Well, I'm going to post a picture just to see if this forum is still alive. Will there be any signs of life???
This piece's structure is a skeleton of a Cylindropuntia Fulgida, a local Cholla cactus native to the Sonoran Desert and south into Sinaloa Mexico. It can get up to 12" tall, and have a base of 12"od. Normally they average 4-6" od, 5 - 7 feet tall. I only look for the ones that are dead standing because of the million and a half thorns they have. By the time I get to them, termites and carpenter ants have already evacuated and the thorns and bark come off easily.
The form is 4 1/2" od and 8 1/8" tall. It started out over 8" od, but in order to true it up, I had to keep removing the od. There is no center, so the bottom had to be plugged with other pieces of skeleton wood from the same piece. Despite the look of non symmetrical flowing lines, this piece is round and symmetrical. The large holes seen are from branches on the cactus. It's a good example of the skeleton not having a center. Let me know what you think of my turning.
Jerry (in Tucson)
This piece's structure is a skeleton of a Cylindropuntia Fulgida, a local Cholla cactus native to the Sonoran Desert and south into Sinaloa Mexico. It can get up to 12" tall, and have a base of 12"od. Normally they average 4-6" od, 5 - 7 feet tall. I only look for the ones that are dead standing because of the million and a half thorns they have. By the time I get to them, termites and carpenter ants have already evacuated and the thorns and bark come off easily.
The form is 4 1/2" od and 8 1/8" tall. It started out over 8" od, but in order to true it up, I had to keep removing the od. There is no center, so the bottom had to be plugged with other pieces of skeleton wood from the same piece. Despite the look of non symmetrical flowing lines, this piece is round and symmetrical. The large holes seen are from branches on the cactus. It's a good example of the skeleton not having a center. Let me know what you think of my turning.
Jerry (in Tucson)