Hollowed Christmas Ornaments (PIX)

[Mike Peace]

A friend gave me some small pieces of wood that were perfect for ornaments. Left to right: Spalted Red Oak, Box Elder, Maple with bark inclusion, & Dunno wood. The caps and finials are turned from Bradford Pear. Globes are about 2 1/8" in diameter. I used India Ink to color the one finial black. All sprayed with gloss acrylic and then buffed and waxed.


I saw Jamie Donaldson's phrugal photo studio demo at the Southern States Symposium so figured it was time to start experimenting with my photography. This was my first attempt at setting a custom white balance and setting the exposure on my old Canon Powershot.


All feedback on ornaments or the photograpy are welcome.

[Greg Just]

Nice job Mike. The ornaments are very well done and so is the photograph

[Scott Conners]

If I may ask...how thin are the walls hollowed to? What tool did you use for the hollowing?

[Joe Pfeifer]

Nice! I wish my Dunno wood looked like that.

[Mike Minto]

nice job - better than I could do. but the wood with 'defects' just doesn't do it for me with the ornaments - they seem as if they should be smooth and shiny. mike :o

[Chris Rae]

Nice work, I like those!

[Mike Peace]

The walls are about 1/8-3/16" thick. I drilled a 5/8" hole and hollowed with a spindle gouge and then an allen wrench tool. I blew out a couple. That is, they tore off at the bottom because the wood was a little punky, not because I came thru the walls.

Mike, interesting comment about preferring no 'defects'. I did make some where the globes were smooth but generally chose spalted wood. My thought was that the 'defects' added character. I did make one with a plain walnut globe and contrasting cream colored pear finials but thought it was rather plain looking. I guess if I try to sell some, though, variety would be good. I will have to try some more out of a plain vanilla wood like Bradford Pear and seek additional feedback. I did a lot of research looking at a lot of ornaments posted on another site and saw a lot that I thought were just plain ugly (boxy shapes, fat finials, too many fussy details, whatever) but obviously the maker (or his wife) liked them.

All comments are truly welcome as they help me refine my thoughts on design.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Mike - these look pretty good! Really like the variety of shapes on your icicles! About the only suggestion I have is to make sure that each ornament looks balanced - ratio of globe size to icicle thickness/length.

Have fun with it! Have to imagine these would sell as they are unique and that is what you are after!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Mike great looking ornaments. I agree with Steve that the balance of the finial and globe need to compliment each other. Globes look fine and the finials could be a little more delicate. That will come with practice. Yes they do sell well at Christmas.

[Terry Murphy]

Those are great looking ornaments.
Do you have a picture of the allen wrench tool?
I want to try making some of those.

Terry

[Mike Peace]

Terry, here is a picture of the allen wrench tool. http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=73060

You can't really see the detail that well of the grind but when held parallel to floor on the tool rest the grind resembles the tip of an Oland tool. A little like a miniature round nose scraper.

I need to come up with something that cuts a little cleaner with less chatter.

[Mike Peace]

Steve and Bernie, I thought I had the balance about right.

I thought my camera angle may have made the finials look larger than they do in profile but after revisiting them, there is no doubt that thinner is better. On my next ones I will work on daintier finials. Thanks for the feedback.

[Steve Mellott]

Mike:

I've already had a chance to see the ornaments and I think they look great. I like the diversity. I think the photograph is also great - looks like you are conducting the next photo workshop.

Steve