HF on a stick?

[Steve bellinger]

Not sure what to call this, but at least it's not a tea pot.:p It's maple burl with a walnut collar, finial ,and base.aprox 8 1/2x 5. Finish so far is BLO, 2 coats shellac, and 1 coat lacquar. Will add more lacquar, let dry hit with steel wool, wax, and buff. Thanks for looking and as always all C&C more than welcome good,bad, and the ugly.:D
Steve215400215401

[Roger Chandler]

Nice figure in that maple burl...............your detailing on the finial and pedestal are good. I think the bulb on the pedestal is overshadowed by the top of the pedestal...........so the bulb being a bit bigger would be good. The form has a bit of top heaviness to it..........from the appearance in the photo............it might be because the form is elongated and wide for the height of the pedestal............perhaps an ideal might be little narrower at the shoulders and not as elongated.

Steve..........you do really nice work.............given this piece of wood in my hands........I do not think I could have done any better...........what I have found is that it is easy to think of ways.......perfecting the form when you have it off the lathe, and nearly finished.........all sorts of "could haves" and should haves" seem to become easy to spot, but while on the lathe, it is not as easy as one might think!

The overall combo of wood and form is nice!

[Donny Lawson]

I'm not sure what you would call it but it is beautiful. Great colors. The voids add some great charater. Love it.

[John Keeton]

Steve, this is a favorite form for me, so I kind of like it!!;):) You did a very good job with the top of the form, blending into the lid and finial. The finial appears to be nearly the same height as the pedestal (perhaps just a tad shorter.) On the next one, you might consider making one of them 2/3 the height of the other. Generally, I strive for progressively smaller diameters toward the top. In other words, the smallest diameter of the finial cove will be less than the smallest diameter of the pedestal, etc. The curvature of the belly of the form could be a bit more round, but all in all, this is an excellent piece of work and some beautiful wood, too. You should be pleased!!

[Baxter Smith]

Hope this was a fun change from the teapots though I thought you still had a few more to do! The colors of the wood go great together and both pedestal and lid blend into the form extremely well. It reminds me quite a bit of one I tried a while ago with a maple burl and apple pedestal and finial. I ended up not being totally happy with it so that may cloud my thoughts on this one.

The burl I used had a small bark inclusion in the top half. Because I had envisoned this immaculate surface on top, I turned the top half down until the inclusion was gone, but so was the continuous curve from the bottom through the shoulder. More or less the "roundness" that John was referring too, except on top. I also wanted to use a particular piece of apple for the pedestal. That piece happened to be the exact same length as the finial I had just finished putting on top. Even though I wanted it longer I went with it. Yours is a very nice looking piece of work, but for what its worth, it brought back a few thoughts.

[David E Keller]

It's a neat looking piece, Steve! In the photos, it looks a bit top heavy to me, but I'm occasionally frustrated by how photos change the appearance of things I've turned... More often than not, my pieces look better in the photo than they do in person! I do think the lid/finial are a bit busy for my taste... The wood in the main form is so nice, so I don't like to see anything detract from that. I like the diamond shape of the main form... It's nice to see something a tad different from time to time! Thanks for sharing!

[Steve bellinger]

Thanks all. I didn't think this piece was gonna turn out, as nothing seemed to go right. The first finial i got to thin, and it fell apart on the lathe. the base is the 3rd one i did. the first 2 i didn't like at all. This one i said,self it's gonna have to do.:o The form it self lookes top heavy, but it does sit real well, and even with the grandaughter bumping the table it hasn't fallen over.:)

[Dennis Ford]

Beautiful wood and workmanship, the finish is very good also. The form of the body seems odd to me with the its almost straight lines, even so I would have been proud, had I turned it.

[Roland Martin]

This is a gorgeous piece of wood, Steve, and the combination seems to work well. Nice work, I'm anxious for my Monster to come in so I can begin the learning process of hollow forms.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Steve - I always refer to this style as elevated hollow forms.

You have a lot going on in this piece with the wood and various angles competing for attention. For the most part, I agree with JK's comments and the only other portion of the piece I would point out is the junction of the pedestal and body of the form. You have two undercut angles at that juncture and - my opinion - they interrupt the flow as the eye moves from the base up the form. I do see where you repeated one of those angles at the base of the finial, so maybe it ties everything together.... just to me, it interrupts the flow.

Overall, very interesting piece. The form is different but with the high shoulder slightly above the center-line, it does add a lot of lift. That's cool! Looking forward to seeing what you create next!

[Curt Fuller]

Wow! The overall form and all the beautiful colors in the wood really look great to me. I think it's a very pretty piece.

[Jim Burr]

What...no corndog? Oh well...this will do I guess!
Very nice chunk of wood to use for this one...looks like a piece that Keller would go goo goo over! I like the collar and the pedestal, just well done all around!