Silver Maple bowl with colored resin inlay

[Doug W Swanson]

Since our local turning club has their Christmas party this Friday, I needed something for the turning exchange. I wanted to try something a little different so when I was turning this Silver Maple bowl, I was going to have a little curve in the rim. It wasn't quite what I had envisioned so I decided to add a little bling to it. Basically I turned a little groove in the rim, mixed up some resin and ended up with this.
The resin turned out better than I thought. I tried to use micro mesh (like I do on my resin pens) to polish out the rim but there were just a few scratches that I couldn't get out. I pulled out my Dremel, mounted a small buffing wheel to it and polished it the rest of the way.

The bowl measures about 7" x 4" x 3/8". I want people to use my bowls so I like to leave them a little thicker. It's finished with walnut oil.

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I think this turned out nice so I'm going to have to make another one to keep!

Critiques and comments welcome!

[Jim Burr]

Cool Doug!! Great use of a stinky medium...I like it!!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking bowl Doug. I like the inlay.

[Greg Just]

Very nice Doug - Hope you pick my name for the exchange.

[Lori Kleinberg]

Very nice looking bowl, Doug. Thanks for sharing.

[Kathy Marshall]

Very nice bowl Doug! Nice job on the inlay and I'm sure your exchange partner will be very happy!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Looks really nice Doug! Great color - especially for this time of year! How deep was the groove or how thick is the resin? I've never worked with the stuff - so have no idea of the mess or difficulty when using it. How stable is it? The wood bowl is going to move somewhat... how does that affect the resin inlay? Just curious. I am sure your exchange partner is going to love it!!

[Doug W Swanson]

Thanks for the comments everyone!


Looks really nice Doug! Great color - especially for this time of year! How deep was the groove or how thick is the resin? I've never worked with the stuff - so have no idea of the mess or difficulty when using it. How stable is it? The wood bowl is going to move somewhat... how does that affect the resin inlay? Just curious. I am sure your exchange partner is going to love it!!

I made the groove about 1/4 deep for the resin. I then masked off both edges of the lip to hold the resin. Then I just poured the resin around the rim making sure I had enough to fill the groove. I think the worst part about using resin is the smell. If you use small amounts it's not bad but on larger amounts the smell will eventually permeate the whole house. I haven't mixed resin and wood before so I'm hoping that the resin is thin enough to move with the wood. I sure wouldn't have tried this with green wood!

[Eric Gourieux]

Doug,
I'm going to show my ignorance, here, but what do you mean by resin? I've heard of people using resin to fill large gaps and burl defects. Is this the same resin? How did you color it?

[Doug W Swanson]

Doug,
I'm going to show my ignorance, here, but what do you mean by resin? I've heard of people using resin to fill large gaps and burl defects. Is this the same resin? How did you color it?

I used polyester resin that many people use for casting pen blanks. There are a couple of different brands/types but I use the Castin' Craft stuff from Micheal's. It's colored with Pearl Ex powders (also from Micheal's). Hope this helps!

[Eric Gourieux]

I used polyester resin that many people use for casting pen blanks. There are a couple of different brands/types but I use the Castin' Craft stuff from Micheal's. It's colored with Pearl Ex powders (also from Micheal's). Hope this helps!


Thanks for the info.

[Greg Just]

I saw this bowl in person last night and it is very nice. Unfortunately Doug didn't pick my name so I didn't get to bring it home. Funny thing is that my name was picked next. Missed by one!

[Jenny Trice]

Even nicer in person! I was really hoping my number would be picked for that one. Fun night at the holiday party.