Vessel

No, it’s not a small cat feeder, nor a feeder for a small cat.
I had this small bit of maybe mahogany, maybe sapele, which I thought it was about time I did something with. So I sat for several hours staring at it, and eventually I came up with this. Well, strictly speaking I came up with a square thing, but I measured thrice, and then moved 2mm the wrong way and ended up with uneven sides. And that just seemed really really dull, so I stared for a few more hours (there was a lot of staring in this project, which was something I’d decided to do – too often I just “want to get on” so I push forward with something that’s just a little (frankly sometimes a lot) off), and then those thin strips of ash popped into mind, and I thought that wasn’t off. Normally I’d dash to the 3mm router bit (the smallest I have) and start cutting a slot, but that was going to be too thick, so I paused. Due to the butt joint, I was able to cut an arbitrarily small slot by just “knicking” a slice out. I went with 1.5mm – yep, a measurement including a half – 1 seemed too small and 2 seemed too big. This did, of course, leave me with the problem of how to make a 1.5mm x 4mm strip of ash, 4 times. A few more hours later I came up with the (pretty cool, I think) idea of cutting a slot in a piece of wood – like the groove of a tongue and groove. 10mm wood, 7mm slot in the middle – bingo 2 bits of 1.5mm width just for the cutting off.
Some glue later, there was a vessel with no base. Looking good, I thought – subtle and restrained yet stylish too. More hours pass, and I make a base that’s much bigger than the one you see. Which somehow didn’t seem quite right, so I made another one designed to reflect the shape rather than to be a shape in its own right. Ideas of reflecting the ash lines with mahogany lines in the base were, rightly I think, discounted.
So it’s done. Or is it? I’m looking thinking there’s something not quite right but I can’t quite put my finger on it. And then it strikes me – the top is too, wait for it, chunky. So, with rasps and a bunch of sanding I contour the inside of the top, wishing I’d done it before I put it together when it would have been pretty easy.
So, after all that work, most of which was, it must be said, thinking non-work, what did SWMBO have to say?...
”Not a terribly inspired design, but beautifully done”. I think her fan club subscription is on the wane.
Me. I like it. Not perfect but, I think, showing a certain amount of hope for a brighter future.

Mahogany(?) and ash. Oil finish. 78mm x 94mm x 135mm high.

Thoughts, comments, ideas for improvements, gasps of awe, cries of “still too chunky” – all are welcome.

-- "Do not speak – unless it improves on silence."