The last of my new work for the week.

[Alan Trout]

Here is the last form that I did. It is not a cast piece but a very nice piece of Flame Box Elder done as a nice southwest Indian pot. The piece of wood was found during one of our city brush collections. I only had a couple of pieces and the last one I did was a few years ago and was a bear to turn with my limited skills at the time. This however was also a horrid piece to turn. If you notice it has a bit of spalt to it and overall is very soft. I did no stabilization to the piece just kept my gouges very sharp with nice supported slicing cuts to keep tear out to a minimum. The finish is satin gel poly. I really like the way this turn out. I think the shape was proportionally very good. It is about 1/8" thick except the very edge of the shoulder which may be a 1/4" and it is incredibly light almost feels like it was made out of balsa. I thought about a finial but the wood is just to pretty IMHO for that. over all size is about 6" wide and a little less than 4" high.

Something else I think I have finally figured out my photographs and in my opinion have gotten much better. This was worse than figuring out the turning.

Of course comments are always welcome.
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Thanks,

Alan

[James Combs]

Fantastic coloring. Got to love Box Elder especially flame. Some nice curves in the SW shape. Thanks for posting

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a really nice piece. Wood and color are outstanding. Really like the form.

[Jim Burr]

That one needs no casting Alan. Great job and beautiful wood!!!

[Jonathan Spool]

What a sweet little pot! Great coloring, and the form is perfect in my opinion. I just want to cup it in my hands. Great job.

[Donny Lawson]

Great color and shape. That's got to be a keeper.

[Jeff Nicol]

Alan, Nice job and the color is super in this piece. I have been turning some box elder this week too, but it is from a huge gnarly old tree that was hollow, but had all kinds of burly knobs and tons of figure in it. The wood is hard as can be and turns real nice, but some of the wild grain will tear out once in a while, so I have to take light cuts to keep it from that.

So anyway your piece turned out very nice, the shape is great and the finish works well,

Jeff

[Baxter Smith]

Great job Alan. That is one of the prettiest pieces of box elder I have seen. Very well done in all regards.

[Dan Forman]

Very nice form and the wood is outstanding. Well worth the effort to deal with the difficult wood. I think a finial would look out of place on this piece.

Dan

[David E Keller]

Another winner! I like this form, and the figure/color in that wood is fantastic. I'd say it was definitely worth the effort.

[Hayes Rutherford]

Very nice form and wood.

[John W Dixon]

Love the form and the flame in that piece is outstanding.

[Alan Trout]

Thanks to everyone for all the kind words. I like my castings but I am always a sucker for a pretty piece of wood.

Alan

[John Keeton]

Great form, Alan!! And, a beautiful piece of wood. Seems to me you did a fine job with the finishing of this one.

[Steve Campbell]

Beautiful piece there Alan. I like the shape, But what really draws my eye is the wood. I can't remember seeing the flame in a piece and also spalting. Thanks for showing us.

Steve

[Mark Hubl]

Very nice form Alan, and the wood is nothing short of spectacular. Pics look good too!

[Scott Hackler]

Very nice piece Alan. I love box elder and this shows it off quite well.

[John Hart]

Wow....beautiful, Alan. If I had just seen the picture, I woulda thunk that Schlumpf guy made it. Great form and wood. :)