Fluted Bradford Pear Bowl

I finally finish another piece. I am perfecting my ablities to do fluted and ornamental work on my woodturnings. Part of this is developing the tools that I have to have in order to do this kind of work. So the fluted work is pretty simple right now until I perfect the tools I need. This is one thing that can't be bought ready to use. I have to modify the tools I used for this work.

This is a fluted bowl made from Bradford Pear. Although the fluted work is not terribly complicated I am learning how to do more complicated work using this technique through trial and error. Unfortunely it does involve a lot of trials and lots of errors. This Bowl did turn out kinded nice I think.

So does wood really talk to you??

I have heard the phrase "The wood Talks to Me" used by woodturners. The idea is that the wood tell the turner how to bring out the best or beauty of the wood he turning.

I have attended woodturning demostration where the demostrator said flat out that no one should turn a piece when think are letting the wood talk tell them what to do. The demonstrator says a good woodturner knows before hand what shape he intends on turning and often designs the piece before trying to turn it.

I agree with this, a turner should have a good idea of what shapes he intends to turn. The wood is not going tell you anything or will it. I have used the phrase some in teaching woodturning. So just what does it mean to me? I use the phrase meaning that I listen to the sounds my cutting tool makes, I pay attention to how the tool is feeling in my hands as I turn the wood. To me that is the wood talking with me. It lets me know if I am having a problem that could lead to disaster like breaking my turning or throwing it out of the chuck so I have to dodge it if I fast enough. It also tells me if I need to sharpen my tool. Hey I used this thechnique a lot as a tool and die maker and I was a very good tool and die maker if I do say myself.

I watch some inexperience turners showing how they turn wood and I would cringe at the sounds there were making as they turn the piece. In some cases I actually predicted the wood was going to fly of the lathe in pieces by just listening to the sound of the wood being cut.

This piece in the picture above may have actually talked with me in the sense it told me how to turn it. Then again maybe it didn't tell me a darn thing. I actually had a design that I was going to make. As I was turning the wood it became clear to me that my design was not going to work with this wood. It also became clear that I needed to turn it different from what I intented. Well I had intended on Fluting the sides similar but not the same as in the post I made earlier about making a fluted bowl. Now I not sure if the wood told me to turn it the way I did but maybe it did. I decided not to do any fluting but just turn a plain simple ordinary Bowl.

I did turn it thinner than usual as I am not a fan of real thin walls. It takes skill to turn thin but I not sure it always looks that good being exceptionally thin except in cases where you want a translucent wall. This one is turn with 1/8 inch walls. It is about10inches Dia. by 4 inches high .

Well you be the judge.

A sunflower

Every now and then I get excited about something that I turn. I also get impatient and photograph it before it is completed. This is one of them I still have more work to do to it before it is finish. Anway it sort of reminds me of a sunflower but I guess you need to use your imagination. The lacquer has not even dried yet in these photograph and once it is dry I still have to polish it.

I was actually working on another bowl that is bigger and could not photograph it yet. It is also in the state of drying from putting the finish on it. Well I thought I would turn something else while it was drying and did not want to start a big project. I had another piece of cherry wood that is left over after coring out another bowl. So I thought I would make something quick out of it while the other piece was drying. I wasn't so quick in making it as I did more to it than I intended to do. I glad I did change my mind and made this as I like it. Hope you like it also. the pictures are lousy so I hope you will over look them. I will photograph them again once I complete it as well as he other piece I am working on.

A fluted Elm Bowl

I haven't done a fluted bowl in quite sometime now. I just completed making a adapter for my mini router which lets me do fluting easier. It is a piece of cake compared to the way I use to do fluting. I was not sure fluted sides would look good with this spalted wood.

I still have to polish this up before it is finish but the hard work is done. I am going to make another out of the same wood next. Oh! the wood is spalted Elm that I have had for sometime .

One of this days I will make a lighting setup so I can get some decent photographs of my turnings.

I had a friend of mine to visit me yesterday. I was showing him what could be done to a photograph using photoshop. I was playing around with these picture and sort of like the results. Below is what the picture looked like without being altered. It not exactly the same picture as they were taken a few minutes apart.

