gallery of wood turnings: spalted maple vase with African Blackwood

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wood-turning by Edric Florence
Woodturnings: hollow-turned spalted maple vase with African Blackwood
Hollow-Turned Vessel
Spalted Maple with African Blackwood


Creating pieces such as this turned vase with its spalting and unusual grain patterns gives wood turners like me the unbelievable pleasure of finding such precious jewels in raw material like this. I normally develop the shape and size of the exterior of a piece based on the useable material at hand. Once I'm settled on the exterior shape of the piece, the interior is then turned away (please see The Making of A Hollow Vessel for a detailed description of this process). The goal at this point is to obtain a final and uniform wall thickness of approximately 1⁄8 to 3⁄16 of an inch.

For this vase, an insert of African Blackwood trims the opening of the hollow vessel, elegantly complementing the coloring of the spalted maple. I normally dry all my pieces - whether they are hollow vessels or bowls - for several months and sometimes longer. When the drying process is complete I start applying a treatment that ends up as an essentially maintenance-free finish, which includes multiple coats of Tung oil. Each coat of oil is hand rubbed to a luster and is finally finished with several coats of a hard Carnauba wax using a special buffing process.


 
Dimensions: 10.5" x 7.5"

Weight: 30 oz.

Status: Sold

Item Number: 118
 

photography by Peter Shefler Clearstory StudiosPhotography by Peter Shefler   © 2002  Clearstory Studios


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