"Out of this world" club challenge

[Alan Zenreich]

Lauren and I joined the NJ Woodturners club a couple of months ago, in addition to the Hudson Valley Woodturners where we've been members for a couple of years.

At the NJ Wooturners, tonight's program was a show and tell, with a club challenge.


The next challenge is titled Out of This World and the challenge is to create a work of art, which employs wood turning, to conjure up images of outer space (real or not) ie. planets, solar systems, space vehicles…


As new members, tonight was the first time most of the club got to see any of our work.

Lauren made an unusual necklace that has a buckeye burl pendant, and wire work of Argentium spirals and fitted with a few hematite stones. I haven't photographed it yet... have to clear off the table saw... cough... photography table and set up the tent.

I did make a couple of very quick photos of my challenge piece.

My submission is this 1.25" planet made of stabilized buckeye burl with articulated rings of bookmatched stabilized cherry burl. The largest ring is 3" in diameter. An interesting project... my first turned sphere. The pins that allow the rings to be positioned are .024" thick, so that involved boring some pretty tiny holes.

The planet balances atop a 1/8" x 12" black rod with a tiny turned cup at the top.

We had fun making our pieces, and by coincidence today is our 37th wedding anniversary... so we brought cupcakes for the club member to nibble on during the break.
Sounds like a pretty romantic evening to me!

[David Warkentin]

That looks really good.

[Kathy Marshall]

Very cool! Nice job Alan!

[John Keeton]

Happy Belated Anniversary!! Alan, that is a cool piece! Great colors in the burls - particularly the buckeye burl, and I love the rings. Some precision drilling with those holes to get the thing to work right.

Sounds like Lauren's piece will be interesting, too - looking forward to seeing it.

[Scott Hackler]

Alan, thats pretty cool. I would concider making a simple pedestal on a base to mount it. Something bland, like a matte black so there wouldn't be any attension away from that cool form.

[Alan Zenreich]

Scott,

I rather like it hovering above the base.

I put a small dab of magician's wax on the top of the cup, and that's holding the sphere pretty securely... and allows me to vary the position of all the components.

It may be hard to see black on black details of the stand in the tall photo (depending on your monitor, it may be easier to see from a higher viewing angle), but the base is about 5" wide, and the rod is 12" high. It's actually pretty stable, and I can simply lift the sphere when I want to play with it.

The greatest risk would be from someone handling the piece off of the stand... those bookmatched rings have some pretty small glue joints < vbg >

[Alan Zenreich]

Here's Lauren's submission... her sort of deconstructed 'Starry Night'

The buckeye burl pendant is about 1.5" wide. The wirework is Argentium silver (non tarnishing), that she work-hardened/flattened with a hammer. The stones in the center of the spirals are hematite, and there's a crystal hanging below the pendant.

Lauren might chime in later with additional details. She requested that I photograph the piece head on to show the asymmetry of the design.

A nice surprise: On two separate occasions, members came up to her quietly and asked "is it for sale, and how much for a club member?". Now that I have a photo of the piece, we'll send it to the members who will see if it's something their wives might want. In any event, it was a nice compliment and commentary on her work.

[David DeCristoforo]

Like! Very cool...

[charlie knighton]

yall appear to be feeding off each other, very nice, thanks for sharing

[Ted Calver]

This is a great piece!! I can see why folks wanted to own it. Very nice!!

[Lauren Zenreich]

This is the first time I am seeing the photo of my "starry night" necklace. Alan, love, you did a good job, except... we are viewing the pendant from the back side. It looks much more impressive from the curved front <g>.

I was so inspired making this necklace that I made another one with a black and white ebony pendant I turned earlier. The pendant reminded me of tree roots so I created a tree from spiraled argentium and green coated copper wires and finished the necklace with a silver chain. Hopefully, Alan will photograph that one soon so you can see it too.

[Alan Zenreich]

How soon they forget.... that is the front side. See, I shave off my beard and now she doesn't recognize the ones close to her.

The angled view shows the highlight of the subtle curve a little better.

[Alan Zenreich]

Ok, here's a video slide show of the planet construction.

It's likely best displayed full screen in the YouTube viewer, but let's see how it displays here.

I hope you find it entertaining

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHjf4pnn33s


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHjf4pnn33s

[Curt Fuller]

That's really cool! There's nothing like an off the wall challenge to get the creative juices flowing.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Now that is cool. Happy Belated Anniversary Alan.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice work Alan!! Love the imagination! Special thanks for including the slideshow! Always nice to see how things were done!

[Alan Zenreich]

Thanks all for the kind words about the project and the video.

I figured that there were some tools and techniques that folk aren't that familiar with, and that they might find it useful and/or entertaining.

I spent about a month thinking about what I would do for the challenge.

I tested a few things, decided I didn't like where they were going (e.g. wire rings or wood with wire inlay rings) .

Once I finally settled on the articulated wooden rings with some beading, then it was a matter of just getting some time to turn.

[Bill Wyko]

Now that is super cool. I think you have a winner. The wood choice is superb and the design is epic. Way to go.