I not getting to work on photography as much as I want to but hope that once we get everything settle from moving I will have time to work on photography as well as my woodturning and do a good job at both.

My first Native American style Flute

Well I think this is just about done. It looks kind of nice to me but I don't know how it sounds. I mean I can make noises with it but how in the heck do I make it sound like music instead of a Owl screeching.

I am sure it needs some tuning but that I don't know how to do either. I want to learn now to play it. On my internet search everyone that makes flutes says it is easy to play even it one does not know anything about music. Well they never heard of me and I am not in the least bit musical inclined. I started to playing it but my two dogs ran in the corner of the room and covered their ears up with their paws, it is that bad.

I like the sound of this kind of flute and I really like to learn how to play it if I am not too dumb to learn. First I have to learn how to tune it or find someone that knows how it suppose to sound. Then I have to convince them to teach me how to play it. I know I wishing for a lot, more than you know

I have one more flute that I have started to make but I first want to learn more about how to make it sound good. This is necessary for me to know just how much wood needs to be removed when drilling the tuning holes and making sound chamber. It sure would help me if I knew a little more about music. Any volumteers.

Comments are very welcome, Just hit the comment button at the bottom and say some nice things.

A couple of months ago I watch a demostration at the Waxhaw woodturners club meeting about making teapots. Raymond Overman demostrated how he makes teapots.

Based on the knowledge I gain from his demostration I made my first teapot as picture here. It really is simple teapot as I just wanted to get the technique of making it down pat. It is a little to plain so I may add some kind of designs either carved or burned on each side of the teapot to make it a little more interesting.

Raymond did a very good job of explaining how to do it and I sure do thank him. I always anxious to learn new techniques in woodturning.

I added some pyrograhics to the teapot. This is something that I have never tried before. Well I guess you can tell.

This is a new piece that I just finished. The wood is Cherry and has a story behind it.

I got this wood about four years ago from a guy who brought it to our club meeting in Charleston. He says he got it from a hog pin that was located on a old plantation dating back before the civil war. The cherry tree was bury in mud which preserved it.

No one in our woodturning club wanted it as it looked like dung to puts it mildly. I took it but at the time I did not know what I could do with it. I did make a few turnings from it and I sold all of them very quickly through the Artisan Center in Walterboro. I kept the largest piece of cherry wood and stored it until I could figure what I could make from it. It was full of big holes and did not seem to lend itself to any good form of woodturning. It actually look like rat holes. that had been tunnel into the wood, Ugh.

This week I finally decided I need to try and make something so I cut the cherry wood into turning blanks. This is my first turning from it. I thought I would make a natural edge from it as that allowed me to get rid of most of the holes with the exception of the one in the photo. The wood was very dry after being out of the weather ever since I had it and it was very hard almost like concrete. A lot of my turning it was interrupted cuts which was very difficult to do with it being so hard. I think it came out very well with the exception that the wall thickness is a litte thicker than I wanted its. I didn't want to take the chance of breaking it so I only turn it as thin as I thought it would go without breaking.

I wish I could have documented more about the wood as I do not want to misrepresent it. I only know what I was told by the person who gave it to me. I still have two piece left of this wood so I need to come up with some good ideas on turning them.

Finally got more woodturning done

This is a Bradford Pear Platter or perhaps you could call it a bowl. Sometime ago someone gave me some Bradford pear that I kept in my backyard for several years. It spalted and is a very pretty wood when it spalts. It does not show well in the picture because the qaulity is not that good. One of these days I will make a good photography setup so my pictures will show my turnings at it best.This is approximately 12 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches high.

This a bowl made from wild cherry wood. As the tree was growing someone put what look like steel tent peg in it and the tree grew around it. Around the rim you can see it has some black coloring. This is cause by the tree reacting adversely with the wood. I think it added a lot of beauty to the wood.

Approximately 12 inches Dia by 5 inches high.

