

Creativity involves making mistakes.  Art is knowing which mistakes to keep

A piece that I donated to an art gallery fundraiser (on the left) and it's sister piece made at the same time.  It's an oil drop dropping into a pool of oil making a wave.  Made from basswood and painted with black lacquer utilizing a "piano finish" technique like the high-end piano makers use.  Has a deep, wet oil-like look to it.  About 5" high and 5" wide

A cherry "potato-chip"  1/16" thin shallow bowl that warped like a potatochip after turning.  About 16" wide and 3" tall.

Very short trembleurs I did at a demo.  Made from Ipe wood. 

Catalpa hollowform.  Pierced, carved, burned. About 6" tall, 4" wide, 1/8" thick.

You don't know where the line is ... until you've crossed it

Black Locust bowl. Crack was there while turning it.  Held together well until I reversed it to finish off the foot.  Heard a crack and it nearly fell apart.  14" wide, 2.5" tall. 

Truth is forever ... Art is today

Osage Orange (Hedge, Bois D'Arc, etc) vase.  Made from an old (30+ years?) fence post.  Took about 3 hours just to hollow it out because it was so hard.  Hedge gets extremely hard over time ... can't drive a nail into these posts.  24" tall, 8" wide at rim.

Woodturned basket.  All one piece. Walnut.

It is easy to be brave at a distance.

Butterpress that we sell commercially.

Just some globe ornaments.  The third from left has a couple of captured rings at the bottom.  Globes are hollowed out to reduce weight.

Somebody wanted a snowman.  I made a few and let them decorate/dress them.  Simple and fun craft item.

Create .... Live on your own terms.  Others will decide what is 'success'.

A clock from spalted sweetgum.  This is what you can do with your leftovers from making bowl blanks!

Pens. I used to make a lot (6,500+) of pens. Not so much anymore
though.  I only do special orders these days.  Maybe a couple
dozen or so a month.

An inside-out turning vase.  Made of sycamore.

A simple weedpot / vase. Sycamore. Explore form in conjunction with what the wood offers you (the gash) and make something of it.

Angels from Hard Maple.

Various mailing stamp holders.

Teachers' bells made from ash.  Yep, that's blackboard paint that you can actually write on with chalk.

A couple of basic peppermills.  We make dozens of peppermills a month.

Flame Boxelder hollowform.  About 2" tall.

Magic medicine nut hollowform with padauk finial.

Small goblets from Cocobolo.  Cups are hollowed out and there are stems to make them goblets instead of just martini glass forms.

Making some tiny goblets.  The magnifier on the left is just so a picture could be taken.  I don't use it to turn them because of the distortion.

Some small-ish goblets and plate from Cocobolo.

Padauk hollowform with Zebrawood cap

Trilobate Lemon wood hollowform.  This stuff is so incredible dense (barely able to make out the grainlines under microscope) that it cuts like plastic and shines up beautifully.

"Good" Craft is invisible