Three Ladies from a Barn>>>>>>>

[Paulo Marin]

On my last post, I mentioned how exciting and thorough I thought Barbara Dills’ off-center work was. (barbaradill.com). It brought back memories to me when I had the opportunity to learn “off-center” work from a legendary woodturner by the name of Chris Stott. When I started turning, he was one of the first videos I watched. I learned a lot from Chris. Then later on, his teachings helped me tremendously when I had the pleasure of taking private classes from another fantastic woodturner by the name of Soren Berger. With him I turned one of his famous ladles. Both experiences were enjoyable! Both turnings were “off-center”.

So, I decided to turn the female form again. I inspected my wood pile and found a few walnut pieces brought to me by a friend after her grandfather’s barn was destroyed. According to her, the barn was over 150 years old.

I recently purchased a Yates-American lathe for $600 from the Los Angeles School District. The broker told me it was sitting in a warehouse since 1969. Although old, the lathe has variable speed and the motor is only a ¾” horse (enough to turn these ladies). Although very dry, the walnut pieces were incredible and highly figured.

I did not apply a finish to "one of the "ladies" as you can see. The wood was beautiful. I thought I would leave it alone so I can experiment with dyes (probably next year sometime if I am lucky).

It was a delightful experience for me. It kind of brought back memories from when I had a lot of time and I turned all kinds of things.

I hope you enjoy looking at it. I strongly recommend this type of turning… No special chucks required and it will change your mind about spindle turning... it is not that boring after all!

In case you are interested, Chris has this lesson on his DVD: A lesson with Chris Stott: Basic Off Centre Turning.

Obviously, critiques and comments are accepted. If you see too many flaws, please forgive me… I have not turned for awhile.

But I have been brewing phenomenal beers ;)

Thank You!
Wish you all a great weekend!

Paulo Marin

[Jeff Nicol]

Paulo, Very striking pieces, I am intriqued by them and have seen a few here and there while cuising the net for turning stuff. You are correct the wood is beautiful and the "lady" form is great, I will have to give it a try!

Thanks for posting them,

Jeff

[John Keeton]

Paulo, I am not much on off center work, but these are very nice! You have captured the essence of the female form quite well. Not sure they would look nearly as nice if dyed.

[David E Keller]

Nicely done, Paulo! Chris Stott is a new name for me, so I'm off to do a little research... Thanks!

[Nate Davey]

Beautiful work Paulo, I also am off to do some research.

[charlie knighton]

very nice Paulo

Chris Stott was at st paul, i caught one of his rotations, inlaid box. pretty good, i also have his book Turned Boxes 50 designs

[Baxter Smith]

Very nice wood and very shapely ladies! Good work!!

[Eric Holmquist]

Very inspiring. I have played around with multi-axis turning in the past, but never made anything quite this imaginative.

[James Combs]

Ditto "off to do some research". Very nice both the wood and the shape.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Wow...babys got back! lol...sorry...I couldnt resist...Those are very nice!

[Doug Reesor]

Wonderful work. While some lathes are definitely built better than others, the finished result is still far more influenced by the turner than the equipment. You have the touch.

Doug

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice looking ladies. I have Chris Stotts book Turned Boxes 50 Designs. Really nice books with lots of ideas.

[Mike Cruz]

Captivating, just captivating...

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Nice going Paulo,
Every time I look at something you have your fingers in it costs me money. I now see another DVD I probably can't live without. As for the turnings, it is obvious to me you have spent considerable time studying the female form. It was always one of my favorite pass times. You've put your research to better use so I suppose I will have to do the honorable thing and give these a try. I am a terrible spindle turner and I can't think of a better challenge to improve my technique. Nicely done and thanks for showing us the results of wearing your "turners hat". Lo non so niente piu la una bella donna.
fausto

[Scott Hackler]

Very cool, Paulo. Its really neat to be able to use offset turning to creat true 3D forms.

[Barbara Dill]

Paulo,
Fabulous pieces. Can't wait to meet you.
Barbara

[Jon Nuckles]

Nice work, Paulo, and nice wood. The guy I share my shop with also brews beer. I hear it is a vortex of its own; I used to see him at the shop a lot more before he got into that. Glad to see that you still find time for turning!

[Paulo Marin]

Jon, the beer vortex is also very deep... I am currently trying to make my own brewing sculpture. Unfortunately, brewing and turning do not go hand in hand. Brewing is addicting, because six weeks later or so, you have 15 gallons of delicious stuff.. But then, you have to get a kegerator, then you got to have the Blichmann fermenter and like woodturning it goes on and on. You catch yourself repeating over and over again: Honey... I have a problem... I need to get bla bla bla bla..otherwise I will never finish this project... You know I am doing this for you right sweetheart?...:rolleyes:

Thanks for the comments Jon.. I am also glad that I did not forget what I've learned... Next I will try to make a cowboy hat again.. I just need to find 12 hours somewhere and remember where I put all my hat jigs...

[Jon Nuckles]

Paulo, I hear the same thing from my buddy about the brewing needs. Sounds like the number one need is an understanding spouse. He has devoted one bathroom of his apartment to his brewing hobby. I would never get away with that! You are lucky your sweetheart likes beer. Please post the cowboy hat; being able to turn one of those someday is a goal of mine. BTW, I got a chance to try out the spindle gouge you sent me and it is great. Thanks again!

[David E Keller]

Paulo, if you need to send the beer somewhere so that you can focus on turning, my address is...:D

[Rick Markham]

Those are very cool Paulo! Off axis ideas have been on my mind recently... I need to finish my current project so I can do a bit of experimenting.

[Paulo Marin]

Well... end of sunday and time to thank all of you for the positive comments. I am glad to have been able to introduce something different. Since I am in the off-center mode, I will try next to turn a Soren Berger laddle... It is a lot more challenging than the three ladies.. It is somewhat dangerous because the handle will be turning around your hand...
Thank you everybody. I appreciate it.
Have a good week everyone
Paulo Marin

[Tim Rinehart]

That's a neat turning. Yep, I suppose I'll be looking into that one more myself. I've tried a couple times to do some multi-axis...and it's more difficult than just watching experts like Barbara Dill who visited one of our local clubs last year. It was a great demo, but like so many techniques...if you don't start trying stuff right away, it goes away.
Thanks Paulo for posting, the form is exquisite and truly does a great job of the form.

[Michael James]

Nice! Chris Stott is quite the turner and teacher. I have seem some of his video work (not this one) and I also have his book on boxes - bought it way before the lathe....just in case. Thanks for posting.
mj

[Al Wasser]

Anyone know a source for the DVD. I did some looking yesterday and nada.

[Bill Wyko]

So let me get this straight, you are with a company that makes incredible tools AND you know how to use them. In business it's so very important to know every aspect of your business. Bravo. It's why I'm still in business.
Your turnings are absolutely beautiful. I've tried some off center turnings but they really didn't follow any specific form. I will have to definitely revisit off set turning. I think I wan to try to make a golf club now that you have shown these pictures. Thanks for posting.

[Paulo Marin]

Thank You!
That is a cool idea I had not considered before... I golf club would be awesome.. How long is the bed of your lathe? As I mentioned before, make sure you download Barbara's PDF. I find it to be very comprehensive. She has the multi-axis I and II available. Combine that with the Chris Stot video and this will definitely be a fun project... If you do the golf club, I would love to see the result... My next project will be to turn Soren Berger's ladle... That is quite exciting because the handle is short and when you mount it off-center the handle will be rotating around your hand.. gotta be careful!.. Thanks again for the remarks!
Paulo Marin