"Family"

[Steve Doerr]

This is a grouping of HF that I call “Family”—Father, Mother &Daughter. The three HF were first dyed black, sanded back and then dyed teal blue. (I used Chestnut Spirit Stain.) The "father" piece is 7 3/4"W x 13 3/4"H, "mother" is 5 7/8"W x 10 1/4"H and "daughter" (who is going thru a growth spurt) is 4 7/8"W x 12 3/4"H. The wood used for the HF’s is fiddleback maple with a CA finish. The pedestals and finials were turned from cherry and then ebonized. C&C welcomed.

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[Jay Mullins]

Steve, your turnings are very nice,I especially likef the dyed look. Coloring turnings is something I'd like to try.

Jay

[William C Rogers]

Those are very beautiful. Really like the color. Being a new turner how did/do you "ebonite" the cherry?

[Frederick Skelly]

That is truly beautiful work! The teal and ebonized cherry go perfectly together.
Fred

[Roland Martin]

Excellent work Steve.

[daryl moses]

Awesome work!!

[Roger Chandler]

Fine work, indeed! https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrkNXR6m6EyzQ6j4wuFe-HsHbtWGfEOEEJMKtYDH756EzntHfEhA
Steve these are superb. I want to know which one is the mother and which is the daughter going through the growth spurt? Now, these are just too nice for this pic not to show the beauty of the grain better, and I offer a mere suggestion here, trying to help this outstanding group to be better appreciated, so I hope you will consider tweaking the photo....

I use FastStone Image Viewer [free download] and with that you can tweak the lighting, the shadows, the contrast, etc to enhance your pic so that the full beauty of the work you have done can be brought out more.

[Mark Greenbaum]

WOW, is all I can say.

[David Delo]

Ouch........those are beautiful Steve.

[Doug Ladendorf]

Beautiful Steve. Very consistent tone between the three, and I like how you brought individual's detail in the finials to the pedestals. Only C&C would be that I prefer that the top "pointy" onion (?) to be a bit more present than the detail directly below it. That's a minor personal preference though. These pieces are just superb.

Doug

[Peter Dougenik]

Nicely done, good color and shapes. struggling with finials lately myself I appreciate the pedestals and finial work in particular

[Steve Doerr]

Thanks everyone for the comments and complements. Cindy Drozda's DVD "Finial Star" was a big help in learning how to turn the finials. Well worth the money.

William--to ebonize the cherry, I simply dyed it. The two things that I used on these were a black Sharpie and some India Ink. I'm still working on "perfecting" my ebonizing process. Still have a ways to go yet.

Roger--thanks for the heads up on FastStone. I'll have to check it out. Here are a few other pictures that I took that I think show the figure of the wood and maybe the finials and pedestals a little better. The daughter is the one on the right. She inherited the grain configuration from her dad and the finial shape from her mom. The growth spurt is the longer finial than would have been normally expected.
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[Roger Chandler]

What a handsome family!!! Thanks for the better pics, Steve! :)

[Eric Gourieux]

Steve, these are beautiful pieces. The shape and finish on the HF's look great. I've never used CA finish on anything other than pens, but with the finish you got, I may try it on a HF. To my eye, the onions on the top finials are a tad too thick or heavy. I prefer the decorations on the top finials to be smaller than on the base or foot. I think that a more delicate top finial would compliment the overall shape better. I agree that a larger tip on the finials would also flow better. These are nitpicks on a very well done "family".

The Droza DVD's are well done and have been a great asset to me, too. Highly recommended

[Jeff Grantham]

Wow Steve, those are REALLY beautiful! I'm not going to critique them at all, as you're clearly advanced well beyond my skill level. I'll just say that seeing work like this is inspiring to me!

[John Conklin]

Beautiful work, definitely something for the rest of us to aspire to.

[Mike Tilley]

Steve those are really great looking pieces what a nice family.

[Dok Yager]

Wow Steve those are Stunning! Very nice work indeed, love the "family" thing. They are all amazing and extremely well done. :)

[Curtis Myers]

Good looking family you have their.

[Robert Marshall]

Amazing work!

But I have to ask: how stable are those things? I live in a wood-framed house, and I can't imagine putting those on a shelf that I'd have to walk past, day to day. I'd be holding my breath all the time! Plus, we even have earthquakes in Georgia . . . not often, but it has happened.

[Steve Doerr]

Robert, actually the are a lot more stable than they look. I had them in a show this weekend that was held outside. We were on the street and the shelving unit I was using was leaning to the back just a little. There was also some breeze and the back wall to the tent was slapping the shelving unit every once in awhile. Did not have a problem. The larger of the three does shake just a little when you put it down but soon stops. I figure if it can stand secure at a outdoor show with lots of people looking at them and touching them, then walking by them in your home will not be a problem. On the other hand, I don't think I would want to go much taller on the pedestals.