So... What are YOU doing? - Part 8

[Lamb]

Thanks

It's the sycamore bowl. It feels heavy enough that you could drop kick it into next week and when you caught up it would just be sitting there waiting.

Ah so if you set it outside at a gathering the wind won't blow it away, nice!

 

[Lamb]

This is the black cherry bowl. Not as heavy as the sycamore bowl but pretty chunky. This is the one that caused me lots of problems with catches...

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Ooh that's a nice color!! I like the natural notches. If it's small enough, it would be perfect for an artist to lay their paint brush across LOL

 

[Lamb]

My contractor is finally coming today but in the afternoon, so I have time this morning to go to the trails for a nice long walk!! I got up early and sprayed 4 of the bushes that has a bug that specifically eats those bushes and kills them, and then did some weeding. I'm sick of taking care of this landscaping because it's constantly needing my attending to.

 

[tango]

Ah so if you set it outside at a gathering the wind won't blow it away, nice!

I think you could set the sycamore bowl outside in a tornado and it wouldn't blow away

 

[tango]

Ooh that's a nice color!! I like the natural notches. If it's small enough, it would be perfect for an artist to lay their paint brush across LOL

I love the colors in black cherry. I have a few more pieces of it. The first piece I made I gave to a guy who helped me out with the delivery of my new lathe. The second piece I tried to make exploded because I made a silly mistake and before I even clocked what I'd done half the bowl was the other side of the room. This is the third piece.

I have a hefty chunk of it in the basement that's going to become a big plate for my wife. It's going to be something like 18-20" across, it's hard to be sure until I measure more accurately to figure where I'm going to mount the faceplate. It's an effort to lift it. There's another piece in the garage that's the other half of the log, although that piece is slightly bigger where the log got cut somewhat off center.

 

[Lamb]

I love the colors in black cherry. I have a few more pieces of it. The first piece I made I gave to a guy who helped me out with the delivery of my new lathe. The second piece I tried to make exploded because I made a silly mistake and before I even clocked what I'd done half the bowl was the other side of the room. This is the third piece.

I have a hefty chunk of it in the basement that's going to become a big plate for my wife. It's going to be something like 18-20" across, it's hard to be sure until I measure more accurately to figure where I'm going to mount the faceplate. It's an effort to lift it. There's another piece in the garage that's the other half of the log, although that piece is slightly bigger where the log got cut somewhat off center.

What did you do with the exploded piece? Did you turn it into something that said, I meant to do that?

 

[tango]

What did you do with the exploded piece? Did you turn it into something that said, I meant to do that?

Not yet, I'm debating whether it's a sensible proposition to make something out of it or whether it's best to toss it in the burn pile.

Today I finished a giant bowl for my wife. It turned out to be slightly under 16" across and 5" deep. Turning the outside created about 15 gallons of shavings, today I turned the inside and created another 22 gallons of shavings..

This bowl is a beast. If I ever decide not to use it as a bowl I can probably use it as a marine anchor or something. My wife loves it. I think it's going to be our new fruit bowl.

 

[tango]

Before turning the outside of this huge piece I trimmed a piece from the back of it. Today, having finished my bowl, I made a nightlight holder for my granddaughter. She's visiting from out of state, so I wanted to get it made before she goes home

 

[Lamb]

Not yet, I'm debating whether it's a sensible proposition to make something out of it or whether it's best to toss it in the burn pile.

Today I finished a giant bowl for my wife. It turned out to be slightly under 16" across and 5" deep. Turning the outside created about 15 gallons of shavings, today I turned the inside and created another 22 gallons of shavings..

This bowl is a beast. If I ever decide not to use it as a bowl I can probably use it as a marine anchor or something. My wife loves it. I think it's going to be our new fruit bowl.

Before turning the outside of this huge piece I trimmed a piece from the back of it. Today, having finished my bowl, I made a nightlight holder for my granddaughter. She's visiting from out of state, so I wanted to get it made before she goes home

Those sound like wonderful gifts!! If you know anyone getting married soon, that type of thing would be a great bridal shower gift

 

[tango]

I nearly threw out a branch of a maple tree I salvaged. I took the branch because I thought I might use it, then I saw how small it was and nearly dumped it. But I figured I'd see what I could make with it, and ended up making four small bowls with some really nice markings on them from the grain pattern and a bit of spalting.

