Have been a big admirer of Ray Allen’s work so took the inspiration to copy one of his vessel plans and add one of my own feature ring designs. I called the piece Odyssey. The vessel is made mostly of Birds eye maple. The Feature ring is composed of Koa, yellow heart, maple, ebony and Inlace. The accent rings at the top and bottom are Blood wood and maple with separation rings of Hawaiian Ohi’a. Learned a lesson on this – the Inlace has a tendency to slip out of the round holes while turning – Inlace doesn’t adhere well to hardwood – so after roughing, I poured some thin CA on each of the round Inlace plugs, allowed it to soak down into the wood and then hit it with activator which seemed to bind the Inlace well to the vessel. Vessel is approx.. 8 inches in Dia as well as hight. As always, Comments or suggestions are deeply appreciated.

When you are dealt a bunch of Lemons – you make Lemon aide – which is what I named this bowl. It started as a different project – but when I screwed up the turning – I thinned the bottom of the feature ring too much – and it broke through. So at the suggestion of my wife – I sanded back the thin bottom using my drum sander, so that I would have a thicker wall, re-glued it to a couple of new rings and sort of saved a project and a lot of work. The bottom is done as a medallion on Baltic Birch, the rest is Mesquite, yellow heart, blood wood, maple, and a small amount of Ebony. First one that I used the Stomper on. Bowl is approx.. 8 inches dia by 3 ½ inches high. Yes I know the bottom is not tapered properly but that was an issue of the sharp curve of the feature ring and trying to keep the medallion bottom . Like all projects – it was a learning experience.

Just finished my latest project, a vessel made from Koa with a Southwest indian design for a feature ring. I have been wanting to try the Southwest design since attending the Segmented Wood turners symposium in Tahoe this year where it was demonstrated. I used Lamination Pro as the computer design program to design the feature ring and Wood Turner Pro to design the vessel. The vessel stands approx. 9 inches tall. The feature ring is made from Maple and Bloodwood. The spacers are holly, ebony, yellow heart and bloodwood. Top ring is Ebony and holly. Hope you like it.

Here is a bowl I created following my previous Indian Spirits bowl. The feature ring sort of reminds me of nautical flags hence I named it Semaphore. The bowl is approx. 7 in. by 5 inches, constructed of Mesquite as the base wood, with bloodwood, wenge, Ebony, Holly, yellowheart, maple for the feature ring. The bowl has a floating bottom. I used a piece of Pheasant wood that I recently acquired while on a trip to Hawaii. As always, comments are appreicated.

A friend of my Wife’s wanted a gift bowl for her friend in Arizona and wanted an Indian motif. So drawing on the inspiration of Ray Allen, I came up with this design. Too many woods to mention all but the base is Black Mesquite, the rim is So. American Rosewood and the feature ring includes maple, wenge, bloodwood and ebony. The Turquoise rounds are Inlace poured in place. Bowl is approx. 7 1/2 in. dia and about 4 1/2 inches high. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Updated picture of side on per request.

Second attempt at turned Vessel. I took to heart some comments I received about keeping the curve consistent and not incorporating a return sweep on the foot. I think this one turned out much better then the lace wood vessel I posted earlier. I especially liked the Firey look of the red Heart wood which is why I chose it for the feature ring – sort of looks like a picture of a burning landscape. I also used some Ebony for the first time on this one which I really liked. I often sell my bowls but just can’t part with this one – wife loves it too much. Vessel is approx. 7 inchs at the middle in dia. and approx. 9 inchs tall.

I tried an expierement for a running block or brick design based on a design I saw elsewhere on the internet. To save some time, I used a piece of 2 inch maple slab I had in the shop for the base – (I don’t recommend this). Turning maple end grain is very difficult when trying to get a good smooth finish. The end grain is open and just doesn’t finish very well. Anyway, I used purple heart, yellow heart and manzanita for the feature ring – again – bad choice since the purple heart and manzanita were too close in color so they don’t distinguish one from the other. Well like I said it was an expierement which was fun but I would do differently in the future. My daughter loved it, so I gave it to her. I guess “eye of the beholder”! Bowl is about 10 inches in dia by 5 inches high. Makes a good salad bowl.

