leopardwood potpourri bowl

[Robert McGowen]

6.5" wide and 4.5" tall. 60 pieces of leopardwood and 1 piece of curly maple floating between rings for the bottom. Finished with 3 coats of Antique Oil and still waiting to be buffed. Critiques and comments are welcome. Thanks for looking.

P.S. I do not claim to be able to take photographs, but I do realize that it is part of the "game" for entering a lot of the shows and for sure to be able to sell items on the internet. After reading a post by Steve Schlumpf (reading this forum costs me a lot of money!) I purchased a #39 background. I am using a simple camera and do not plan on upgrading it. The photos were taking in the ISO setting (no idea what that means), with the WB increased 1 whole setting, and the lighting set at automatic. If I used the incandescent lighting setting, the pictures seemed a little blue. Any comments or help on the photographs would also be appreciated. I know you can't take pro photos with a $5 camera, but I just as soon take the best $5 photos that I can! Thanks!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wow! Amazing joinery! Rich color and the grain pattern is beautiful! Very pretty potpourri bowl! Thanks for sharing!

[Pete Jordan]

Stunning Robert!

It will make someone real happy!

[John Keeton]

Did you WISH those pieces together??!?!? There is NO evidence of a glue line. Fantastic work, and overall a nice piece.

Pushes me to get started on my pot pourri bowls - though they will be MUCH simpler than yours!;) But, not near as nice.

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a beauty Robert. I can't see a glue line one. Like the floating maple.

[Frank Van Atta]

Very well done, the segmenting is almost invisible.

[charlie knighton]

very nice, your $5 camera picture is very good

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Robert you can change the picture with computer software, I just did this on my Mac, I'm no expert, but I just used IPhoto to change it a little to give you some idea what you could do with the photo and some software.

Oh and yes incredible fine fits on your piece, well done.

[David E Keller]

I love it... I've never really liked leopardwood until I saw it used in segmented turnings such as this. Count me as a leopardwood fan from now on!

[Curt Fuller]

Now that's nice Robert. Being one of yours I figured it would be segmented but had to look close before seeing the joints. What I like most though is how you set the pewter lid on the top instead of setting it in a recess. That really looks nice.

[Richard Madison]

Nice one Robert! Single wood segmenting can be very cool (like this piece). Something amiss with white balance but am not smart enough to tell exactly what. Might experiment a bit with plain white background to see if that helps balance the light source(s) with w.b. setting. And my usual comment about radiusing the bottom edge (make it more rounder) to give the piece a bit of "lift".

Alignment looks spot on. Thinking of trying a laser, as I missed it a bit on recent piece.

[Jerry Rhoads]

OOH, that is sweet Robert

Jerry

[Tony De Masi]

Very well done Robert. Is this your first piece since retirement? If so, why so few pieces with all the new time on your hands:D

Tony

[Robert McGowen]

Robert you can change the picture with computer software

After a Steve Schlumpf software recommendation (finally, something free!) I worked on 3 of the above photos. It is hard to see how dark the original photos are until you see them side by side. Thanks for the help!

And Tony, I have quickly realized that retirement does not make you any less busy, it just allows you to be busy doing more of what YOU want to do, not what someone else wants you to do. But slowing down..... not yet!