Goblets for my daughter's wedding toast

My only daughter, Laura was married on June 23, 2012. I wanted to make a couple of things for use at the wedding and got the inspiration from LJ buddy Sam Shakouri to make some goblets. I have turned lots of bowls and hollow forms, but segmented work was a new venture for me. Like most things I do, I don’t use plans, I mull them over, make a few sketches, and then get to work and refine the idea as I go.

I began with gluing up the bowl in a stave arrangement. All the wood used was “heritage wood” as I call it. My goal was to incorporate some symbolism into the project that reflected her heritage in wood. The Ash used here was from a log cabin built by her great-great-grandfather for his family around 1870 in NW Ohio. This house still stands and is still in the family. Her great-grandfather and grandfather were born in this house, and my youngest brother lives there with his family today. He had enlarged some openings and saved the pieces. The Walnut and Maple came from my Dad, and the Cherry came from a tree planted when they settled the homestead. I remember climbing this tree when I was a boy and picking cherries. My grandma was a real good cook and made some great cherry pies from it. The tree finally just got old and my Dad saved the bigger pieces when they cut it down, with the idea of making something with it one day, I’m sure. It came to me to do that.

I continued to glue up the segments and completed with hose clamps.

The bowl blank is attached to the lathe (that had belonged to my Dad), roughed out, and a tenon made to allow turning the bowl. I planned to use part of this assembly for the foot as you will see following.

I glued up a segmented maple section for the rim and turned it out. I did some of the assembly on the lathe and kept careful track of orientation in the chuck and maintaining centers.

I found an accessory for my Nova chucks called soft jaws, that one could customize to hold work in the chuck without marring. They were perfect for this application. I don’t think I could have made a better fixture than these to do this job. You can also see the layout of the various rings and connections between the elements. This assembly required very precise mortise and tenons and a digital calipers was very helpful here as well as duplicating the elements to make them exactly alike.

Bowls completed, I began the stem and foot of the goblets. The stem is French Boxwood, provided by my LJ buddy Thomas (Sodabowski) in Paris, France ( http://lumberjocks.com/Schwieb/blog/30835 ). This was beautiful to turn and made a perfect stem. The contrast in color with the darker woods helped lighten the work. This wood was to serve to connect her French heritage to the piece. In this photo, I am using the lathe to clamp the stem – foot elements together.

After a lot of deliberation, I decided to finish them with wipe-on poly. It would be a durable finish and be safe enough to drink from after the finish cured. I thoroughly enjoyed working through this project and really appreciated Thomas’s help. I intend to return the favor. The goblets and other things I made were a big hit and added something intangible to the festivities. The goblets are 3” in diameter and stand about 9” tall. There are 76 individual pieces of wood in each goblet. I made sure of that. The idea here was that she was born in 1976. Apparently, I am a very nostalgic person. For me this was a means of having present at the wedding her elders who have passed on but would have loved to be there, I’m certain. I truly believe they were present in spirit. She’s a special girl and is loved by all who know her.

This photo is of Laura, her husband Gary, and myself sharing a toast at the reception.

Thank you for looking and I invite your comments.

The second part of this gift is the Wedding Keepsake Box http://lumberjocks.com/projects/68319

-- Dr. Ken, Florida - Durch harte arbeit werden Träume wahr.