The president of our woodturning club includes the bowl number along with signature, date and wood - on the bottom of his bowls. At the last club meeting he had an ash bowl that was something like No. 1352.
Maybe if I find a type of turning or a type of form I REALLY REALLY REALLY like, I can imagine doing maybe 20 of something - AFTER I'd tried every other type of turning that seemed interesting.
I understand that each piece of wood is different, with potential treasures hidden within to to be revealed by the turner. And turning a BIG bowl is different than turning a small bowl. I can get the challenge of turning wood with holes and inclusons and punky wood mixed with sound wood.
But - with all the possibilities out there - as of right now - knowing new ones will pop up almost daily - how do folks stick to one type of turning?
Personally, I don't even have one remote clue or guess.
When we have our meetings, we have most guys that get up for show and tell with their projects. Most of the time, it is bowl. If they are happy, I am happy for them.
When it was my time, I passed around my wood handled, copper feruled, double tined kabob skewers. Some of the guys loved it. But others sat wondering.... no bowl? Not even a mini plate?
Next up on the drawing board for me is a European style furniture assembly mallet. I will have to carefully measure what I do so I can repeat it if I like it.
It will look a bit like an old 2lb mason's hand sledge, with the bottom of the head being straight but rounded, and the top (here's the offset part for the head) will be curved down a bit to give it some dimension.
The handle will be shaped like a wood hammer handle, which will require both sides of the blank which is 1 1/4" thick and 2" across to be offset to form the pommel of the handle.
When the handle shape is being finalized, the trick will be when to move the handle back to center on the head side so that I can turn the handle round and mount it cleanly in the head.
I am sure I will generate some new smoker fodder when I am trying the handle design since the whole thing will be out of white oak. (Sorry to any Euro folks, but no traditional beech is around in S. Texas.)
The hardest thing I have to get squared away now is finding a 2 - 3 inch across piece of saddle thickness leather for the cushion side of the mallet. So far, no luck. The intent was to glue the leather to the mallet head and turn and finish it for an exact fit to the wood on the lathe. So far though, no 1/4" thick hide.
Personally, unless I have a really pretty piece of wood or unless I am showing someone how to do it, I have lost interest in turning simple round things on the lathe.
Charlie, Sorry, no chance that I'll turn only one type. I'd have trouble turning the second one, not to mention the third, .... .
Robert, I sure hope you don't follow the same downhill path of my lost interests and land up full circle like me.
Long ago my first turnings were round and plump; candlesticks, treen and thick walled bowls. Round and reconizable. Then came a scroll chuck and a deep fluted gouge with a swept back bevel; thin walls and natural edges. Later on skinny scrapers and bent tools; hollow forms with small mouths. I followed this with off center spurs and eccentric chucks: squiggely distortions better left on one axis. After that I made sure that my bowls didn't look like bowls or hold anything. How tacky!
More recently I tried to make my turnings look like they weren't turned at all and some barely were. I've twisted, warped, cut and reassembled. I turned vessels upside down, footless in Fl. I've chopped big holes in walls, inserted corian and copper wires, even given one or two miscarriages arty foreign names with the artist's so-called commentary. I almost carried this off without being embarrassed. I was a little sheepish, but I ought to have been very much ashamed. Looking back, I blush now.
These days, I'm back to turning small recognizable round wooden things, but it sure is lonely out here on the full circle's leading edge. :)
Does that mean that he only turns bowls, or that he turns a variety if things, and numbers everything?
If that's only bowls, and he's turned over 1,300 of them, he's more than compulsive, he suffers from CDO.. (that's the same as OCD, but with the letters in alpha order, like they should be)
I've only been numbering my "art" pieces, and only for a few years, and I'm in the high 300's.. maybe 25 of those are what I'd consider "bowls", though..
Again I`m relying (and asking) on your experience but should my turnings be numbered? Everything I do is different in some small way, may look similar but not the same. That applies to useable as well as "art". Everything that leaves my workshop is photographed, signed and dated.
I guess if you number everything and photograph everything and sign and date. When your work is one day worth millions, it would help identify fakes :)
Alternatively having big number could imply you mass produce., One option would be to start at 1000 so they all appear big numbers
The fact you date and photograph your work to me is most important as it allows you to look back at your work and see how you have changed/progressed in your skill
Hi Boru Why number ?? It does help others to ID your turnings if you sell them in a gallery or where others do the inventory. If a turning has a #, and a price card or sticker with that number it is not easily switched, or if the sticker came off or is lost, the seller can easily find the info like price on a list they should have, that you made and have signed by them as received. The last place that got out of all commissioned selling, where I had some pieces, did pay me approx $1500.-- for turnings that were sold and yet not accounted for, it was only because of all the documentation and with the backup of pictures and numbers that we came to a amicable solution and I only dropped one miss-labeled piece. It was my wife who had extensive experience with factory commissioned selling, and knew about the common pitfalls, that we set it up like that, has been good for us. Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo
No Though his preference is for "natural edge" bowls for probably the last decade, he also turns "regular" bowls as well as tops and bottle stoppers. But since he's been turning for 25+ years, he's probably turned just about everything that came out over those years - even flutes - which apparently ain't trivial to do - and have them sound good.
Between teaching, a book he wrote and sells, doing Home & Garden and Woodworking Shows along with craft fairs and perhaps a gallery, he apparently brings enough to own a Stubby - and just about every turning tool of any significance that's come out over the last 25+ years.
Re: Taking pictures of every decent piece, signing, dating, identifying the wod and finish, the idea of an inventory number as well makes sense, especially when selling through others.
IMO, if you're already dating them and taking a photo record, you might as well number them.. It's a marketing thing, for sure, but also helps you keep track of your work..
I give each piece to my wife as it's done, along with a tag with the number on it.. I keep a legal pad under the bench and each time a piece is done, I write the next number in the series and a short description.. She burns my name and the number on the bottom and then enters the stuff from my pad into a database... (one of the things I do on the pad is put a ball park price) That becomes our inventory, and I print my "certificate of authenticity" from that data.. oh, and also the price tags and any other stuff I need the data for..
If you look at the video of Richard Raffan "Turning Wood" - 1350 is one VHS tape :-) Green wood turns fast.
Martin
Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net TSRA, Endowed; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal. NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
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