My contest hollow form

[Alan Trout]

This is my hollow form from the contest. I pretty much described the process of making the blank in a previous thread. I will guess from start to finish there was about 30 to 35 hours invested in the piece. I tend to be a pretty tough critic on my work and I always see room for improvement. I will practice a little self deprication and give my thoughts on things that I might change. Your comments and critic's are always welcome.

First I do like the shape of the vessel but if I were to do it again I think the foot would be a little larger and the opening a little smaller. Like most I start my vessels between centers pretty much finish the exterior shape of the vessel cut my tenon and reverse the piece with the tenon in the chuck. Still using the live center true up the exterior. I leave extra meat at the base by the tenon for support so the foot or base is still not completely visible. When I was cutting the collar portion I figured that would be about the size of the base so it would be in good proportions. After hollowing most of the way except the very bottom I started to finish the base. I had the base at the shape and size I wanted and accidentally hit it with the edge of a gouge and took a divot out near the base. So I did not want to shorten the piece so the base became smaller with a bit of blending on the outside of the piece so it would look right.

Again critic and comments are always welcome.

Thanks again to everyone.

Alan

[David DeCristoforo]

I feel the same way about this vessel. A larger base and a smaller collar would have been "better". But, having used this method of "design" many times, I can totally relate to the process! Nevertheless, it is a spectacular piece of work and merits the award. The hollow form contest was, in my mind, the hardest one to "pick a winner". The entries were all excellent. Ya done gud...

[Dan Hintz]

Alan,

Would you mind posting a link to the how-to thread? I guessed I missed it (and I'm very interested in your fill).

[John Keeton]

Alan, it is so hard to say anything negative about this piece. The trend today seems to be an extremely small foot, and you accomplished that. I don't personally like that style, but I would be in the gross minority I suspect - and, perhaps just uninformed!

The curve is beautiful, and the casting treatment....well, just unbelievable. You deserved the honors!

[Richard Madden]

Alan, while I agree that a smaller collar and larger base would look good, this piece is so beautiful, I'll take it as-is. I tend to feel the same way as John, sometimes I think we over emphasize this small base thinking, but I understand the design changes we sometimes have to make.:o You did a fantastic job and I'm glad you won. Congrats again.

[Greg Ketell]

Alan,

Would you mind posting a link to the how-to thread? I guessed I missed it (and I'm very interested in your fill).

Here you go, Dan:


Ray,

The piece was a very knotty, convoluted,twisted, piece of mesquite but solid. This was cast under pressure with polyurethane resin and then turned and hollowed.

I am always hesitant to tell how I cast my pieces not because I do not want anyone to know, but because I tend to use my pressure pot well beyond its rated capacity which can be dangerous/deadly if there was a catastrophic failure. I found that my results are better when I do this.

The other thing is to consider the cost of setting up to do this kind of casting. The pot all set up can run from about $200 to over $800 depending on the brand and quality of the pot. The resin runs about 80 cents and ounce delivered when purchased 2 gallons at a time. I had one piece that I did I used about 90 ounces of resin so it is not always easy on the pocket book.

I started this because I love wood and I love color and had a desire to combine the two. I really like the effect that it produces and have some other Ideas that I am looking forward to trying.

Please if there are any other questions do not hesitate to ask.

Thanks,

Alan

[Ray Bell]

Alan, this piece is spectacular. I love the marriage of mediums. Yes, maybe the base a a little small, but the overall appearance is so nice, that I wouldn't have noticed it if you hadn't pointed it out.

[Dan Hintz]

Ah, I was thinking it was more of a tutorial... would love to see something like that on this piece as it gives me a few ideas for some bottle stopper designs I'm dieing to try out. What kind of resin dyes you used, how you kept a good swirl pattern, etc.

[Alan Trout]

Dan for what you want to do you can probably get buy with a polyester resin rather than a urethane resin. just google polyester casting resin and a bunch will come up. It is cheaper but has more odor. It shrinks a little but can be cast under vacuum rather than pressure so it is safer to use. This will work fine for smaller items. The pigments are Jacquard Pigments. There are many brands and colors and are powder pigments. The swirl is luck of the draw and is what gives it a bit of an organic touch.

Good Luck

Alan

[Dan Hintz]

Alan,

When mixing colors for marbled fondant (cake decorating), I can't mix too much or the colors completely blend together, defeating the marbled look. Is that the case here with these pigments, or are they so dissimilar they naturally remain separate during mixing (I'm thinking the former, but wanted to verify)?

I'm told I'll eventually be sucked in and want to do larger forms, but since I haven't started yet, I'm still under the belief I'll do small stuff for quite a while.

[Alan Trout]

If you use two separate colors you mix them in two separate batches. Then when you pour you pour them together and pray for interesting patterns.

Alan

[Greg Ketell]

If you use two separate colors you mix them in two separate batches. Then when you pour you pour them together and pray for interesting patterns.

Alan

And if you want really amazing mixes (for when you aren't doing amazing turning to go with it) you want to use more colors. This is 4: green, green sparkle, yellow, yellow sparkle.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=166747&stc=1&d=1289326504

And this one was 3: dark blue, light blue, and medium blue sparkle.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=166748&stc=1&d=1289326706

Someone asked about kinds of resin. Polyester resin is good for big stuff where the resin needs to work its way deep into the wood. Silmar41 is the most common I've heard used. But it stinks to high heaven and is sensitive to environment to know how to mix it. On the good side, you have a long time to work with it before it sets so you could do vacuum then pressure to get all the bubbles out.

Alumilite is a two-part urethan resin that has virtually no smell and is not sensitive to weather. But it sets FAST. Usually less than 5 minutes so you don't have time for both vacuum and pressure, just pressure. Or neither, it seems to be less prone to bubbles. Both the casts you see above are alumilite done at the kitchen table with no pressure.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful piece Alan. I love the form and collar.

[Dan Hintz]

Thanks, Greg... useful info.