"Canopy"

[Mark J]

Here is the piece I have been working on most recently.  It's something different than the ones I have been doing, but it's a shape I have been wanting to explore.  My wife and I have been staring at it for a couple of weeks now pondering names, but I think that I like the name "Canopy".  I was going for a form that was tree like and Canopy speaks to the very broad arching rim.  The piece is walnut about 5" high and 12" in diameter.

The story on the wood is that I acquired this really large piece of walnut from a friend for the really enormous price of 5 actual American dollars because it had a good sized nail imbedded in it that became apparent when he had tried to round the piece on his bandsaw.  I figured for 5 bucks I'd see if I couldn't get the nail out and then see what I could do with whatever was left.  I was able to remove the nail by excavating around it with a Dremel and burr then using pincers on the exposed bit.  So hurray a little work straightening out the faces for mounting and I was able to start rounding it on the lathe, and I could afford to take some chances with the design and process.

The piece had some other surprises inside.  There were some large cracks that had to be considered, a second nail, a bullet and then the mother of all bark inclusions.  This actually appears to have been a 2 inch section of a branch that was somehow stuck to the tree and became incorporated within it.  There was no outward indication of its presence in the blank that I could see.  I certainly wish it had been on the other side, but "what you tree is what you get".  

The bark inclusion was about 2/3 rotted away, so more air than bark (or remnant branch).   On the advice of some AAW friends I filled the defect with epoxy mixed with coffee grounds.  This was my first fill and it went well enough.  I did the fill from the outside before turning the basin cavity, thinking that I wouldn't have to deal with trying to retain the epoxy in the hole.  What I did not realize at the time was how dang deep the inclusion was.  Despite using low viscosity bar top epoxy and poking it in it didn't fill completely, there was a large air pocket that was exposed when I turned out the cavity.  So I ended up with a second fill of clear epoxy which looks sorta OK.  I'm not too worried about how the fill came out because while a lot of times an inclusion turns out to be a beauty mark; this is a blot.  And I'm out 5 dollars.  

The surface has been sanded to p1200 and then finished with Osmo Poly-X Oil.  I will say that stuff does look lustrous, but I will also say you can still smell it, at least up close, and I think we're getting on to two weeks now.  

Here's what it would have looked like with out the spot.

 

[wtnhighlander]

Lovely work as usual, @Mark J! Five bucks well spent, IMO.

[JohnG]

I'll give you $10 for it. 

[krtwood]

Call it Event Horizon and imagine the "blot" is getting sucked down into oblivion.

[Coop]

That is absolutely beautiful and a fitting name! 

[pkinneb]

Awesome job Mark!

[Chestnut]

Great job Mark. That's a really cool design. I'm picking up that you aren't happy with the blot, so does that mean you'll try this design again in the future?

[Bmac]

There was a lot going on in that piece of wood, and unfortunate about the bark inclusion blot, but it still came out beautiful. It really would have been cool if you found a 5 dollar bill in the chunk, at least you would have broke even. 

Question on the wood, that wood is much lighter than the walnut I use. Walnut does lighten with time and exposure to UV, but you just turned it. If you told me to guess what type of wood you used, I don't think I would have guessed walnut. Was it Black Walnut or was it possibly English Walnut?

[Mark J]

50 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

...I'm picking up that you aren't happy with the blot, so does that mean you'll try this design again in the future?

Well maybe.  Not so much because of the blot; you never know what's lurking in the next chunk of wood.  But looking at the piece there are varriations on the theme that might look better.

For example the waist line of the "trunk" could be thinner next time.   Seen from above the rim has a pleasing curve, but that curve blocks your view of the shape from below.   However, getting hold of a dry piece of wood big enough for one of these shapes is a challenge, they just don't grow on trees.  So any iteration may be waiting a long time.

[Mark J]

14 minutes ago, Bmac said:

Question on the wood, that wood is much lighter than the walnut I use. Walnut does lighten with time and exposure to UV, but you just turned it. If you told me to guess what type of wood you used, I don't think I would have guessed walnut. Was it Black Walnut or was it possibly English Walnut?

It really is a chocolate brown in the flesh, so maybe that's the white balance (which was set for different lighting).   Also I used a hard wax oil for the surface coating and that ambers less than polyurethane, so that might also contribute.  As to what kind of walnut, no idea.  The tree was taken down somewhere in the Chicago area and had sat in my friend's stash in a very roughly round state for at least 10 years.  

Here's a picture with correct white balance: