Turned Carved Vase

[Jeff Fagen]

I started out to make a tall vase from this piece of box elder but during the process I broke the mouth when I had a catch.
Well I said this presents a design opportunity so remembering a Trent Bosch demo I decided to try my hand at carving.
So with a cheap set of carving tools that have been around here for who knows how long I made an attempt.
The vase is 11" X 4" with two coats of BLO and two of WOP.It was a happy save.

[Doug W Swanson]

Nice save but if it were me I would make the carving a little more pronounced. It might be hard depending on the tools you have but I think the carving should stand out a little more.

[Chip Sutherland]

Thanks for sharing. I always like to hear 'save' stories. I think folks get a lot out of realizing how mistakes are covered/recovered from. I agree with Doug. Make your Design more prominent by extending is down towards the base, if not all the way. I see something like banana leaves in your design.

Since you have already hollowed, make sure you support the inside wall of the vessel if you decide to carve more on the outside. I cracked a wall once when I suddenly made a design change to include carvings. FYI...my carving skills are minimal. I stuck a 2ft long 2x2 in my vise and put pipe insulation around it. It worked well enough.

[Jeff Nicol]

Jeff, When we talked the other day you had mentioned that you had done this. I agree with Doug, the carving could use fsome refinement, but I know you are not versed in carving much. So I would take some scraps and perfect the leaf style with some more detail to bring them out on the turning. Once you have a design that you are happy with then replicate it on the vase. If you want some semi-PRO insight stop in and I can give you the 5 cent instruction class on carving.

Good job to keep all the hard work you put into the HF before the catch.

Talk to you soon,

Jeff