Maple Indian platter

[Robert McGowen]

This is the first piece that I have done from scratch; i.e. finding a photo of a basket that I liked and designing the pattern. http://www.woodturnersunlimited.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
The basket is a Pima Indian design.
Made from maple, it is 9.5" across and 1.125" high and has been finished with Danish Oil.
Critiques and comments welcome. Thanks for looking.

[Dan Hintz]

Great googley moogley, that must have taken quite a while to pattern/burn. Very nice!

[Richard Moran]

Incredible detail work. I love it!

[Dan Hunkele]

Nice! It all looks so perfect. Beautifully done.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Robert - I think you did a great job on creating your version of an original Pima design! I would think just finding a design you wanted to tackle would be challenging enough... but then to figure out how to lay that out on your platter just boggles my mind! Very very nice work! Looking forward to seeing what you create next!

[Bill Boehme]

Robert, That is beautiful work. After seeing Jim Adkins demo at SWAT last month, I am just getting ready to start a Navajo style wedding basket. I made one several years ago and my eyes nearly fell out of my head by the time that I was done. :eek: How long did your project take?

I started on one about 9½" diameter a few days ago and completed the beading, but it is just too flat in my judgement so I went to Rocklers today and bought some more maple to go for one with a bit more of a basket shape.

[charlie knighton]

Robert, great piece....good pictures also

question to anyone.....who orginated this type of work???????? I believe David Nittman did some of this , but have no idea if he was the first. it's a woodturning quest to attempt something like this and really a heirloom accomplishment for the turner

[Bill Boehme]

Robert, great piece....good pictures also

question to anyone.....who orginated this type of work???????? I believe David Nittman did some of this , but have no idea if he was the first. it's a woodturning quest to attempt something like this and really a heirloom accomplishment for the turner

Charlie,

Im not sure that any one person started doing the basket illusion style turnings. David Nittmann started doing them many years ago and I have seen the ones that both he and Jim Adkins created displayed in the instant gallery at SWAT for several years. Their styles are very different so it appears that their inspirations we're at least partially derived from different sources. David's work seems to have been original designs whie Jim strives to adhere to traditional Native American designs. I have also seen several other basket illusion turnings displayed at SWAT and I imagine that there is a lot of borrowing of ideas from here and there as well as some new ideas being incorporated.

[charlie knighton]

I see Jim Adkins has had several classes lately, I saw some of David's work in st paul I believe, and also one of the Utah symposiums, I may have seen Jim's work on a board but have not seen it in person......both of their work are incredibule, but Robert's work takes 2nd place to none......you have to commit to a piece to do that much work on one piece.....not sure I want to attempt one .....guess I am chicken

[Sid Matheny]

Wow and Wow! That is unbelievable!


Sid

[Bill Boehme]

I see Jim Adkins has had several classes lately, I saw some of David's work in st paul I believe, and also one of the Utah symposiums, I may have seen Jim's work on a board but have not seen it in person......both of their work are incredibule, but Robert's work takes 2nd place to none......you have to commit to a piece to do that much work on one piece.....not sure I want to attempt one .....guess I am chicken

I attended a demo by David Nittmann several years ago at SWAT and he jokingly commented that it helps to be half crazy because the work is so monotonous and at the same time requires such precise attention to detail.

[Bill Bulloch]

Great job Robert. I have been following your progress over on Facebook with great interest.

Earlier this year Harvey Myer did a Basket Illusion Demo at our Club. I went home and made a small hollow form using the techniques he demoed. I cut the beads and drew the vertical lines on the lathe using the index wheel. It is sitting on a shelf unfinished, because I found that I did not have any colored pens with a sharp enough point to do the coloring down in the groves. What brand name pens do you use?

[Thom Sturgill]

Robert, a beautiful piece. Only one thing I would caution when starting a project like this - you are working from a picture of another artist's work. Rather than copy it literally, use it for inspiration and create your own design. Some designs are traditional and may surely be copied, but there are artists currently creating new works, and it is not right to copy their designs without permission.

[Robert McGowen]

Thank you to everyone for the comments. I guess I have about 20 hours in the piece. As I have stated before, I took a week long class from Jim Adkins and learned the technique.

Bill, I am using Copic brand dye pens for the coloring. You can get various tips for the pens to suite your needs.

[Robert McGowen]

Robert, a beautiful piece. Only one thing I would caution when starting a project like this - you are working from a picture of another artist's work. Rather than copy it literally, use it for inspiration and create your own design. Some designs are traditional and may surely be copied, but there are artists currently creating new works, and it is not right to copy their designs without permission.

Thom, I can only guess that you did not actually read any of the information about what the piece was. It is a copy of a Pima Indian basket that I made from wood. The original basket was dated in the late 1800's. I know that it is all in vogue these days to rant about copying other people's work, but seriously? I was TRYING to copy it. :confused: That was the whole point of making the piece.

[Thom Sturgill]

I saw that it was Pima - not the age. I only caution about copying the ORIGINAL work of WORKING ARTISTS. No copyright exists for items that old, nor should it. Personally, I do not agree with the current length of copyright - I don't think it should survive the the artist, or at least not his spouse, if any. Adult children can go find work.

Any paint artists that study seriously find themselves tasked to copy works of the masters, and that is as it should be. Adapting a given style to a NEW work is more worthy, IMHO, than executing an accurate copy. Changing the media does not necessarily clear one from copyright infringement, if I understand the rulings I have read about.

I genuinely love the bead impression work that I have seen (and yours appears to be top notch) and simply do not want to see issues arise from too close copying. Some of artists are rather rabid (as they should be if the design work is original) about protecting their designs.

[Gus Dundon]

This is one of the most amazing platter I've seen! Amazing details and execution. Turned out really well.

[charlie knighton]

The American Woodturner , October 2014 has a In Memoriam article for David Nittmann. good article and has several photos of his work, I had not seen any of the pieces that were shown, pretty awesome.