OK, I decided to try my hand at turning a segmented vessel for a change instead of a bowl. As always this was a learning experience and I had a lot of fun doing it. Got a chance to meet Melcome Tibbets in Tahoe on a recent trip there and he gave me some tips on doing the inside of vessels – which helped a lot. I actually wound up parting the roughed vessel and doing it in two pieces then gluing it
back together to finish. Vessel is made of Lace Wood, with accents of Walnut, maple, Wenge, Padauk and white and black vainer. My guess 400+ pieces.

Random pattern basket design bowl. I made this one first before the actual indian basket bowl also posted. Bowl has about 270 pieces and is approx. 7 inches in Dia. by 4 inches high. Made from Maple, purple heart, yellow heart, walnut, paduak and wenge.

Well I took a look at some of Ray Allens work on Indian basket designs and decided to give it a try. Here is my first attempt at on of his designs. Ray Allen normally made vessels but I tried to do this as a functional bowl. Bowl is made of about 300 pieces using maple, purple heart, yellow heart, and Wenge. I still need to work on my glue lines since they are somewhat showing but in light colored wood – it’s difficult. Each bowl is a learning expierence.

Here is my first attempt at doing a feature ring in a bowl using an inspired Indian Basket design. The design is called a running arrow. If you pick out a color, notice that it will form an arrow running to the right merging into another arrow. If each project teaches you something – then I learned alot from this project. I learned that there is a easier way to build this without the tiedious individual tile glueing that I worked through. Still it was fun and inspiring. The bowl is made from a Maple bottom blank, maple sigments, Wenge accent strips, tiles of Yellow Heart, Walnut and Paduke and a tope ring of marble wood. I have 277 individual pieces in the bowl. I finished it with sand paper up to a 1500 grit and coated the bowl with General Finishes Salad bowl finish. My wife saw this and wanted it – I was going to try and sell it. However, I guess it stays in our home. The bowl is approx. 11 inches wide by approx. 6 inches deep.

I decided to try a segmented bowl with a feature ring of Baltic Birch Plywood just to see what it would look like. While not fantastic, it did turn out ok – I think next time I’ll use a staggered pattern of the Baltic Birch in an indian basket pattern. Bowl is made of Manzanta wood, Oak, Birch, Apricot and Maple and local American Walnut, besides the Baltic Birch. Total of 60 segments plus the solid maple bottom. One of the things I notice after I took the pictures was that the rubbing compond I used was white and you can see it in the picture in some of the grain. I then went back and rubbed the bowl with mineral spirts and wiped it clean which removed all of that then gave it one final coat of General Finishes, Salad bowl finish.

I have been doing segmented bowl work for a couple of months and giving the bowls away to friends when my daughter complained that I hadn’t made one for her. So I acquired some very beautiful Apricot wood from a local farmer here in Brentwood which I cut and dried over the summer. My body of the bowl is apricot, and the ring is Walnut. I bottomed the bowl with a nice piece of black walnut and then added a feature inlay I got from Rockler. Bowl was finished with Salad Bowl finish from General Finishes. This was my first attempt at adding an inlay – sort of got away from me at first so to cover up part of my over cut – I added two burn lines which helped to clean up the inlay and add some charter to the bowl.

Here was my first attempt at turning a segmented Salad bowl. I used a 12 segment design using Manzanita wood, Oak, Birch, Walnut, Cherry and Padauk. I learned a good lesson on this one when I reverse chucked the bowl to finish the bottom. I used a jamb chuck with a paper towl cushion which got a little hot and scorched the inside bottom of the bowl a little. I was over all pleased with the outcome.

Here are two of my most recent segmented projects – as most wood workers feel – you can always find some fault with your work – but generally I’m happy with how these turned out. I’m still not completly satisfied with the tear out on the end grain on some of the turning – but as I continue to work on my segmented bowls I am finding new ways to improve the process. I think one of my biggest challenges is to get the segmented assembly centered so it doesn’t vibrate my lathe too much. Always fun to turn! I used a combination of woods on these two projects. Apricot, Walnut, Maple and Manzanita.

PS. at a request – I added a second picture of the Box with lid moved so you can see the insides.