Buckeye Burl

[Dick Mahany]

After recently successfully completing an exercise in advanced funnel making, I decided to give it another shot. Fortunately, no funnel this time. Buckeye Burl on Burmese Blackwood with General Woodturners Finish. 10"H x 3.5"D. This is my first piece of this type and I welcome any critiques and suggestions for improvement.

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[Tim Boger]

Simply Outstanding !!

Well done.

Tim

[Jim Burr]

First Dick, the combination is beautiful!! I'm gonna go with a bigger foot...the size 12 makes it top heavy with the size 2 shoe...so to speak. I'm still drawn to stem material...really cool!

[Allan Ferguson]

Delicate top. Beautiful wood combination. Second Jim's comments. I would have felt very good to have done this one!

[neil mackay]

After recently successfully completing an exercise in advanced funnel making,


:D Love it, I think I saw you at the advanced class.

What great piece, so much so I wished I had turned it. No critique love it the way it is.

[Tim Rinehart]

Great job Dick. Proportions look nice, flows well and not too tippy at all. Love the contrast of shades in the BEB, one of my favorite of woods to turn. Always a nice surprise (so far) when the finish goes on.

[Richard Madden]

[QUOTE=Dick Mahany;2006891]After recently successfully completing an exercise in advanced funnel making,

I like that, and I've excelled at that exercise! Great piece and hope to see more.

[Harry Robinette]

It is beautiful and the wood is very pretty,the combo of the top and stem are great. But I'm with Jim B I think the base is a tad small,sort of out of proportion with the top.
Just my $.02 and I'm no artist

[Mark Hubl]

Like the piece Dick. The top is very nice wood and oh so thin. Nice. Remember that once you can no longer make funnels is when you will need one.

[Michelle Rich]

now isn't this just plain pretty. Great wood & colors. Yep the base could have been a tad bigger, but you can always glue on another piece and turn, to widen the base if you wish. This belongs on your braggin' shelf.

[Norm Zax]

Great work and Im a BIG BE burl fan so it goes one step further in prase!

[Jamie Donaldson]

A zillion options available with a design of this type. You can vary the base and stem elements in many ways, but my preference at the point where stem meets body of the vase is to blend them together without interruption of the flow of the curve.

[Dick Mahany]

Thanks to all for the kind comments and helpful suggestions for improvement. Several of you suggested a wider base. In fact when I first sketched what I had in mind, I did have a wider foot planned, but the turning stock wouldn't allow anything wider. I like Michelle's idea of gluing on an additional piece to the foot and returning it. I just may try that !

I also like the idea of flowing the form continuously from the upper part to the stem, but I am still very challenged at turning graceful flowing curves, and hope they will come more naturally with practice.

[Kathy Marshall]

Looks great Dick! I like the natural edge and it looks like you got it very thin! Great looking wood too! I picked up some buckeye burl at the symposium in San Jose, but haven't gotten around to turning any yet.

[Doug Herzberg]

I'm no artist, but I'm going to go along with the crowd and saying a larger diameter base, but also a thinner rim on the base. I think the taper from the top of the base to the bottom of the plumb bob thingie would look better as a concave curve. I also think Jamie is right about the transition from stem to cup, but what you did doesn't hurt my eyes at all.

The cup itself is gorgeous, both form and wood. It's a great piece and I'm glad I got to see it.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful piece. I agree with a larger base.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Dick - I have looked at this turning multiple times now... and keep coming back.

I like the wood combination, the form of the goblet and while the foot could be a little larger... it is no big deal. The only area that seems to continue to bug me is the straight portion of the stem... that area between the foot and the ball portion. For me - and this is just my opinion - I think a slight curve would work better... but it is a very minor thing.

Very nice work on this! You should be happy with it!

[Dick Mahany]

Steve, thanks for the helpful suggestion, it would make for a more pleasing flow. I originally tried for less of a straight shape on the stem, but my attempts at cutting long graceful curves are still a big challenge. especially with that wood getting smaller and smaller every time I touch it ;). On this one I decided to stop while I was ahead after ruining several finial type stems.

I really appreciate all of the constructive critique from the good folks here as they are very valuable to me. Now it's time for more practice, practice, practice................