This is made from spalted Laurel Oak wood. This tree used to provide shade for my house in Lancaster. It died mysteriously in June of 2005 while I was biking in Kansas. At least I got a lot of good wood out of it to make some beautiful woodturnings. I still wish that tree had not died.

In my last post about making a American Native Style flute I said I would post a picture of it as soon as it is finish. Well I am kind of stuck on it right now. I have it finish for the most part but not sure if it sounds the way it should. Iam no music expert and if it needs to make some adustment I do not want to go any further with it until I know what to do. Right now I need to concentrate on getting more turning made for my show in April of next year.

Making a Native American Style Flute (Maybe)

Last night I attended another meeting of the Waxhaw Woodturners club. The woodturning demostration was about making a Native American Flutes which greatly interested me. I had previously research Indian flutes and how to make them on the internet in preparation for seeing this demo. Now that I have a good idea on how to make one it is time to try. I will have to get a couple more tools before I do. By the way the demostration was well done and informative.



Back in 1995 while on vacation in Colorada I bought a CD with music made using a Native American Flute and I fell in love with the sound. It was also then that the idea first enter my mind about making crafts and arts to sell once I retired. It seem like only yesteday that I had this dream but now I am now living it at least to a small degree.



Making the flutes seems to be fairly easy to do but I sure as heck don't know a thing about music and I may have to find someone that knows music and how to play a flute. I need a little guidance on how to make it sound right and maybe how to play it.

I can make a flute just like what the native americans did but there is one major difference. The indians did not have modern tools and they had to make their flutes with crude tools which I don't intend to try and do. However they will work the same way to make the unusual sound. If I get pretty good at this maybe I can sell some also but of course they will not be indian made. I don't think I have any indian blood in me.

I could dress up like a indian and pretend that they are indian made but that would be illegal. There is a law preventing anyone from misrepresenting crafts as being made by real indians. So I have to tell the truth and say I am just a simple old Southern who is into Indian history and crafts.



This is a picture I found on the internet of a Native American flute similar to what I intend on trying to make. I hope I can make it sound good as well as look good.

Tour de Roundo

Tour de Roundo is another bicycle charity ride that I have ridden in since it began about 5 years ago. For me it was a little more than a charity ride it is the only bike tour where I actually raced everyone to the finish. I finish in first place 3 out of the 4 times I raced in it. The one time I lost was after I injured my leg and I was not strong enough to be a contender that year.This year would have been my 5th try but I will miss it this year just as I did the MS150 charity bike ride.

When I live in Charleston it was not that far to go to Roundo SC where the event is held but it is too far since I am in Lancaster now and much too expensive for fuel for me to do it this year. It is one of the best charity bicycle events I have ever had the honor of doing.

I will miss being there this year but hopefully I can do it next year.

Back home

I have been in Charleston now for almost two weeks. Now I am back to our home upstate. Tomorrow I will get back to work making some new woodturings. I will be posting some pictures of them after they are finish or even before they are finish.

Went to church today at the church Leila attended when she was growing up. It always like a family reunion when we go there. So many people she knows still go there as a lot of her family does. They have to talk and talk, I love it.















This is a picture taken from my side yard of my new home and my studio where I turn wood into bowls and vases. The Studio has three rooms. One is upstairs where my gallery is located and two rooms downstairs that I used for turning and other woodworking projects.

A showing of my work in Lancaster SC

Well at last I have a date set for a art show of my woodturnngs in Lancaster SC. I don't have the details yet but it going to be in April of next year. This should give me plenty of time for me to add to my inventory so I will have enough made to put on a good show.

I will certainly post more news about this as soon as the details are worked out.

Not doing a MS150 this year

In my Bio I mention that I was a avid bicylist. One of the things I did riding my bike was to particapte in rasing money for the MS Society which is a very important and good cause. Without it a lot people who have MS would not get needed help to make there lives better and more pain free.

This year for the first time in four years I have elected not to do another MS 150 which will be held next week. This would have been my sixth time to do one if I had particapted. In all I have ridden closed to a thousand miles raising money by riding my bicycle for the MS Society and raised approximately three thousand dollars . I do not really feel good about not doing one again this year but I felt it was a futile effort and I don't have the money to waste since I didn't do so well last year.

