The Berry Series

We are still here! Vencka is working on some kitty fur material. She had busy week with adoptions, spay/neutering etc. Beautiful Lena got a home on Friday, though we had to pry my mother's hands away from her. More on all this from my lovely kitten whisper soon.



In December I turned one of two large Hackberry logs that were harvested last January. This was my first time working Hackberry, the bowl came out nicely but I was not overly impressed with color and grain patterns of the Hackberry. It is buttery yellow/white in color which is very nice, but rather bland in my opinion. One of early instructors and local artist Joe Dickey is known for his beautifully dyed pieces and I always have wanted to try my hand at dying a large piece. The Hackberry looked like a great candidate to experiment on trying my dying skills.



In practicing on some small scape pieces I noted some bleed over so I decided to pyrography (woodburn) the rim to "hide" any potential bleed over and after consulting some of my fellow turners I applied a coat of sanding sealer on the rim as well. The sealer worked well resulting in no bleed over, and the pyrography really added another dimension to the piece. After dying I applied several coats of lacquer and buffed the inside with carnauba wax.


My "Blueberry" bowl came out great! As you can see the dye really enhanced the grain patterns, and the contrast with buttery inside is quite nice.

Blueberry Delight - Approx 10" dia, 4" tall

I roughed out the my second Hackberry log a few weeks ago, and now waiting for the drying process to complete. I plan on dying it red to create my "Strawberry" bowl for part two of the Berry series.

Roughberry

Let the chips and fur fly!

At the urging of blogging friends (Warren and Lisa, and Anne Beach) we are finally off and running on our own. Our aim is to share with you our adventures of our two passions - woodturning and cat rescue. We hope to give some insights in the fun, sense of fulfillment, the ups and downs, frustrations, and the host of other emotions kitten rescue and woodturning bring to our lives.

I (Louis) must say that originally I wanted to call our blog Wood Chips and Kitty Litter, but after a quick chuckle from Vencka I was quickly vetoed. However, if anyone wants to weigh in please do!

I may takes a few days to get into the swing of things so bare with us!

In the mean time here are some of our temporary furry friends:

This lovely Lena checking out her climbing skills on our Christmas tree.

Here is Ole (aka "the Snowman"), Lena's brother. Ole is blind from birth but you would never know it in the way he gets around and plays with the other kittens. He is truly a miracle.