One man's scrap .....

After a month hiatus we're back. Vencka is working with four bottle baby kittens and says she will be posting soon with her bottle baby dialogues (so everyone please give her a little nudge :-) ). We (mostly Vencka) have been out in our backyard woods collecting, chainsawing, and stacking downed trees and branches for firewood. Ever on the the lookout for turning wood I have started playing around with green and dry small diameter branches after have seen some pieces recently in Baltimore. I am attempting to turn natural edge, thin deep-V and martini glass shaped pieces out of the green wood unfortunately most have ended up back in the firewood pile. Below is one of my initial (and semi-success) trials, it is about two inches in diameter and 1.5 inches tall.

I am having more luck with with dry branches. I came across an unusual colored pinkish branch about two weeks ago that I could not resist trying to turn. The color reminded me of southwest/Mexican style clay pottery. With the that image in my mind I turned away, ever so careful of a crack (caused from the drying/rotting) lest it blow up on me! I was really happy with the result and added to two burned rings for style points.

My third scrap project came by way of my dad, a highly talented wood craftsman and carpenter. He had a old walnut table from my great-grandparents that was beyond repair, so he disassembled, cut up the top and legs and then laminated them back together in various sized and shaped blocks. He shipped out them all out a few weeks ago. Below is the first piece turned from a 5 inch block (photographed on one of the larger blocks). The "new" family cup is heading back west to my dad for his birthday next week.