Spalted Maple Bowl

[Paul Heely]

I originally roughed out this bowl about 3 years ago. It's been sitting on a shelf waiting for me to get up the nerve to finish it. Unfortunately I don't have any more of the logs that this piece came from. Comments and critiques welcome.

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Species: Spalted Maple
Size: 3 3/8" high x 7" wide x 7" deep
Finish: Artist Fixative and a coat of ren wax, hand buffed

Thanks for looking.

[Dennis Ford]

The shape is very nice but that wood is amazing.

[Paul Heely]

I should add that I actually finish turned the outside twice. Once so that I could try different finishes on it. What I found was that most everything darkened or muddied the wood too much. I tried dyes, oils, shellac and then I remember Ellsworth mentioning in one of his vides about artist fixative and gave that a shot. It did the best job at preserving the figure in the wood.

[Joe Watson]

I dig that alot... almost like looking in a puddle when theres a down poor.

[Jeff Fagen]

Wow,that figure really pops!

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a beauty. I like the simple form and wood looks really good.

[Thomas Canfield]

The wood really is amazing, but the dimensions are a puzzle. Please explain for an old engineer.

[David E Keller]

Gorgeous! Nice shape and gorgeous wood!

[Curt Fuller]

What an awesome piece of wood! The nice clean bowl form is perfect too.

[Baxter Smith]

Great shape on a great piece of wood! Very nice!

[Michelle Rich]

zowie..that's gorgeous, and what else is cool? it's apparantly is 3 3/8 tall and 7 tall too! It expands & contracts! Now that's a new one on this old turner!! :-0 :-) GRIN!

[Paul Heely]

Thank you for all the kind words.

On the dimensions, from the rim to the base it is 3 3/8. The width and depth are given because many of my pieces are turned wet and go oval on me, and are not perfectly round. In this case it is round and 7" in diameter, which would give a width and depth of 7". Here's one reference that supports this way of giving dimensions, http://www.collegeart.org/guidelines/slidelabel. Am I confused on which dimensions are height, width and depth?

[John Keeton]

Paul, great bowl!! Love that wood, and it looks like it was "on the edge" of being punky. Hope you didn't have too much trouble with finish cuts.

On the dimensions, your reference pertains to 3 dimensional work, which would include a variety of things not all necessarily round. I just think turners are use to thinking of the depth and width being the same in all turned work. That might not always be the case with multi-axis turnings and sculpted turnings.

[David Nelson1]

Very nice. I'll be glad to have sometime to learn... but alas way to many other projects.

[Paul Heely]

The finish cuts were not much fun at all. I got about 1" of finish cut and then back to the grinder. Even shear scraping on the outside left some torn out grain. It was also tough to sand, because some parts were much softer and it was easy to sand divots even with the bowl turning.

[Jim Burr]

Great job Paul! What's not to love!?

[charlie knighton]

very nice Paul, but explain artist fixative please. is it a product? it looks clear, almost like a clear wax, nice choice. thats a nice brown, when you have that color of brown and a darker brown, the darker brown has been bad news. thanks for sharing

[Russell Eaton]

That is some incredible spalting. I like the bowl as well.

[Paul Heely]

very nice Paul, but explain artist fixative please. is it a product? it looks clear, almost like a clear wax, nice choice. thats a nice brown, when you have that color of brown and a darker brown, the darker brown has been bad news. thanks for sharing

Artist fixative is a spray on product that is generally used to spray on top of charcoal drawings to prevent smudging. I'm sure it has other uses, but that's the one I know about. The fixative drys very quickly and has a matte finish and is crystal clear. It's some type of acrylic. It darkened the wood every so slightly, but much less than anything else I tried. On top of that I put a coat of ren wax and hand buffed it out.

Not sure how semi-gloss laqure would have looked in comparison. I only have gloss lacquer and on this piece wanted a simple finish that would not compete with the figure in the wood.


Thanks again everyone for your kind words.

[steven carter]

Great looking bowl Paul. Simple form and "complicated" spalting pattern works very well together.