large ash hollow form

[Pete Copeland]

It started out like this
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and I soon got it to look like this

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and then I decided to cut it in two

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after several months of drying and a bit of decoration it looks like this

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Here is me talking about it at my club

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The wood is ash, bubinga, and walnut. It is 20 inches tall and 12 inches at the widest. The finish is Krylon lacquer wet sanded (with mineral spirits) to 3000.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

-Pete

[Jim Burr]

Dogonit Pete!! That is crazy and the day by day is amazing!!

[Dennis Ford]

That is a great picture but the vase still looked better in person.

[Pete Copeland]

Thanks Dennis. That reminds me to thank Paul Millo and Ric Taylor for the photos.

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is one cool vase.

[Gerald Wervey]

Very nice great addition in the center if the vase. I know you said several months for the drying of the bowl But do you recall how long that time was, less or more than a years time anchor seal etc. wet wood or dry for the most part those little detail would be helpful to all so that the don't rush a pro ject and end up doing embellishments to it that they didn't count on. Jerry

[Pete Copeland]

Jerry,

the tree was cut down in May 2012. I anchorsealed all the pieces and set them out side in the shade and off the ground. I got around to roughing this piece out in July. I cut the two bowl down to about 1.5 inches thick and put them in a plastic tub with some of the shavings. In November I cut them down a bit more, to thickness of about 3/4 of an inch. At that point I took them inside the house and weighed them frequently. After about two weeks, the pieces lost about 10% of their weight and began to fluctuate, going up and down with the weather. The bottom piece weighed about 3000 g and it would fluctuate as much as 50 g with the weather. When a dry front moved thru, the weight would go down, when it rained, the weight would go up. It is easy to see that in the pattern now but it it took me a long time to confident in that. I dried at 3/4 inch thickness for 103 days but i dont think i will take that long next time (i began a companion piece from the same tree this weekend). So in early March I went about putting all the pieces together (I made the feature zig-zag ring in February).

As the pieces were put together, I took everything down to the final thickness, which is about 5/16.

I was worried about movement between the ash and the kiln- dried bubinga and walnut so all such surfaces are held together with West System G-flex epoxy. This stuff is supposed to be very flexible. It's been almost two months since I applied the lacquer and so far no problems on the joints.. Every thing is still nice and smooth.