So why am I not doing it this year. It pure economics. Last year I raised about $670 for MS. It cost me out of my pocket closed to $500 to raise the $670. Participating in these events one has to pay for all of his own expenses except for meals provided during the bicycle tour. I always make a personal donation on top of my expenses.

It does not make a lot of sense for me to spend so much money and not do better at fund raising than I did last year. One person who had volunteer and committed their selves to sponsoring me withdrew their Pledge at the last minute . I did not have enough time left to try and make up the difference. It wasn't a money issue he just decided to sponsor someone else without notifying me of his change of heart until I reminded him that I had to ge all the money pledged turn it. He was one of my best friends and this did not go over very well with me.. I had others who pledge to sponsor me and and they did not live up to that pledge.

I was even banned from particpating in my high school web site by a person I grew up with and like very well. I was not allowed to mention my charity work and it got posted anyway on the site by one of my friends and so we both were banned pernamently.

Asking money for charity is hard enough without these kind of things happening. To often I am made to feel like I am begging for money for myself or that somehow I am personally benefiting by this. If I am benefiting it is by the exercise I get and the knowedge that I am doing something worthwhile. I am very proud of my past efforts.

I have also paid a high price for doing these charity rides by losing friends that I did not want to lose just because I ask for sponsorship. They now avoid me so I want ask again. Maybe next year I will try to do one again in spite of my bad experiences.

On another post below I have a lot errors in it. For some reason the software is not permitting me to edit them. I may be doing something wrong but I havn't figure it out.

A show of my work coming at last

Since my last post I have been contacted about my doing a show in Lancaster. It going to happen now. I not sure of the date as I need to first take inventory of what turning I have left after I return from the Artisan Center this weekend. How much I have and how much I will have to make in order for me to have a very good show will determine how soon I can be ready to do a show.

I like to do one this year but that may be pushing it.

A picture of one of my first ornamental jewelry boxes I made sometime ago.















This is the ornamental bowl I am currently workng on. It is not finish yet. I still have to turn the bottom of it and finish it with lacquer. That will have to wait until the next time I come to Lancaster.

I not sure I like it now as I deviated from my orginal concept and I wish I hadn't done that. I think it is still nice but not as good as it would have been if I stay with my concept.

Oh well there is always another turnng and I will get it the way I wanted it in the first place.

My Summer

What a summer I have had. I can’t believe that I have been in Lancaster for just about the whole summer. I only went back to Charleston two or three times for a few days each. But we are not quite ready yet to move to Lancaster full time and so I must go back to Charleston once again today but it will be only for a very short time.

I manage to make about 20 new turnings this summer which is more than I expected to get done. That is pretty good when I consider that some of them were new techniques I never done before.

I wasn't sure how my leg would hold up standing at the wood lathe but it did not bother me that bad. I sometimes had to quit to rest but otherwise I had few problems. For those who reads my blog and don’t know I severely injured my leg almost four years ago and this nearly ended my woodturning career. I really never though I would be able to turn wood again which I was not able to do for about three years.

I had hope that on my stay at our new home this time I would have had a date set to do a show of my woodturning. This has not happen and I done all I know to do and I still have not heard a thing about this from the folks at the art center. I had hoped to know something by now. Most of the work I was planning on saveing for doing a show in Lancaster I am now placing them instead in Walterboro Artisan Center this weekend. Sales have been very good there and my stock is low.

Although I do quite well with my woodturning in the Charleston area I am not known in the Lancaster area and I want to do something about that. My hopes to do a show in Lancaster as I had been planning has not panned out so far and I will have to find other ways to building my reputation up in my hometown of Lancaster which I should do anyway. This has been really a let down for me as I really wanted to do a show in my hometown but I will find other avenues to promote my arts.

Well I have to get the house of clean up and my shop as well so I don’t leave a dirty mess behind. I will post a picture of my latest OT turning when I get it finish hopefully sometime next week.
My daughter is trying her hand at woodturning. I am just standing by and letting her go at it. I gotta give her some lessons.