First Platter (or is that a bowl?)

[Carol Kinney]

Thought I would share a platter that I just made for our club challenge next month. It was on the lathe the night we had our meeting but at that time it was a bowl :cool:. A member got to choose our challenge and they said platter (in my mind I’m thinking Thanksgiving . . .). I started thinking , did a little research and thought what’s the difference between a bowl (low edged) a plate or platter? I did find one site that indicated a platter was something like 10+ inches and about 1.5 inches. Well my “bowl” on the lathe fit the thickness but my lathe can only handle 10 inches . . . so now my bowl became a plate – oh I mean a platter :confused:.


This is the first time I’ve posted my art on any forum, but any and all comments (negative or positive) are welcome. I want to learn what I’ve done wrong so please do not hold back –constructive criticism is always helpful.


The platter is Rosewood with Tung oil being the only finish (I still have about 5 more coats to apply):

177633 177632 177631 177630
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/misc/pencil.png

[Gary Max]

Won't work well for popcorn-----yup it's a platter. You did a great job on the base-----or-----your bottom looks great---:D

[Michelle Rich]

What's wrong with it? NOTHING. It's lovely for a first. Heck it would be great for a 5th. My only nitpick is the diameter of the base..my preference (it's it's only a preference), would be to make that a tad less in diameter. There is not a gosh darn thing that you should worry about. It's a beauty.

[philip labre]

Excellent first platter. I was thinking of trying my first one today and hope it turns out half as well as yours.

[bob svoboda]

Nice job. I like the basic shape and the detail at the rim is very nice. Agree with Michelle that the base could be smaller, but not so small as to make it tippy. Thanks for sharing.

[steven carter]

Some say: to-may-to, and some say to-mah-to, so whether you call it a platter or a plate I think you did a good job with a really nice piece of wood. I love the contrast between the sap and heart wood. What was your finish protocol? I also might have made the foot smaller in diameter, but that doesn't make it right, just different. The bigger foot will certainly give it more stability, and in my opinion does not hurt the look at all. Keep them coming!

Steve

[John Keeton]

Carol, very nice work on this one. Dale Miner did a platter demo at our club - very good, BTW! And, as I recall, he indicated a platter would have a foot that was about 40% of the diameter of the piece. That probably is close to what you have, but I think the difference is you have a little more mass and height to your foot than is normally seen. That doesn't detract from a very well done piece, however! Beautiful piece of wood.

[David E Keller]

Nice simple form and a beautiful piece of wood. Strong work.

[Dennis Ford]

Plate, platter or shallow bowl; it is very nice. I think the diameter of the foot is about right and the rim detail is perfect. You should not be shy about posting pictures, hope to see more of your work.

[Fred Perreault]

Gorgeous wood, and a nice form. The shape will serve the server well... :)

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice platter. Wood and shape look great.

[Baxter Smith]

That is a very pretty piece of wood and the shape(whatever you want to call it) shows it off well!

[Michael James]

Thats a nice one Carol! I envy you folks that have access to actual growing rosewood. Very unusual to see all the sapwood, but very cool! I think you did a great job If it were mine, I'd do a smaller footprint - but I've only done a few little dishes, so what do I know? Keep em coming!
Michael

[Carol Kinney]

Thank you all very much for your comments. The foot is a little large for the platter using the 40% rule and next time I’ll definitely look at that closer. When I created the foot my main concern was that the platter was solid when it was being used. I could have made it about an inch to two inches smaller in diameter. In the side view photo, I can really see what Michelle and Bob are talking about. It’s fine the way it is but correcting this next time will make it just that much better.

Steven – My finish so far is just Tung Oil and I might just stick to that (unless someone has a different suggestion). It gives it a very soft look which it did need with the very bold dark brown of some of the rosewood.

I wasn’t sure if turners used sap wood that much in pieces. I had cut a slice off a log to see more of the rosewood inside and this is that piece. I loved the color combination and all the movement but it was only about 2 to 2.5 inches thick. Guess I can make platters out of all my log slices for now on.

Thank you everyone for being so kind - you really made my day!

Carol

[David DeCristoforo]

Unquestionably a platter! Mmmm.... rosewood! I always have loved this stuff. Especially the dramatic contrast between the heart and sap which, BTW, you have used to great advantage here.