Now my wife has one she uses for small jewelry pieces, my daughter has one, and my two oldest granddaughters have one each. I have two larger bowls from the same tree, I'll probably keep one just because I really like it and maybe sell the other one at a craft show.

I'm getting to a point where I need to turn logs into bowls to make space, and I need to move bowls to make space for more bowls. If selling them isn't successful I'll use them as gifts - I'm doing this as a form of relaxation rather than a commercial enterprise, but it would be nice to help offset the cost of the new lathe if nothing else.

 

[Lamb]

I nearly threw out a branch of a maple tree I salvaged. I took the branch because I thought I might use it, then I saw how small it was and nearly dumped it. But I figured I'd see what I could make with it, and ended up making four small bowls with some really nice markings on them from the grain pattern and a bit of spalting.

Now my wife has one she uses for small jewelry pieces, my daughter has one, and my two oldest granddaughters have one each. I have two larger bowls from the same tree, I'll probably keep one just because I really like it and maybe sell the other one at a craft show.

I'm getting to a point where I need to turn logs into bowls to make space, and I need to move bowls to make space for more bowls. If selling them isn't successful I'll use them as gifts - I'm doing this as a form of relaxation rather than a commercial enterprise, but it would be nice to help offset the cost of the new lathe if nothing else.

How long does it take to make one bowl?

 

[tango]

How long does it take to make one bowl?

It depends on the size of the bowl and your skill level.

The little bowls, the kind of thing that would hold a handful of nuts or similar, probably take me about half an hour or so. The giant one I made took me more like 6-8 hours.

Part of that time is turning an irregularly shaped log into something round before hollowing out the inside. If I had a big bandsaw I could cut the blank much closer to round before I started turning, which would save a lot of time. But it would also mean another expensive power tool, and the struggle to get something big and heavy into my basement, not to mention adding to the space crunch already in the basement.

I've only been turning bowls for a couple of months and still improvising with tools that aren't ideal for the job. With more skill and better tools I could turn them out faster. One advantage of better tools is that there's less sanding required afterwards.

 

[Lamb]

It depends on the size of the bowl and your skill level.

The little bowls, the kind of thing that would hold a handful of nuts or similar, probably take me about half an hour or so. The giant one I made took me more like 6-8 hours.

Part of that time is turning an irregularly shaped log into something round before hollowing out the inside. If I had a big bandsaw I could cut the blank much closer to round before I started turning, which would save a lot of time. But it would also mean another expensive power tool, and the struggle to get something big and heavy into my basement, not to mention adding to the space crunch already in the basement.

I've only been turning bowls for a couple of months and still improvising with tools that aren't ideal for the job. With more skill and better tools I could turn them out faster. One advantage of better tools is that there's less sanding required afterwards.

You're doing a great job!! I know lots of people are into bowls right now and probably sell well at the markets.

 

[tango]

It will be interesting to see what kind of prices they will command. It's sometimes hard to know what will command a good price because it's hand made, and what will struggle to sell because people can buy some junky Chinese plastic equivalent from Walmart for $2.99 - in my area a lot of people want things that are hand made but want the price to match mass produced junk from Walmart. But then there are others who want something unusual and are less sensitive to the price. I've come across a lot of the first group, and every once in a while someone from the second group shows up with a wad of cash in hand.

Right now I've got three very similar bowls turned from hemlock. I don't care much for hemlock, it tears out a lot, but when bowls match I think about selling a set of kinda-sorta-matching bowls. My wife and I have a set of wooden bowls that we use for individual salads or snacks, and I figure if we use them other people might use them too. Ours were inherited, I don't know how long they've been in the family. These days inherited items don't seem to be so much of a thing but small functional items (as opposed to bulky furniture items that might fit into Pap's big house but don't fit into a starter home) might still get handed down.