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Promoting the art and craft of wood turning in the greater Cincinnati area

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Featured Turning

Some turnings deserve a bit of recognition. This page will feature a turning (occasionally) selected from the Show & Tell pieces. The selection is arbitrary and at the discretion of the webmaster. Feel free to suggest turnings for this page but publication is not guaranteed. The turner will be asked to write a short description of the piece before publication.



Viking Bowl by Mike Ball
The embellishments on this bowl were done using process that has been popularized by Nick Agar in his Viking sunset series.  After turning and texturing, Fiebing's black leather dye was airbrushed onto all textured areas as a base for gilding.  Interior colors were then airbrushed using liquid Transtint dyes mixed with denatured alcohol. Gilding was applied and allowed to dry/cure and piece completed with several coats of clear lacquer.  The greatest challenge for me was learning how to texture the small flower petal in the very center of the interior.
Posted 2-9-2020

  


Flying High
Flying High by Dave Kratzer
This sculpture was created in 2008 while attending a woodturning class at Marc Adams School in Indiana. At the time I had been woodturning and a member of OVWG about 3 years. I attended this class on an OVWG Scholarship. A requirement of the scholarship was to write an article on what I learned. That article can be found in the Documents section of this website or by clicking here. Photos of the week at Marc Adams can be found here: Flying High, Marc Adams Class

The class was titled 'The Art of the Turned Bowl' taught by Clay Foster and Jennifer Shirley. I am quite proud of this creation as I count it as my only 'art' piece. I consider myself a 'craftsman' not an 'artist'. Most of my work relies on the wood to do the hard work of being artistic. I just use my turning skills to reveal what God has already done inside the tree. I keep hoping for another burst of Right Brain inspiration but apparently for me they don't come very often.

Another reason I like this piece is that it was my first entry into an OVWG contest. The contest theme was 'Basic Black'. I entered in the Novice class and took First Place. September 2008 Newsletter Another honor this piece brought me was to be selected to be included in the June 2010 AAW American Woodturner magazine article titled Regional Spotlight. American Woodturner 06-2010 The piece traveled to St Paul MN and was on display there at AAW headquarters for several months. 

Posted 01-04-2020



“Cosmic Platter” by John Jackobs
This piece is part of my “Cosmic Series” platters, reminding me of images from the Hubble space telescope.   The basic form and technique is that demonstrated by Tim Yoder and Gary Lowe.

 

The platter is about 6 inches in diameter and about an inch in depth. I have promoted it as a candle holder.  A tear drop glass container with a tea light candle makes a nice centerpiece on a table, a “cosmic” lily pad.

 

A recessed expansion chuck hole is used to hold the platter while the bottom is finished with a tenon that will be used when creating the top and later will serve as a small pedestal that gives the appearance the platter is “floating”.

 

The top has a convex shape that better displays the colors of the iridescent acrylic paint (Jo Sonja Artists’ Colours). After sanding the top, it is spray painted with high gloss black enamel.  When the black has dried, the iridescent paint is applied using compressed air (15-20 psi) to spread the paint as thin as possible.  One learns a little paint goes a long way, the compressed air dries the paint quickly and getting the paint to go where you want it is like herding cats.





“Tutti Frutti” by Ian Collins

This piece was produced for the 2017 Symposium auction and consists of an 11 inch diameter figured maple bowl filled with turned fruit.  The fruit items follow the designs of Nick Arnull as featured in his book “Contemporary Woodturning” – it was the simplest project in the book and the only one I have so far attempted.  The apples are of spalted maple from a tree taken down in our yard – I kept several pieces of this tree, put them in plastic and forgot about them for several months.  When I eventually opened them up, they looked really pretty!  The plums are purple heart and like the apples and the bowl are finished with oil and wax.  The grapes are turned from ebony and were finished with orange oil in an attempt (per Nick Arnull) to achieve a lifelike appearance while the pears are of ash, sponge painted with acrylic artists’ paints.



Cocobolo Box by John Shannon

This is an end-grain lidded box that I made for the 2017 Symposium auction.  It is 2.75” (h) x 2.5” (w) and turned from cocobolo using the process/sequence popularized by Richard Raffan. The main challenge in boxes like these is to get a nice fitting lid.  

This box has a very slightly loose or slip-fit lid, which allows the base of the box to remain on the table when the top is removed. Slip-fit is a style advocated by Jimmy Clewes instead of the suction-fit often favored by woodturners. He believes that women, who are often the recipients of turned boxes, prefer not having to use two hands to open the box (btw my wife agrees with him).  

