"Stranger".... a lesson in mushroom safety

[Scott Hackler]

"The dangers of the forest are present for mama and her babies, today. A stranger lurks nearby and the babies cling to their mother for safety. Not knowing whether this new guest is friend or foe."

I present the next in my natural scene series..........."Stranger".

Black walnut root for the family of mushrooms and box elder for the stranger. Mounted atop a slice of natural edge box elder and accented with steam bent white oak reeds. Dusted with shavings around the bases of each item. 17 individual turnings with 3 of the mushrooms turned as two pieces to enable a tilted cap. All mushrooms were textured under their caps. Boiled linseed oil finishing on the mushrooms and nothing on anything else. 8 1/2" wide and 4" to the top of the large mushroom.

Comments and critiques are welcome, always. Thanks for looking.


193337193335193339193336

[James Combs]

Wow, I like it a bunch.

[David E Keller]

That's cool, Scott. I wondered if you were going to continue in this direction after your previous 'nature scene'. The arrangement of the piece is fairly striking, and the little touches are very nice. Thanks for sharing.

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is cool Scott. I like the arrangement of the piece. Well done.

[Harry Robinette]

Very nice,very nice. Scott you have out done yourself with this.Out of the box heck what box. Keep your mind running like it is and your turnings have no bounds.

[Michael James]

Nice job! That might have Chris Stott back in design mode on the clusters. The texturing is what really pulls this off for me.
mj

[Kathy Marshall]

Wow! Very Very Cool piece!

[Tim Thiebaut]

Scott that is awesome, without a doubt you have created a very nice piece of art there.

[Baxter Smith]

Great job Scott! I had just about forgotten the first "scene" you had done until I opened up this one. Very, very nice!

[Joe Watson]

Craftsmanship and Creativity equal a piece of art work right there.
Was this inspired by a painting or image or something ?

_

[Dan Forman]

I love this, concept and execution!!!

Dan

[John Hart]

You come up with such cool stuff Scott. This is a piece that people can sit and marvel over. Very entertaining and well executed. :)

[Gordon Beehler]

Scot - that's amazing - can you bring it to the next SKW meeting ?

[Lee Koepke]

I must have missed your earlier scenes. Not really sure if I can find the RIGHT word for this ... fascinating, impressive, fun, creative .... fascimftive ??? Very nice,thanks for sharing.

[John Keeton]

Scott, you have done a very nice job on each individual turning - the shapes, the texturing, etc. But, I think it is the "arrangement" that makes this piece what it is. Very well conceived, and placement of the individual components runs with the theme. Great job on the photography, too! Nice closeups. Well done!!

[Ken Whitney]

Scott,

I like this a bunch. How did you do the texturing under the caps. It looks very realistic.

Ken

[Michael Short]

Scott,

That is amazing. Thanks for sharing your artistic talents with us.

[Joe Adams]

I'm very impressed! It's always cool to see turning taken to new artistic levels.

[David Reed]

Totally novel concept and extremely well executed. Looks time consuming as well with all the individual forms to create.

[cal thelen]

That is really cool. Love it

[David DeCristoforo]

Ooo.... mushrooms.... Now where's my frying pan and garlic and butter? Oh, and I'm gonna need a steak too.

No,no! There just kids! Get back evil one!

Not now, Bob... I'm babysitting!

No, I don't want to buy a subscription to National Geographic.

Sorry, Nancy can't come out and play right now.

There goes the neighborhood...

Oh my god.. It's Billy the Cap. I told you not to go this way...

[bob svoboda]

I like that a lot. Very nice job, Scott.

[Scott Hackler]

Thanks for the comments everyone. This was another labor of love and another image thats been floating around my head....completed!

The mushroom texturing was done using an NSK Presto high speed rotary carver (before I toasted the turbine by giving it 2x + the reqired psi!). I actually had to use the tool anyway, as is, to do the box elder mushroom. I had originally made a much smaller hickory mushroom for the "stranger" and it just wasn't working as the image I wanted. The replacement (new) turbine cartridge didn't make it to me yet and I was tired of waiting to assemble this piece....so I fought through the last texturing with a tool turning at 1/4 speed or so. Yuck! The bit is a carbide medium tapered. I just kept a strong angle to the mushroom cap and carved each individual "line" on the underside. The little ones take about 10 minutes each to texture and the large one took about 20 minutes. Mostly because the stupid carpal tunnel was acting up in my right hand (dominant) and I had to start and stop 3-4 times.

Gordon, I wont be able to make the May meeting as I am taking the family on a vacation to San Francisco and we will be leaving the day of our meeting. But I should be at the June meeting and will likely bring it along.

This one and the "Elder Flower" are 2 of the 3 things I am going to take to St Paul and enter into the instant gallery. Hopefully the "masters" will be gentle with their critiques! I have a few more "nature" ideas rolling around in the noggin and hope to get one more done in time for the AAW Symposium, so my entries will all have a theme.

Oh and David... At first I thought your post was just random ramblings! Then I realized that they were related to the scene! lol I like some of them and should have consulted the group for naming / theme ideas. "There goes the neighborhood" is great!

[Paul Douglass]

David, I don't post much here because all that is, is way over my abilities. I mostly look and marvel. What you did really catches me. That is beautiful and a new dimension to turning I have not seen before. Beautiful work. I'm sure it will be well received by "the masters".