Fred's Creative Woodworking Gallery
Click images for larger view.
BOWLS & VASES
When someone mentions a wood lathe, the first association is bowls. While traditional bowls are frequently turned with a lathe, an unlimited number of variants of the traditional bowl are possible. While I turn my share of traditional bowls, I can't pass up the chance to work with odd-shaped or badly damaged wood pieces that allow me to turn one-of-a-kind objects.
I'mReady to Retire came from a very old piece of Red Oak that was being discarded at my university the year I retired. It had dried over a number of years and was heavily split so was very difficult to turn without it breaking. I had to tape it during turning to keep it together. It, like me, had served the university a number of years and we were both ready to retire.
Natural Edge Butternut Vessel was a slice from the edge of a larger piece from a Butternut tree that had fallen in my woodlot. It lay in my woodpile until I saw it raise its hand and say "Take me!! Take me!!".
Oak Vessel was another piece from that chunk of Red Oak that was being thrown out at the university when I retired. It is turned and then has a spiral pattern turned on its side to give it an interesting effect. Instead of the nice, round typical opening into the vessel, this one was opened along the jagged fracture planes of the wood to give it a unique appearance.
Walnut Bowl With Spheres is a combined effort of turning several different spheres from such woods as White Pine, Black Locust, Osage Orange, and Pennsylvania Wild Cherry. The bowl was from a large salvaged log. It wasn't until I was way into the turning of the piece that I realized that there was a large piece of metal imbedded in the base of the turning. It is still there. Also, the edge has a large knot and the bowl is slightly warped from drying. I liked this appearance as it lent itself to the rugged appearance of the whole piece.
Beauty is a very fragile Black Cherry burl that incorporates a portion of the bark, spaulting, and burl all in one. Actually, to add to the interest is the fact that an insect laid eggs in holes in the wood and packed fine mud over the eggs to protect them. The dried mud is still intact in the piece. It had to be finished thicker than I would have wanted to do but, had I tried to get it thinner, the entire piece would have deteriorated on the lathe.
Sherry's Bowl was made for a very special couple, Devin and Sherry when they were married. It is turned from a beautiful piece of Black Cherry burl. The bowl was turned thin with an undercut lip.
Yoder Maple Bowl is a special piece to me. It comes from a 15 foot circumference Sugar Maple tree on the Daniel Yoder farm, an Amish farm in Bradford County, PA.. A sugar maple tree of this size would be well in excess of 400 years old. Unfortunately the tree was hollow so it was impossible to count growth rings and get an accurate age. The tree was dying and Mr. Yoder cut it down to prevent accidents from falling limbs. The tree yielded literally tons of highly spalted, curly maple. The Yoder Maple Bowl represents a piece from the trunk of the tree with the natural edge intact.
We are all aware of the beauty mark (A.K.A., moles, on the face of a very attractive person that adds to the beauty of the person). So too with wood. Often pieces of wood have large flaws that are difficult to work around so incorporating them in the central design of the piece adds to the mystique and beauty of the piece.
Flaws Of Beauty. I was fortunate enough to receive a number of nice cherry burls from a logger. Many of these are blister burls, meaning that the burl appears as a blister on the outside of the log and doesn't penetrate completely through the wood. One of these burls had one fabulous side (which I gave to my brother) and one poor side, which I turned. The side I turned was punky and very difficult to work. Like most beauty, it has a number of flaws. There were a number of large punky areas that broke out and needed filling. I used Inlace to fill them, adding an interesting contrast to the cherry. Because of its size it also needed to be footed so it wouldn't rock so it received the 3-feet treatment.
If It's Broke, Fix It. This piece is turned from a badly decaying American Beech log. This wood was loaded with water and would almost immediately split upon turning it. It was very difficult to work because much of it was very hard and the rest was punky. When I got it off the lathe, a large split immediately developed in the side. I nearly pitched it but, upon reflection, decided that it needed fixing.The cracks were laced together with leather and, to add a focal point, an ancient cut nail from my 100+ year old house was driven into the rim and bent over. This piece isn't technically great but the idea spurred development of the idea to use lacing in my turnings.
Frank. Following this piece, I turned a Black Cherry burl that was intact except for some natural cracks in the wood. Again, the lacing. This piece became "Frank" because it reminded me of the stitched-up Frankenstein's Monster and it has become one of my favorites.
Holey Grail is an interesting piece that incorporates a lot of the items that I like in my work. First, it is rough. The rim is the natural chain-saw edge, the outer walls are rough-turned, and there are holes in the vessel. Secondly, I was able to successfully ebonize this piece by first charring it with a MAPP gas torch and then staining it with black water-based stain. The name is derived from the fact that the vessel has holes in it and, a grail is sometimes a vessel (and, I'm a fan of Indiana Jones).
