A Few of my projects, per your request

[Russell Neyman]

I'm a new member, and somebody asked me to post a few of my turned vessels and bowls. I've been a casemaker and cabinetmaker for 30 years (samples on another post, eventually) but about six years ago I discovered turning. I was hooked immediately, and have since developed my skills to a point where they're featured in several galleries here in the Puget Sound Area.

Anyway, here are a few of the more unusual items. I have approximated the sizes and wood types from memory:

I make a fair number of urns on a commission basis, and this first one happens to be for my father. Maple burl, 9"W x 8"H. US Navy Captain's device mounted on lid. This urn happens to be semi-sealed, so if/when his ashes are spread at sea, we can keep the urn, but his remains can't be spilled in the meantime.


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This one, called "Volcano" is a large, banded bowl made from flamed maple, 13" W x 11" H. The bands are ebony with gold wire, with a second band airbrush tinted. Only the lip is thick; the vessel is thin elsewhere.

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"Bridelvail Falls"-- Another very large bow from a maple burn a treetrimer gave me one day in exchange for a six pack of budweiser. It measures 14" across, barely fitting onto my Jet lathe. There were serious voids in the bowl (I filled them with a mixture of bark and colored epoxy) so to reinforce it, I wrapped the rim with copper wire.
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"Arrowhead"-- This is a smallish piece made from Cocobolo and contains a collection of arrowheads. 3"W x 3.5" H.
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"Antler"-- Curley maple with a lignum vitae base and a deer antler root for a knob. 9"W x 12"H
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I have been tinkering with wet-turned madrone, later drying it a minute at a time in a microwave. The results have been interesting, giving white wood (madrone is usually reddish) and extreme warping. This one is called "Meteor" and is about 8" H x 3"W.
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Called "Strawberry Milkshake" this one is a stunner; at least, the wood is stunning. It's made from a piece of Amboyna that cost more than several cars I have owned, 5"W x 13" H, with fractured gold leaf on the base.

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Photos of a great many of my pieces are in a format that this website won't support. I was particularly disappointed I could not successfully post my signature piece, "William Tell," or other examples of the green-turned madrone. There's also a large teapot I did for a friend that is rather unusual and worth sharing.

If you'd like to see more, check out the gallery on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1470896711549.53622.1807573692

Hopefully, some of these will trigger a thought with you and present creative opportunities. Your feedback, questions, and suggestions are certainly welcome.

[Michael James]

Quite original variety of pieces, and well done. Thanks for sharing them.
Michael

[Ed Morgano]

Russell,
I took a look at your work on your facebook link. You have an impressive variety of projects and they are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[Keith E Byrd]

These are great - welcome to the Creek! You have some beautiful wood and pieces!

[Donny Lawson]

Welcome aboard and those are some nice pieces of work.

[Dick Wilson]

Welcome to the Creek and great pieces.

[David E Keller]

Welcome, Russell! Thanks for sharing your work... Great stuff! Looing forward to seeing more of it.

[Russell Eaton]

Very nice turnings Russell, I hope to see more of them in the future.

[John Keeton]

Russell, that is quite an array of turnings - my favorite of those shown is "Bridelvail Falls" - very nice. I thought the addition of the bands on "Volcano" was an interesting feature, too.

On the other images, it is possible to pull them into an image program and resave in another format - something you may want to consider so they can be posted.

[bob svoboda]

Thanks for sharing, Russell. Nice variety of items.

[David DeCristoforo]

Very nice work! But the "volcano" bowl is, by orders of magnitude, "above and beyond"...

[Jim Burr]

Beautiful and varied work Russell. Excellent work and welcome!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Russell welcome to SMC. Very nice group of turnings. I do like the antler and arrowhead boxes.

[Jerry Marcantel]

Nice stuff Russell.... Did you make the arrowhead, or was it found? The Volcano is the best........ Jerry (in Tucson)

[Harvey Ghesser]

The amboyna is stunning!

[Russell Neyman]

Nice stuff Russell.... Did you make the arrowhead, or was it found? The Volcano is the best........ Jerry (in Tucson)

No, my brother actually smuggled a small collection of arrowheads out of a Middle Eastern country, and that one is one of the ones he found in the desert. The others are stored in this lidded vessel. Mounting it was sort of interesting: I soldered wired onto the top of a machine bolt, then, with the arrowhead placed inside them, I just gently bent the wires until it was captured. I like the idea of adding a second valuable object to my boxes and bowls, and this particular trick would hold a coin, key, etc without damaging it. I often go down to the local antique consignment mall just looking for interesting objects to add on.

[Russell Neyman]

The amboyna is stunning!

Yeah, and it takes huevos to cut into a piece of wood that cost 175 bucks! Normally, I wouldn't do that, but when I saw the remarkable piece of wood, I decided that it was shouting at me to "turn me into something beautiful." So I did.

An interesting side note to my turning philosophy is that it bothers me to give (or sell) an empty bowl to someone, so I usually put something in them -- beads, dried flowers, marbles -- just something interesting and creative. I don't try to fill it up; just place a handful of objects into the bottom. This process can be very challenging, so I'm constantly on the hunt. I always have a few bags of potpourri on hand, as well as shiny new pennies, and polished rocks from my own beach here on Puget Sound. In this case I added a large quantity of white, polished rocks, which gives it the "milkshake" look.

