Project Working

Sunday Afternoon Hickory bowl and Im having a blue period

Hi Everyone,
Well, its a lovely afternoon here in the frozen north. Everything is turning green and there are tons of birds and other animals outside right now. Its supposed to turn cold and rainy tomorrow so Im going to make hay (or wood chips) while the sun shines.

Ive hollowed out the walnut-hickory bowl more and Ive discovered a problem--the outside and the exterior shapes dont line up:


the thickness of the walls vary-if you look at the rim in the top of the photo and compare it to the rim in the bottom of the photo, youll see a discrepancy in thickness. Oh deer, what to do?


While Im cogitating on that, Im starting a new project. For a while Ive been wanting to experiment with color on some of the objects I make. Ive also wanted to make housewares. And Ive always been entranced with blue ware, a type of finished applied to ceramics produced in a number of places in the world-from Japan to Wedgewood in England. So heres the question: is it possible to produce a blue finish on a turned wooden object?

I think we should find out.

I bought a laminated red oak beam over Christmas last year with the intention of using it for some of my turnings. I like red oak because it turns well and it looks lovely with food and with oil and wax it will turn a nice reddish brown.

I decided to cut off a chunk of the red oak and turn it into a small vase for dried flowers. I will spare you all of the process photos because youve seen me turn square wood into round shapes many times. Here are a couple photos of the beginning and the end product:






Many questions have arisen: what do I want to accomplish with this? What shade of blue should I aim for? Should it enhance the wood grain or obscure it? What method should be used to apply it and lastly what kind of finish should go over it?

Im going to do some experimenting before I apply the stain to the vase and Ill take you along with me with photos and process notes.

So we have another adventure in the wood shop ahead of us and Ill consider any suggestions that anyone has so feel free to contact me at selkieworks at gmail dot com.

Here we go again!
VW