Layered Hollow Form Vessel Thing..y jigger

[Jim Underwood]

This hollow form was a synthesis between Brian McEvoy's two piece hollow forms and Jim McPhail's layered bowl techniques. It's been rattling around in my brain for the past few weeks and finally decided to come out...

I've been working hard to get my shop into some semblance of shape, so I can go in there and actually get something done, instead of shifting 20 things from place to place just to use a machine or bench or...:( So I've not been turning much, I've been building cabinets and cleaning up and hauling truckloads of junk off, and planning the next organizational thing... and making/saving money for the addition to house the cyclone and compressor. (Oh, and finishing other cool projects I've got stacked up in my office: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=91178&page=10 )

But this week is the deadline for submissions to the Full House Exhibition at the Lyndon House Gallery, and I figured I'd best make something if I was going to be able to show something. It took me approximately 8-10 hours yesterday to make this, and I still need to put more finish on.

It's the first one of what I hope are several more. The next ones will go quicker and probably be better, but I'm generally pleased with the way this one turned out.
Here's the 7 piece hollow form, made from quarter sawn White Oak, Walnut, and some junk veneer found as cover sheets on plywood. It is 7-3/4" in diameter by 3-1/2" tall and approximately 1/8-1/4" in thickness. It also has one coat of wiped on 50/50 laquer/thinner.

Oh, and you're welcome to critique this. I'd love to improve on it.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really a nice looking piece Jim. Form and finish look great.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very impressive! Beautiful woods, great color and I like the finish as is. Don't feel a gloss would anything to this piece!

Very nice work! Hope it makes it to the show!

[Jeff Nicol]

Jim, I never thought of putting the 2 woods together, but the dark brown of the Walnut and the light brown/tan of the White oak go together just excellent! I like the shape of the piece and I just really, really like it!!

Great job,

Jeff

[John Keeton]

Jim, I agree on the combination - it works!! I did a layered piece with walnut and curly maple, and while I love that combination, in this piece I think the colors and shades make for a more homogenous piece.

It should show well, and I agree on a less than glossy finish.

[Bill Bolen]

Well done Jim! Very cool piece. I can see a lot of variety coming from your design. All the wood selections avaliable should make for some very unique combinations coming our way...Bill..

[David E Keller]

It's an interesting piece. As others have said, the wood combo is nice. I like the detail on either side of the walnut center band, too. This looks like a good way to get larger forms from smaller pieces without having to use full blown segmenting techniques.

[Frank Van Atta]

Great piece.

[Roland Martin]

Very nice piece Jim. I also agree the specie combinations work very well together. Best of luck @ the exhibition!

[John W Dixon]

Gorgeous work Jim! I just keep coming back to the pictures and looking at them. I'd love to know a little more on how something like this comes together.

John

[Jim Underwood]

Thanks for all the compliments. Here's a couple more questions for you guys...

I was wondering if y'all could help me set some kind of value on this for the exhibition?

I know about how many hours I've got in it (10-15), but how to charge for material since I don't have any money in it? All the stuff I used are fall-off from other jobs... And then there's overhead...

The other question is what other combinations would you use with quartersawn White Oak, if you weren't going to use Walnut?

Here's my critique of the piece... The base of the rim collar needs to be a 1/8 to 1/4 inch larger than the top of the rim to make it look right. I'd also thin the top "bowl" to match the base bowl. (Obviously you can't see that from the picture but it's thicker.) Then the middle would blend a bit better. I agree with folks that it works, but it's not quite there. The curves aren't quite what I'd like, but I got the top too small and had to do something....

Please disagree or agree, but tell me something...

[John Keeton]

Jim, if I were making changes in this piece, I would probably make the middle band a little "lighter" in mass. It may be a little heavy for the form, and for the collar/rim. And, I agree the collar/rim could be a little larger toward the bottom - perhaps even as much as 3/8" or more - even with the dimensions, it is hard to get a feel for scale unless one is holding the piece.

On the wood combinations, most of my experience is in flat work. I always view wood combinations much like painting a room. Woods all have color and texture. One would not use multiple textures in a room that would compete with each other. So, generally, putting two highly figured woods together is difficult. It can be done, but carefully.

With hue and color, I would do the same - think about paint colors. Use the color wheel combinations. Here is a link (http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm#color_harmonies). I see people put walnut and cherry together, and sometimes that looks OK initially. But, eventually the walnut becomes amber, and the cherry a deep reddish brown. IMO, those colors don't do well together. I have not worked much in exotics, and that is where much of the "colored" woods are found. But, many domestics have a hue of color to them.

There is also tone. Basically, many woods have the same color, but different tones, or values, are used in compliment to each other. That is what you seem to have done here, and it works.

Doubt I have helped much. I have combined a few woods in the limited turnings I have done, but my experience spans an entire 4.5 months at this point!:o So, I don't have a lot to offer on the round side. To make matters worse, I am horribly color blind, and this is always a struggle for me!!:eek:

[Mark Hubl]

Very nice looking piece. The combo works well.