Cherry Segmented Urn

[Michael Stafford]

I call it a "Cherry" segmented urn because the predominant wood in the piece is cherry. However, there are quite a few woods in this piece including ash, bloodwood, chakte kok, padauk, yellowheart, redheart, purpleheart, yellow locust, tambootie, walnut and some zebrawood. There are also some dyed and undyed veneers.

This piece was made for my wife's birthday present and is 6 1/2" tall and 8 1/2" in diameter. Wall thickness is about 5/16" at the top and goes to about 1/2" at the bottom. It is finished inside and out with at least 6 coats of Helmsman spar varnish in hopes of retaining the colors as long as possible.

The third picture shows all of the pieces assembled prior to turning. No, the stack is not glued together like that. From the bottom is an 8/4 cherry block that is turned to become the bottom of the urn on one end and the chuck on the other. It is followed by the compound mitered staved bowl section which is attached temporarily to a glue block so it can be attached with a face plate to the lathe so that a mortise can be turned for the bottom. After that is the feature ring assembly which is made up of layers of veneer plywood, two frame rings and the feature ring itself. It is much easier to align all these pieces and glue them in one assembly than one piece at a time. Lastly, there is the top ring with mitered "flower petals".

Thanks for looking. All comments appreciated....

[Roger Fitzsimonds]

WOW Michael,

That is an awsome!!!! bowl. Very well done.

Roger

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike....I can only think of one word........Beautiful! As usual, I might add....

[Chris Daigh]

Very nice, your wife will certainly enjoy it. I wish my wife's husband was as talented.

[Keith Burns]

EXCELLENT !!!!!! I like the accent ring, handn't seen that anywhere before. New and refreshing.

One thing I didn't see in your description...how many pieces?

Is there anything you can't turn ?

Again, very very nice!

[Von Bickley]

Michael,
That is one GREAT turning.... :)

[Michael Stafford]

EXCELLENT !!!!!! I like the accent ring, handn't seen that anywhere before. New and refreshing.

One thing I didn't see in your description...how many pieces?

Is there anything you can't turn ?

Again, very very nice!

I counted and determined that there are 309 pieces in this urn. However 60 pieces are veneer strips between the feature ring segments and above and below the frame rings....

To answer the second question, I cannot turn heads anymore...... :p :D

[Mark Cothren]

Shazam! The wow factor on this one is off the scale for me... way to go, Mike!

Thanks for the picture!

[Shelley Bolster]

What can I say Mike.........that is one piece of amazing work there!!! You truly blew the lid off with that one! Your talent is all inspiring if not just a tad intimidating! You are a Master of more than boxes Mike!

[Don Baer]

Thats another butte. THanks for the lesson on how it's done.

[Jim Ketron]

Nice one Big Mike, as usual!

Keep them seg pieces comming!

[Charles E. Martin V]

Gorgeous! I also like the fact that you posted the "before" pic, which you hardly ever see.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

YOU DA MAN!

That is an engineering marval! Looks good, too! :p

Bruce ;)

[Dennis Peacock]

Simply stunning Big Mike...!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

You really should spend more time at your miter saw!!!!! :eek: :p

Perfect turning as usual.!!!

[Travis Stinson]

That's sure a beauty Mike. Have I seen the "before" pic before? If so, the end result is simply stunning. I wouldn't have the patience required to piece something like this together.

[Michael Stafford]

That's sure a beauty Mike. Have I seen the "before" pic before? If so, the end result is simply stunning. I wouldn't have the patience required to piece something like this together.


Travis, you may well have seen the before picture before. In another place, I posted some pictures of my segmented pieces as I was constructing them as part of a discussion about how to build segmented pieces. That may be what you are thinking of.

Altogether I built four this year....I hope to turn four this year also.

[Robert Watsek]

What can I say Mike.........that is one piece of amazing work there!!! You truly blew the lid off with that one! Your talent is all inspiring if not just a tad intimidating! You are a Master of more than boxes Mike!


I have to agree with Shelley Mike! You continue to amaze me with one beautiful piece after another. Keep it up my friend.:cool: :)

Oh yah........ hope to make over to Troy this weekend if things work out.

[John Hart]

Boy oh boy....what a wonderful vision you have. It really takes a lot to go from an idea like that to completion! Gorgeous work Mike!!!

[Glenn Hodges]

Beautiful Mike, I bet putting that together was tricker than rithmatic.

[Dick Parr]

Beautiful piece Mike :) And to hear you say you are only good at little boxes, ya right. ;)

[Matthew Clarke]

Mike, WOW is an understatement! It really works so well together. Great Job!

[Ernie Nyvall]

Incredible Mike. It make me tired just thinking about what that took to put together. Beautiful arrangement and finish.

Ernie