Well I finished the ambrosia maple bowl and it turned out pretty well. I think it was a little bit damp inside since it felt a little cold while I was working it. I let it dry on the lathe a few days and since my shop has a low humidity it seemed to dry pretty well. It has a really interesting little flaw in the outside -- what I referred to in the description as a little bug hotel. I think it is probably a little bit of rot in the wood, but the streaks and the color in the finished product is really nice. I finished it with a fine quality wax and left it at that. It brings out the detail and makes it look good. Go look at it on thewoodshop.etsy.com.

My Church school class Christmas party was last night. After a marvelous covered dish supper, (that would be dinner for all you people up north but down here we eat dinner at lunchtime and supper in the evening), ((You've heard of brunch, which is halfway between breakfast and lunch, there is also slunch, which is halfway between lunch and supper)) we exchange gifts under a cut-throat arrangement. We draw numbers and the highest number goes first with the second highest number going next and so on down to the lowest. Second one can then exchange gifts with the first one if so desired. Then it goes downhill from there so to speak. The person with the lowest number has the choice of any gift in the house. You would be amazed to see these people go after anything nice which shows up. The reason I bring this up is that I took a really pretty, small cherry bowl as a gift and it happened to get unwrapped pretty early in the game. I was pleased to see it was swapped about eight times out of a group of about forty and then when the circle finally got down to number one, she picked it and kept it. Even asked me to sign the bottom of the bowl, so I was pleased it went over well. Didn't get to sell it on Etsy, but it was fun watching people fight for it.

Ambrosia Maple

I just went by the best woodworking store in the world (personal opinion), Highland Woodworking in Atlanta, and they had just gotten in some new turning blanks. Normally I like to use more found wood than anything else, but when you turn green wood you have to wait for it to dry after you have roughed out the bowl. Usually takes three to six months for it to dry enough so the finished bowl will not shrink, crack or warp. Sometimes I just don't want to wait. So I bought an eight inch diameter three inch thick bowl blank of "ambrosia maple". Pretty expensive at $19 but you just won't believe how pretty the stuff is. It is a light tan or biege for the most part, but it has these beautiful spots and stripes running through it like some kind of mutated Holstein cow. I've seen some pieces which were turned from ambrosia maple but made by turning from the end of the grain and hollowing down the center of the tree so to speak. Doing it that way makes a beautiful pattern in the wood, but I normally turn ninety degrees from that and it produces an entirely different pattern. Trouble with paying for wood is that sometimes you mess it up --I have a beautiful walnut bowl from a bought blank which has a bottom you can see through. I mean paper thin. Sad!! Hope my skills are up to this one. If so, it will be posted on the etsy site for sale. I'll let you know.

And, we're off...

We've just posted our first bowl on etsy.com. Interested in buying? It's a steal!

It's a hand turned, original design made from walnut finished with boiled walnut oil and thin layer of wax for a light sheen

You can check it out here.

More to come very shortly.

Welcome

I (sonny) and my dad have finally decided to launch a shop with all of dad's wooden work. Well, mostly dad decided to do it, and I'm helping him with the technical side of things.

In anycase, check out his shop at Etsy here.