Two Cypress Platters, Mineral Inlayed & Dyed

[BILL DONAHUE]

Spent last week at the John C. Campbell Folk School in N. Carolina in a course titled "Enhance Woodturning with Mineral Crystal Inlays." The instructor, Stephen Hatcher, and his assistant, Wayne Furr, did a terrific job in teaching 10 of us how to inlay minerals. We used dremel tools to cut our designs in the wood, hand crushed translucent minerals (mostly calcite), glued the minerals in place and then sanded like there was no tomorrow. We were supposed to use big leaf maple but since my order from Bow River Woods arrived late and after I left, I had to use some cypress. Cypress is on the soft side, but the lessons still applied. In the attached pictures, my two atttempts are the "tree of life" and "Kokopelli", the Southwest Indian symbol of fertility. Also attached are a couple of pictures of the woodturning studio.

[David E Keller]

Beautiful work... Sounds like you had some fun and looks like you learned a lot.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Those are really beauties Bill. Looks like the school paid off and was a lot of fun.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very impressive work Bill! Love the designs and the level of detail! The school must have been a lot of fun!

[John Keeton]

Beautiful work, Bill! I really like the Southwest one. The other is neat, too, but I like more wood showing. Nice setting for the class, as well.

Did you use the System Three epoxy? I am working on some inlay work ideas with using that, and some fillers, and like what you have done here.

[Rob Cunningham]

Great looking work Bill. Do you sand the minerals with regular sandpaper or do you need to use silicon carbide paper?

[charlie knighton]

very nice...

[Jack Gaskins]

I really like the Kokopelli platter. I found an instruction paper on the topic but there were no resources listed. Did the instructor tell you guys were you could get the calcite from?

[Philip Morris]

Jack,
Try the link "Stone Inlaid Woodturning Suppliers" on Stephen Hatcher's website and see if that doesn't have what you are looking for.

http://www.stephenhatcher.com/index.php?n=8

[BILL DONAHUE]

Thanks for the comments.
John - no epoxy was used in the class, only CA glue, though Stephen did say that there were some cases where he would use epoxy or even the West System.

Rob - yes, we did use silicon carbide sandpaper, 80 grit, to cut through the initial larger amount of stone. After the 1st sanding we would move to regular sandpaper.

Jack - Stephen's source of minerals is Great South Gems and Minerals and they have a website.

I'd strongly recommend the John Campbell Folk School not only for their excellent clases but also because of the total experience. The location is in a beautiful part of the country, you get exposure to many other folk arts and the food, music and ambiance are wonderful. In my case, I just like getting away from the stock market.

Here are some closer pics of the pieces.

[Keith Burns]

Bill, all I can say is WOW ! Very nice and impressive work. Sounds like you had a great time.