MIND OF A BLACK WOODWORKER IN ARIZONA

Completed Olive bowl with turquoise Surprise,  It had a baby.... Mounted with revolving tail stock.  Figured Olive wood bowl with turquoise inlays and a live edge. wood turnings, using a lathe, you can see mounted in a nova chuck. On the outside, I have filled the inclusions with real turquoise stone, and using "CA", thick glue to fill the recesses over the the turquoise and the entire exterior.  I have used my shop made carbide chisel to remove the high portions of stone, and a lot of sanding to follow, starting with 150 grit. This will take at lease 10 3" disk on my air powered angle sander. I then will sand up to at least 800 grit, followed by my mixture of shellac/alcohol/ walnut oil. Her you see the bowl with patches of "CA" glue as I add turquoise.  Her is the picture of the preliminary shape with the tenon, before it went into an air kiln. It did warp a little, as suspected. Here you can see it remounted wit...

Wood: Turning to Art April 26 – November 9, 2014  Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport,  Terminal 3, Levels 1 and 2, three display cases  Maple Burl Woodturning is a method of shaping wood using stationary tools and a spinning lathe. Wood is highly prized as an artistic medium because of its many unique colors, grain patterns, and textures. Artists play upon the vast variety of wood qualities to create one-of-a-kind works of art. This summer, the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) will be holding their 28th Annual International Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona. The symposium is the largest international gathering of woodturners and will feature numerous workshops, exhibitions, auctions, and presentations for both artisans and the general public. In celebration of the symposium, this exhibition presents the work of 18 Arizona artists that showcase a variety of techniques and methods of this art form. They employ techniques such as joinery, inlay and hand –...

Here is the finished walnut vessel. Wall thickness is good for this piece. I really didn't have any problems. This piece is 6" tall and 3.5, with a ring, perforated wall thickness of 1/16, stained with dye, black. Olive wood inlay, with turquoise inlay on the inlay ;)... This piece matches, similar to an earlier piece, my first successful attempt at perforation. Oh what fun it is.

Pistachio burl with inlays of stone. The base is Burmese Blackwood. Close to completion  This piece has been most difficult. let me tell you some of the difficulties. The first was at the beginning, when I first mounted it on the lathe. It was so dry, "how dry was it" you say. It was so dry, as it was turning, and I was attempting to chisel away. Instead of streams of chips, flying through the air, all I got was dust, choking me in every way. I put it aside until, I thought I would add a mixer of shellac and alcohol. This worked well. I then had the shape I was after.  I decided to added some color and minerals in a resin base. Well here is problem #2, the resin never harden, the hardener was out dated. Who knew. What a mess. Problem #3, how to remove sticky mess.  With out inlays Sticky mess, I tried soaking in alcohol, (oh I need more alcohol), That really helped, but as you can imagine, the resin filled with copper dust, malachite, turquoise, and much ...