New turnings

New Red Cedar turnings from the barn today! It felt like it was at least 28 or 30 degrees. Plenty warm enough for a couple of vases.

I like to leave some bark inclusion on these vases. I think it adds to the contrast of colors.

Here are the two together.

The heartwood of the Cedar also adds color contrast to my shavings pile! The sweet aroma of Cedar filled the barn.

Turning a vase

I often post pictures of turning projects that are already completed, this post is to show you a little more about the process. The photo above shows a section of Red Cedar that my neighbor dropped off to me, just as I was starting to turn.

This photo is the piece "rough turned". This means I have made a cylinder with the roughing gouge shown.

Here I am starting to form the bottom of the vase, at this point I still have no idea the final form I am looking for. I kind of let the tool and my hand lead me to the shape. Hard to explain.

Then we have the finished shape, I have applied mineral oil to the piece at this point, which gives it the shine.

Another view on the lathe.

And finished view.

You can see a crack running down in this photo. This piece may crack, I am going to leave it on the porch, away from heat, and then probably apply a spray on poly. Maybe I will get lucky.

I love the heartwood of Red Cedar. Natural contrast in color is amazing.

New Vase

Tonight when I got home it was just warm enough to turn one vase. I have wanted to turn something a little different and this is what came out. Who am I kidding, I've just been itching to turn something period! I will probably use some spray poly on this vase to keep the bark intact.
Then have Robin make up a small arrangement for it. This is another turning from the Red Maple that came down in a storm last year.

Natural Talent

Kyle has always been a doodler. He used to fill notebooks with drawings of the different action figures he played with. I found one of the notebooks up in the barn last fall and showed it to him. It is amazing to us how easy it is for him to just sit down and throw something on paper in his spare time. This is one of those instances, he was home for Christmas break, and drew this while just sitting around. This will go into the "proud file" that every parent has. All those items from pre-school through graduation and beyond. This is something that he would easily discard, and something we will hold onto.

Night Sky

The full moon and many planets?

I was out the other night with the dogs, clear and cold, and noticed a large ring around the moon. I tried to get a picture of it, but it wouldn't come out. I took quite a few shots, and in many, the sky was black with just the moon. In these two however, I got what looks to be stars and maybe a few planets. I believe it was just my breath in front of the camera, but who knows?