I like dressing up some of my boxes with contrasting inlays in the top. In this case I used a nice piece of big leaf maple burl left over from making a guitar head plate. The finish is multiple coats of gun-sprayed nitrocellulose lacquer that were level-sanded and buffed.


Posted 10/26/2017


Open segmented egg by Ray Feltz

I call it a trade blanket egg because of the pattern. It is approx. 2.7" high by 2" dia.  there are a total of 2056 pcs. The solid bands are 16 segments. The green one is dyed holly  The open segmented layers have 56 pieces  in each.

Posted 9/9/2017




Segmented Sphere by Terry Elfers
My "Curve Ball" is 6" in diameter. It started as an assortment of 18 boards of various species and thicknesses. After stacking and gluing them together, I cut them into 3/8" thick disks. I ran them thru the drum sander, both sides to end up with about 1/4" thickness. I glued them together again, rotating each disk slightly from the one below it.

I turned this cylinder between centers to approximate a ball and then used my ball jig to make it a perfect sphere. Sanding was accomplished utilizing a vacuum chuck.


This little project required the use of every power tool in my shop ! The biggest challenges were obtaining perfect glue joints without any gap, and maintaining the exact rotation until the glue set up.


I have several more curve balls in the works and am considering making a hollow ball.

Posted 6/25/2017



Spindle Geometry by Robert C Henrickson                    

Beech and fumed white oak. Approximately 14" x 9" x 9"

Large spindle-based lattice screens first inspired my interest in turning; geometric patterns and structures have long intrigued me. Though the screens are two-dimensional, those concepts and geometric patterns adapt nicely to three-dimensional work.

 

Despite the potential number of pieces involved (thirty in this case), duplication is a minor problem; story sticks aid uniform layout. The major challenges are planning the sequential interlocking of pieces, and drilling holes in the right places at the correct angles, to allow the final assembly. Although precision would seem necessary, a bit of "slop" provides some wiggle room essential during the assembly.

 

This is the latest in a series of spindle constructions exploring two- and three-dimensional geometry and incorporating nested forms. In this case two tetrahedra (triangular pyramids with four triangular faces and four vertices) are joined base to base. The midpoints of each face are connected to form triangles; these together yield an octahedron (8 faces and 6 vertices) nested within each tetrahedron.

 

Contrasting woods highlight and differentiate the patterns formed by the various components.

 

Posted 6/6/2017




The “Trash Can” Vase by John Glessner
Approx. 2" x 6" and m
ade from walnut with a padouk and cherry segmented inlay. The turning was then cast with Alumilite resin and hollowed exposing resin and making the piece translucent.

 

This vase started with an idea: Could I make a hollow form that had some segmented features that didn’t require precise fit up as the surrounding area would be filled with resin?

 

The design was inspired by a welded metal sculpture that hangs on the wall in our house. It features thin steel strips welded in a wave pattern that looks like an electronic signal. This sits on top of a mottled green background. My wife affectionately calls this sculpture “trash can” art as the harsh welded steel pieces in it reminds her of metallic cans (yes, you can guess which one of us bought that piece!)

 

I “borrowed” that idea but instead of steel I glued wedges of different woods into an over-sized turned groove mimicking the “trash can” pattern. The wedges were cut to different lengths and widths and assembled somewhat randomly gluing up with CA glue. I left space in the groove for the resin to fill. It was cast in two steps, first the green color, then grooves turned and the gold stripes were cast in. After final turning and hollowing it was finished with CA glue polished to a gloss.

Posted May 18, 2017





Multi Axis turning by Arn Ward

This funky looking piece is a Wood Sprite box (Approx. 1-1/2" dia x 7" tall).  The lidded box is turned on four axis, two for the base and two for the lid. There is a wood sprite living inside it (no really, you have to remove the lid to see him!)  The box is turned from walnut and has a Danish oil finish.
Posted 5/5/17




 
 
Segmented turning by Lowell Converse

Approx. 12" dia x 8" tallThis is the second attempt at a new process I call brick construction. Each layer of the vessel must have the correct outside angle and near exact diameter for the overall shape to be right. Thus each segment edge length must be +/- 1/64". The angle and segment length are tablesaw challenges. Then before gluing up the rings, each segment is chamfered on 4 sides and then dyed or bleached. Once the rings are glued they are stacked and glued one at a time with position and orientation critical, as there is no going back and the overall form is done. And there can be no glue squeeze out or it will show in the finished piece. Next the inside and base are turned round. On this, a one piece lid was turned, carved, the grooves burned,  and dyed to match the vessel. Note the knob on top is 6 sided lost wood.

Posted 4/19/2017