I didn't know what to take in for the meeting last month.  Patrick O'Brien was the demonstrator and did the critique.  He looked over several of the items and gave pretty heavy critique to the items.  I was pretty worried when he got to mine but he had very little to say.  Maybe change the bottom but not much to say other than it was a nice bowl.  He pulled out the other one, the taller and said about the same thing,  either define the bottom more or maybe take it out but just a personal choice..  The bowls are from a Beechnut tree from Potter County PA.  I am pretty happy with how they came out.  The beechnut is very good wood to work with, it did not move much as it dried.  It has great color and fun lines from the grain.   The taller bowl has knot for a little extra character.  Maybe they will get to visit their saplinghood home this summer.

Road trip ..... Side trip

My Montgomery County Woodturners club (MCW) took a road trip to a wood art collector's home.  It was a very interesting collection and wonderful people opening up their home to us.   Socialwoman needed to go into work and get some stuff moved around.  She couldn't come and took Farmvillegirl to help her.  I gave permitboy the option to come see wood art and get a chance to drive and he took it.  Leaving the wood art house I ask the GPS for items of interest since I don't get to the other side of 95 much.  Savage Mill was 2 miles away so I said, "Permitboy....turn left."   We get to the mill and turn into the parking lot.  There is a lot building around but no clear sign "Come Here".  We wandered around, found that the "mill" is turned into artist studios, stores, bakery, and restaurants.   We found our way outside and walked to the over to where the power to the mill would have come from (at least the best we could determine, we could not find a sign that says this is a historic mill and here is how it works)

 

We first found the spur of the RR tracks that came by the river.

The building that would have held the equipment that supplied the power has not been restored at all and is in pretty bad shape.  There were big metal "tubes" (probably 4 foot diameter pipes) that connect to the large restored mill building.

But the thing that caught my attention was the bridge out front.  

The last Bollman Iron Truss Railroad bridge.  

It is on the National Historic Landmark list and is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Built by the B&O RR Co. 1869

I love the lines on the side.

Flower bowl

 I was given this pice of wood by my friend at work who is building a new house on Kent Island (yes she works way up here and lives on Kent Island...I don't get it either) and I ask her to bring some chunks of wood up with her.    This is the only log that looked like this.  I am not sure if this is locust but it has an interesting profile.  It has been sitting in the garage all winter because I did not know what to do with it.   Normally I would cut a log through the center and put the 1/2 (or less) log on so that I see the bark like the top left picture.  I couldn't decide to do that or to a natural edge with all that interest going on but that would be endgrain turning which is harder and something in don't do much.  It also involves the pith which tends to crack.  In a bowl like this.  I know it adds character and that is what many of my bowls end up with but this would have a great amount of character without extra character. My usual style is to have an idea what I am going to make but no clear plan.  I will plan to use the most of the wood, most likely a bowl and whatever shape comes out from the shape of the wood, my turning mistakes, or "character" that turns up in the wood.  I turned the back round and a tenon on it.  Turned it around and started hollowing out the inside. Then I thinned it out and made it deeper.   I got to a point where I liked the shape and I sanded it pretty aggressively to get rid of the tool marks.  If I saw a crack I would super glue it to stop the spreading.  When I got most of the sanding done I put some salad bowl finish on to seal it to pull out the areas that I needed to sand some more.  Then I made my semi-fatal flaw.  I parted off the bowl from the base and left a most of the base here at the bottom of the bowl on the bowl.... solid.    Now one of the well know ways to try and prevent bowls from cracking is to make them all the same thickness.  So when you make thin "leaves" on the bowl and make the base 2-3 inches thick ... solid ... it can't be good.  There are the cracks starting on the bottom..... Then notice the nice "character" with the nice crack in the bowl. 

 Photos of the finished bowl.  I put several coats of salad bowl finish on it and took it to the meeting @MCW and got some great comments but no real ideas of what wood it is.

I was lucky enough to get a picture of the bowl in it's final (for now) resting place.  It looks like a place of honor and I am very pleased, thanks sweetie ;).