As the Wood Turns

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.