Teak Cherry and Walnut Vase

[John Hart]

Please pardon me for my absence....again :o It's been a long winter. But I thought I'd get back into the swing of things.

This is a piece of Spalted Cherry from my cherry tree back at my old house when I lived in Cleveland. The teak was very oily and difficult to deal with. It cuts great...but the dust and shavings stick to everything!!!

This piece is very light. I spent extra time getting the wall thickness down and just guessing...I figure it's about 1/8" wall.

I originally thought going with a tall pedestal but was advised by my girls that these piece needed to be short. They win. ;)

Anyway...Cherry body...Teak Mouth and Pedestal Base....Walnut Collar and Pedestal
It stands 8 inches tall and 7.5 inches in diameter.
Finished with 3 coats of Antique Oil....Buffed...a Coat of Paste Wax, and buffed again.

Comments and Critiques welcome!!! :)
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[Roger Chandler]

Professor Hart, it is so nice to hear from you again! :D Beautiful form here with this piece, and of course it has your signature "neck" as well. I'm surprised at your finish.........a very nice choice.............just as pretty as your "lacquer" finish, just absent the fumes! :rolleyes::D;)

Seriously.........it is really nice to hear from you again! Keep the work coming! We enjoy your work! :)

[John Keeton]

I've been watching the obituaries!!! Thought sure you had succumbed to lacquer overdose or something! Glad to see you back among us, Hart, and a very nice re-entry, too. Well done!! Nice curves and finish.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Very nice! I like this a great deal!

[David DeCristoforo]

Great piece to come out of hibernation with. You get extra points for getting glue to stick to teak! It must have been a real piece of cake hollowing out the bottom of that thing through the long neck. Or did you do some hollowing from the bottom? Either way, it's very cool...

[Mark Hubl]

Holy cow, just like the birds, Mr. Hart returns. Was wondering where you had gone. Nice piece. Lots of curves, nice.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very interesting design John! Lots of flowing curves and I really like the wood combination! So... did it meet with the girl's approval?

Nice work! Great to have you back!

[John Hart]

Birds??!!! Ya know....you're right, Mark....and the robins and cardinals just started coming back last week around here....heh heh...then it snowed all over them. :)

David...thanks...In the case of the teak, I used a special Loctite epoxy formula intended for plastics....hoping for a polymer bond with the oil. Just a guess really...and to make doubly sure, I cleaned the interface up with DNA to reduce the oils a bit. On the hollowing, I do my vases in stages. I hollow the body completely from the top...leaving the bottom solid, then prep the collar slab to fit, and hollow that out and clean up the interface. Then prep the Mouth block to fit, then hollow that out. Then turn it around and start building up the pedestal pieces the same way. I've found that I can get a better hollowing under the shoulders that way, and have better control of my concentricity.

Steve....Yup...the girls approve. They've proudly seized it. :)

Thanks everyone. :)

[Baxter Smith]

Quite exotic looking. Half expect a genie or some other creature to emerge! Welcome back!

[Roland Martin]

Glad to see you back John. I bet it's pretty hard to get nice curlies out of that teak. The combination of species work real well together, nice work!

[David Reed]

Nice execution of the sweeping curvy piece and the wood blend works well. Must agree on the pedestal.
I use teak a bit for other projects (made cabinets for my bathroom, etc) and have had no trouble gluing using regular epoxy but only after cleaning surfaces like you did (I used lacquer thinner). Did you notice that it seems to be kind of hard on the edge of sharp tools, even though it is soft?
I was thinking like Baxter that if you rubbed it out any more, a genie may pop out.
Welcome back

[Brian Effinger]

Hey! He's back again! No lacquer OD. :D

Pretty vase, and a neat combo of woods. I'm not too crazy about the pedestal, but I do agree with keeping things short. So short that it is just a walnut foot/base. But that's just my opinion, and you know what they say about those. ;)

[bob svoboda]

Glad you are back, John. I have missed your commentaries. Looks like your artistic talents have stayed intact. That's a really nice piece of work.

[John Hart]

Thanks for the nice words. It's nice to be hangin' in the vortex again. :)

[David E Keller]

Welcome back buddy! I left a comment about this piece over at WTA, so I won't bore everyone here... Nicely done.