Another hollow form

[Alan Trout]

Ok Friends,

Here is another piece I finished a few month's ago. I am going to do another similar to this one when I get the time. This one was kind of labor intensive as I have at least 40hrs in it a lot of processes are involved. I might be able to shave a few hours of it as I know better what I am doing. This was my first attempt at a project like this.

It is acorn caps in tinted resin with a live oak burl cap in the same tinted resin. The finish is CA. The next one I do will be a bit bigger this one is 10" by about 5" pretty much a blue egg. This is another one of my favorites. I gave this one to my mother for her 73rd birthday. It made me feel pretty good when she opened the package she cried with joy. This is from a lady that had 6 brothers and I have maybe seen her cry 2 times my entire life.

Again cheers or jeers welcome.

Alan

[Steve Schlumpf]

Absolutely stunning! I can see why it is one of your favorites! Love it!

[David DeCristoforo]

That is wild! What ever gave you the idea for this? It's totally "out of the box"... How did you do this? Is it cast? More info please!

[David E Keller]

Fantastic! I've never seen anything of this size turned from homebrew acrylics. I've seen pen blanks like this, but this is another level.

I'm also very interested in how you managed to pull this off. Fantastic!(I had to type it twice!)

[Harvey Ghesser]

Really, really beautiful! Great work, Alan! Very impressive!

[Roland Martin]

That is wild! What ever gave you the idea for this? It's totally "out of the box"... How did you do this? Is it cast? More info please!

"Out of the box" is right. I can certainly see how the hours would add up with this piece:eek: Great imagination and amazing work.

[John Hart]

Holy Frioles!!! Acorn Caps?!

Alan...you are my hero. :)

[David Christopher]

Very Nice !!!!!!

[Roger Chandler]

Definitely out of the box! What a creative idea....a stunning execution of something that would not cross many minds....way cool! :cool:

[John Keeton]

Alan, this is what art is all about!!! Creativity taken to a new level! David already used my word - twice! But, I will say it again - FANTASTIC!!

[charlie knighton]

very nice....

[Baxter Smith]

Stunning, fantastic. Stunningly fantastic!

[Randy Gazda]

That is amazing and makes me realize I need to think outside the box more!!!

[Mark Hubl]

An extraordinary piece for sure. The shape and curves are very nice. The colors are wonderful really a great piece.

[Donny Lawson]

That is one outstanding piece of art.
Donny

[Alan Trout]

Thanks everyone.

I really appreciate the kind comments. Yes this is a cast piece. I have been a fairly decent volume pen blank caster for some time, maybe a couple of years. I sell some and keep some. But what really got me interested in casting was this application. When I started casting this was my ultimate goal. I had not seen anyone do vessels and bowls and figured this might be my "artistic" niche that I was looking for.

It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to cast the piece. It is not for the faint of heart because you can mess up a bunch of expensive resin very quickly. There was some failures/mistakes involved but was able to save the piece. It is time consuming because every acorn cap in the piece was intentionally placed one by one but yet I wanted it to be random as possible.This was done in multiple castings. There were about 12 or so before turning started. I think I have it pretty well figured out and will do more. This is my busy business time of year so work comes first but I am going to try to get another done before SWAT but not sure if I will have the time.

Thanks,

Alan

[Michael James]

I have no idea what you did there but it is 1 of a kind for sure. Nice job!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful Alan. Really well done.

[Tom Sherman]

Spectacular doesn't begin to describe this one. Outside the box I recon. Great work all around.

[Allen Neighbors]

Fourth time -- Fantastic!! What kind of gears do you have "turning" in your mind?
For those of you that don't know, a few years back, secretly, it was Alan that invented metal staples and paper clips and gunpowder and ... :D

[Edward Bartimmo]

Alen,

I am out of GCWA (Houston) and will be attending SWAT. Are you planning to complete another and enter as exhibit at SWAt or do you have a booth? I would love to see the piece up close.

Thanks,
Edward

[Curt Fuller]

That's one of the most interesting turnings I've seen. I really like it.

[Billy Tallant]

That is one fantastic piece of work. Words cannot do it justice. Simply amazing!!!

[Alan Trout]

I was going to borrow it from my mother for the instant gallery at SWAT along with a couple of other pieces. If I can do another I will, It really depends on how busy my business is over the next month.

Alan

[Dennis Ford]

WOW!
I don't know what else to say.

[Josh Bowman]

Absolutely stunning!

[Matt Hutchinson]

Very cool! Not only a unique and original idea, but it was executed wonderfully. I really REALLY like it!!! Keep up the awesome work Alan!!

HUtch

[Tom Sherman]

Alan I just have to say I keep coming back and looking at this one, and the more I do, the more I like it. Something this special belongs to someone special nothing better than that. Momma knows dude momma knows

[Jim Underwood]

This piece may be made of resin and acorn caps, but it has the feel of the ocean about it...

Lovely piece.

Hope we see more of these as you work the bugs out of the process!

[Mike Spanbauer]

Wow - that's awesome!

How thick are the walls? Did you cast them to near final thickness and then hollow or? Details man, now you just have to share :) Impressive!

mike

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Wow. That is some excellent craftsmanship and a beautiful result. Echoing other sentiments, that is really thinking out of the box! Wish I was a 1/4 as creative!

[Richard Madden]

I just got on here, but I have got to add my $0.02 worth. That is beautiful work, and I'd like to know more about the how-to.

[Alan Trout]

I want to thank everyone for their comments. I really appreciate the positive comments.

The piece is cast in a polyurethane resin. There are some properties of this kind of resin that I personally prefer. One is that it is a very forgiving resin when machined and machines more like wood. It is very possible if you had a catch with a polyester resin piece it might never make it off of the lathe. It may be in a thousand little pieces. Also polyurethane resin has relativity low odor compared to polyester resin which is a bigger deal if you house and shop are attached.

The piece was done in about 15 cast of about 1 inch at a time. The thickness of the casting was also about 1 inch. The outside form was poster board and masking tape. Nothing very high tech but quite a bit more complex than it sounds. Of course this is all cast in a pressure vessel.

Thanks,

Alan

[James Roberts]

Forget that other "WOW" post. This is "WOW". Surely an explanation or a tutorial must follow.