5th Hollowed Form In Progress - Need Advice

[BILL DONAHUE]

Recently drove over to Alabama and got this piece of buckeye burl from "Dale the Burl Guy", a really terrific guy. Not happy with the way it's going on two fronts and thought I'd get advice from the experts. The burl part is 4 5/8's" high x 4 1/8" and the finial (maple with ebony stain) is 3 7/8". The colors are not true in the picture, it's more yellow in the lighter areas.

On the burl part I feel it should be more tapered at the bottom so that the curve follows all the way to the base. Can't do anything about it now since it's less than 1/8" thick on the sides. I do have another piece of burl so I'll correct that on the next one.

The finial looks to me more like a ray gun in a low budget sci-fi movie. It can be re-chucked so I'm thinking about trying to cut it down to a bulb shape like I've seen others do, though I hate to copy. If that doesn't work and since I'm out of wood, I may make an insert out of it and use a pen blank for a new finial. This is only my 2nd attempt at a finial and I don't have a lot of confidence on getting it very narrow. Thanks for the advice.

[robert hainstock]

My head says to round the bottom moreand maybe add a pedestal.:)
Bob

[Tom Sherman]

Bill it looks good IMHO the only thing is the finial it would be better if it were more delicate. Keep on practicing your doing fine.

[Bill Bolen]

I agree on a bit more taper to the base, but the form really is quite well done. The finial is just to busy for the elegaance of the simple curve of your form IMHO! All in all very nice!..Bill..

[Bernie Weishapl]

Narrow the bottom up some and the finial is to busy plus it needs to be smaller more delicate. For a 4" high vase I would make the finial maybe 2" or 2 1/4" at the most.

[Richard Madison]

That's a mighty fine start Bill. You might want to look at Neal Addy's and Mike Fusion's phinials like I did, and just blatantly copy them to start. Eventually you (we) will develop a style of your own. Steve S. said so, and am trying to believe him.

Press on. You can get there from here. And show us some more as your work evolves.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Bill - looks like you got lots of good advice but from your opening comments you've already identified the areas that could be enhanced. I agree with you about the base and how the form should taper to it. For me, and this is just my opinion, I like to have the base of my forms smaller than the opening or in this case - the collar. To some the proportions may give the piece a top-heavy look - to me it becomes balanced.

Finials - that is one area that I struggle with just like most others. I have found that simple is better and delicate works 99% of the time.

I think you have done some nice work here and already learned what is it that you want to try on your next piece! Have fun with it! Looking forward to seeing the next version!

[David Newson]

Bill, Its a good looking piece and you have already had a lot of good advice.

One thing I have found which can help any design indecision's, and that's take a digital picture of the piece them import it into a photo editing program ie, Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop or similar, and tweak your design until you arrive at a pleasing shape, you can then either memorize what you have changed or print of a copy, and head straight back to your lathe to implement the change, that's always assuming you have left a bit of wood to play with in the first place.

In your case that may not be possible due to the thickness left on the hollow form, but it will certainly help with your second one, and others may like to try this tip if they haven't already tried it !

David
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