Walnut bowl

[Curt Fuller]

I started cleaning up my work area and wood stash in my garage and found this bowl that I must have roughed out a long time ago and forgot about. It's some very dark black walnut that had cracked in a few spots and had some bark inclusions that were dry and falling out. So I decided to try using some copper filings I got from a plumber a while back for filler. The copper is mixed with permatex cold weld epoxy which is almost black. The bowl is about 11" x 3.5". Sorry for the lousy pics, I've never quite figured out how to photograph dark woods.

[Tony De Masi]

Very nice shape to that one Curt with some awesome grain too. The copper really adds quite a nice touch.

Tony

[John Keeton]

Boy, you are right about being dark!! Makes for a nice contrast with the copper, too! Nice form, and great find in the shop!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice save Curt! Can't believe how dark the walnut is! Pretty cool stuff!

[Aaron Wingert]

Great looking piece Curt. Anymore I'm starting to think that cracks are a blessing....They're just itching to be filled with creative things. I've used brass shavings in clear inlace but I love the idea of using black epoxy, and I never thought of copper. Great ideas.

[Allen Neighbors]

Excellent use of the copper. Well use of your talent, too, Curt.

[Jeff Willard]

...I've never quite figured out how to photograph dark woods.

In a darkroom:D.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Do you have spot metering (or a hand held spot meter) on your camera? If so, meter off of the darkest area that you want detail in, and use that exposure setting.

Actually, now that I think about it, my joke may have a bit of merit. Try this experiment. Take the photo against a darker background, and see if more detail emerges. Here's why it might work. The meters in most cameras are of the "averaging" variety, meaning that it will read all of the various luminances in a scene, weight them, and come up with an exposure that should produce a usable image. The camera doesn't know what part of the scene is most important. This is why a very contrasty scene often has washed out bright areas, and dark areas that are devoid of detail. The camera doesn't posses the ability to record the "range" that the human eye can detect. Reduce the contrast, and you may increase the amount of detail recorded. You could also overexpose, if the camera has the ability to adjust exposure.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really great looking walnut Curt. I like the darkness of it and the bowl looks good. Really like the form.

[Richard Madison]

Curt, your pictures look fine from here. Nice work on the crack fillings, and a very nice bowl.

[Roland Martin]

A fine piece of walnut Curt and you treated it right. Nice bowl.

[Robert McGowen]

Looks like you have a winner there.

[David E Keller]

Beautiful bowl... That dark rich color is fantastic.

[James Combs]

Some nice work Curt. If there is anymore of the walnut around it would certainly be easy to ebonize for great looking accents. It's almost ebony as is.

[John Hart]

Curt...a very nice piece. Pretty impressive how dark that walnut is. I am especially fond of the foot. You put that little extra time into it...and as we all know, the first thing an admirer does, is turn it over.:)