Stoppers

This year I started turning bottle stoppers. This picture is of the ones that I took to Christmas with the family to give away. I have had some fun with these...quick, unique, satisfying. I had the larger stoppers for several years and tried to build my own mandrel, but it never worked well and I gave up. I recently purchased a mandrel from Ruth Niles with some of the shorter stoppers. It works like a champ! I knew I was going to make some presents and I needed to order some more stoppers so I ordered from Ruth again. When the check got there she emailed me to say that she sent them out. I thought this is cool, response from a real people. Then a couple of days later, she called me, said that she had a couple of orders "get lost" in NJ and wondered if I got my order. I said no, she called back next day...I said I was not in a hurry, lets see if it comes and it came on Thursday. I really love buying from small companies that care about the customer.

Commission

This is the first "commission" I have had.  I try and give bowls to people who give me wood but this was can you make me some bowls if I give you some wood... She wanted to pay me and ask what I would charge.  I have no idea what to charge and no idea what they are worth.  It was taken from land her husband's family owns in WVA and that the parents never got to move to and there is just a camp there now that the boys use it I guess.  She wanted to give one to her husband and his mother.  Both of these are from the same log, claimed to be a Chestnut Oak.   Clearly oak and darker than the other log that looks to be white oak.

I roughed out both blanks and turned what the wood gave me, like I almost always do, sometime I have to start having design ideas but  I have not gotten there yet.  This first one is rather V shaped with some curves to it.  It has a couple of nice knots in it that give it some character.  I roughed it out with a tenon on the end and got it fairly even and thin.  It stayed pretty round, though some of my pictures don't show that and there was little or no cracking. 

..

The second one is another story.  I had a recessed dovetail and when I roughed it out it was pretty thick and thicker at the base.  it has a large knot in it and it started to crack on the outside near the knot.  I turned out the cracks and made a bowl from what was left..  The knot kept cracking and has some CA holding it together..   It moved a lot but doesn't look that bad in pictures.  Maybe it came back as it dried.    I put a couple of coats of salad bowl finish on them and looked pretty good rubbed down with steel wool a little bit.

sometimes it's the tree...

I am always on the lookout for wood and if I get something I try and make something for the donor.  Mary's neighbor took down a tree and by the time I got there he had gotten rid of all but one log so I took it and made a bowl.  The bowl is cool in that it has a bark inclusion on the base and some sort of inclusion running through the bottom of the piece and makes the C shape in the bottom of the bowl. ....

The bowl had been hanging around  the house and I was trying to find out what type of tree it was.   Mary said that it was one with the bark that falls off.  Sycamore, one of the many types... So when I heard that he was selling the house soon because they are going through a divorce, I thought it important to get it to him.  I gave it to Mary to deliver and it turns out that his wife was there most of the day cleaning out stuff from the house and after she left, Mary delivered the bowl and he was very appreciative of it.   With all the disruption in his life, this is a touch of memory of something that grew during the good times of his life there.