SPHERES
One of my very favorite objects to turn is a sphere. I guess that I got into doing them because everyone told me that they are so difficult to turn. Now, I agree that if I were told to turn a bearing for the Timken Ball Bearings Company I'd shudder since I could never approach the accuracy that they need for these. My spheres aren't perfect, however, neither are the ones made by Timken. They all deviate at least a few thousands or millionths of an inch. Mine vary a bit more but, who's looking? I can turn these in just a few minutes without making any measurements or spend more time with calipers and jigs to get them more uniform in size. My preference is to do the former, not the latter! Read about how I do it in my article "Spherical Thinking".
Fred's World Without Water. This is a piece of Black Gum that had Mistletoe attached to it. I found the wood on a tree in the Oriental, North Carolina area. It is mounted on a piece of Cottonwood from Virginia. Turning this sphere was a challenge as much of the piece was eroded away by the effects of the Mistletoe. It reminded me of what our globe would look like if there was no water on earth. This one appears in my latest article "Spherical Thinking" in the American Woodturner journal.
Planet X. Rough wood with lots of character is one of the most interesting to work into spheres. My east side and west side of "Planet X" (two sides of the same spheroid) show this unique aspect of cherry burls.
Let's Roll is a whimsical piece created from a sphere and a slab. Both originated from a tired Sugar Maple that was in our front yard and had to be removed because it was dead. The limbs which are basically reaction wood yielded the sphere and inclined plane.
Worry Ball. I got the idea for my Worry Balls while watching people who are under stress. They need something in their hands to work. The Worry Ball is the perfect size to hold and roll in the hand. This one is turned from heavily spaulted Sugar Maple limb that has lots of Powder Post Beetle holes. The base is turned from another piece of the same tree. There is a slight depression turned into the surface of the base to help hold the ball when it is not being used for "therapy".
PEDESTALS
Tall, thin pedestals create a unique challenge for woodturners however I have figured out a way to turn them very easily. I am able to turn stems that are 1mm in diameter and 3 to 5 inches long with discs at each end. When turned properly they can add a stunning effect to a composition. They can be used in a number of interesting arrangements.
Someday I'll Finish This Piece. All of us have an unfinished piece like this laying around awaiting our attention. It has been sitting around unfinished so long that powder post beetles have riddled the butternut and mushrooms (lathe-turned, of course!) have sprung from its surface. This piece has a Butternut base with Red Oak fungi. Both the Butternut and the Red Oak are riddled with Powder Post Beatle holes. Some of the mushrooms were fire-ebonized during the turning process.
Flying Saucer shows what to do with a piece that starts off with promise (the disk) but has a "problem" (It broke while I was turning it). When the disk broke I decided to further perforate it and add the sphere and pedestal to form an interesting composition.
Inner Space was a fun project that started from a mini disaster. I was turning a small hollow sphere when I blew out a large hole in the surface. After initially discarding the hollow form, on second thought, I gave it a second life by inserting a small solid cherry sphere and then turning a tall thin pedestal on which it would rest. It and "Flying Saucer" became very interesting pieces after near disasters and spurred me to write an article for American Woodturner entitled "Whoops--- Wow" (Summer 2002) in which I discussed the issue of reworking objects when problems occur.
CARVED/TURNED
Cro Magnon is one of my favorite sculptures. It is from the root of a dead Ash-Leafed Maple (Box Elder) that grew and died along the path up to my pond. When I found it I immediately saw that I could carve out the interior and polish the piece to form a very unique piece that varied depending on your view of the piece. It got its name from the outside view since the two depressions looked like eye sockets and gave the impression of a human skull. From the inside it either looks like a breaking wave or an interesting hollow-form. The natural red stain characteristic of the wood is visible.
Safe At Home This composition is created from a bark piece that was carved hollow and then the sphere attached. It gives me the impression of a gnome hiding in his cave waiting to come out when the rain goes away.
Let's Talk Bugs is obviously a whimsical piece that incorporates a sphere, a ceramic frog, and a stone base. The sphere is the one that I turned in demonstrating how to make spheres in my American Woodturner article "Spherical Thinking". The wood I used was a piece of Quaking Aspen from my woodpile. When I was done turning the sphere, it ovalized and cracked along the side during the drying process. When it was completely dry I sanded the crack smooth to create the mouth. The eyes are taxidermist's pigeon eyes that I purchased over 55 years ago when I thought that I might become a taxidermist (I didn't). I've had them in a box for all of these years and just now discovered where they would be used. The frog is "Freda" from Kitty's Critters.