If you've never seen one before, here's what a $175.00 bowl blank looks like.

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[Russell Neyman]

Since you guys are encouraging me, here are a few more:

This one, called "William Tell," is probably my signature piece this last year. the bowl itself is extremely tall (22 inches high overall, and a good 11 inches in diameter) and made from figured maple. The show-stopper is the feather finial carved from ebony, mounted on some beautiful dense wood I found on a neighbor's wood pile. I think it's mahogany, but who can tell for sure. This urn demanded a high price, obviously, and the art gallery in Oregon that was showing it commissioned me to do a collection of smaller ones.
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The next two photos are of more of the microwave-dried green madrone. You just never know what you're going to get when you try this. On this hat-shaped piece (I was simply following the shape that the wood offered me) actually has bumped grain in two directions, along with a distinctive bend along the heartwood. If anyone wants to learn more about this process, let me know.
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Here are a pair of lidded jars called "Copperhead Won" and "Copperhead Too," made from curley maple. the accents are areas I recessed into the wood, then filled with a mixture of copper filings and black epoxy. The art gallery sold these two days after they were put on display.
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I think the stubburn part of me caused me to create this one that is called, "Turtle." A turning demonstrator at the annual Woodworking Show told me that lacewood COULD NOT be turned because it was too brittle, so I set out to do it anyway. The trick was to use it in a large, flat orientation (a lid) to show off the lacy flecks. For the body of the vessel, I chose something completely different, yew. The result is rather striking, I think. 7"W x 5"H.
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Hope all of this stimulates conversation as much as your work does me.

[David E Keller]

Very cool, Russell! I'm especially drawn to those warped green madrone forms... I've played with a little dry madrone burl which is nice, but one of these days, I'm gonna get my hands on the wet stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[Baxter Smith]

Welcome Russell. Very nice work!

[Russell Neyman]

Very cool, Russell! I'm especially drawn to those warped green madrone forms... I've played with a little dry madrone burl which is nice, but one of these days, I'm gonna get my hands on the wet stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Hmmm... Oklahoma? Absolutely no madrone there, I'm sure of it. That stuff cuts like butter wet, but gets hard as steel when it's cured. It's so dense and burns so hot that lots of people here use it for firewood. I love to turn it and never pass up a chance to grab some when a tree falls down during one of our famous Seattle snowstorms.

[Russell Neyman]

Yeah, amboyna is expensive, but a delight to turn. Almost all of it has both a red grain and a white grain, and I find it pays to enhance the natural edges by blackening them. One of my best sources for woods of this type is The Board Hoarder here in the Seattle area. The guy's name is Steve. Look him up on the internet and drop him a note. http://theboardhoarder.com/ His prices are very reasonable, and he's willing to negotiate. Say hello for me.

[Russell Neyman]

And another. It's boiled madrone (turned wet about double thickness, then boiled in water for four hours, later turned to the finished thickness). I love this wood, but it's rather uniquely a Pacific Northwest wood, I guess. There are a few stands in Northern California and as far south Santa Barbara, but as I understand it those are pretty small trees. This one is large -- about 13 inches across and was only sanded to 400 grit-- no finish on it except paste wax.

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[David E Keller]

I like this one too, Russell! Reminds me a bit of cedar on this one. Thanks for the link to the board hoarder... I'll keep him in mind.

[Russell Neyman]

I like this one too, Russell! Reminds me a bit of cedar on this one. Thanks for the link to the board hoarder... I'll keep him in mind.

Well, in this photo is might LOOK like cedar, but madrone is much, much denser and tight-grained. I'd recommend that any turner give it a try, especially wet. It's just darn fun to turn. The secondary discussion about turning madrone has gotten legs of it's own -- especially from those turners who live in other parts of the country -- and I'm tempted to start a new discussion. If the interest is there, I could package up two or three of precut waxed blanks and sell them to other members for a modest fee. I'd include some tips for turning it green and cured, of course.

As I said earlier, it's a wonderful wood to turn.

[Roland Martin]

Quite a collection of turnings Russell. Thanks for sharing your wide array of work with us, all very interesting and thought provoking.

[Russell Neyman]

This one, "Pocahontas," is a very large quilted maple urn with a banksia "feather" finial. It's about 11 inches tall and 14 inches across. Urns don't necessarily have to be traditionally-shaped, and this design has been quite popular. Sorry for the phone camera quality. I work so hard making these darn things, then don't seem to put the same effort into the photography!

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[David E Keller]

That's another intersting turning, Russell!

You might want to start new threads for each new piece you post... I think some folks skip over threads that they've visited once already.

I just saw your offer on the madrone chunks... I'd definitely be interested when you get a chance. Shoot me a PM sometime, and we can work out the details.

[John Hart]

Impressive stuff, Russell. I missed this thread a couple weeks ago (too busy....too little time :o) Glad it got moved up toward the top again!!

Welcome to the abyss! :)

[Russell Neyman]

I will let you know the next time I come across a fallen madrone.