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Musing re big holes & ugly plugs; tiny openings & tasteful collars.

Before the advent of special tools and elaborate devices for hollowing large vessels thru small orifices we made 'hollow forms' altho they weren't called by that name. We hollowed the piece thru a wide opening, often on the bottom then closed it with a large plug or maybe a sizable opening on top closed with a large ornamental collar. We did give up adding cork or felt to bottoms, but even so plugging has become anathema or could it be that we who (whom sounds wrong) still plug on occasion don't advertise our sin?

I just turned a funeral urn. What a funereal name, but it's probably as cheerful a designation as 'cremation casket' and less gloomy than 'coffin for cremated remains'. Anyway, a 4 in. diameter flat top was requested for an engraved metal disc, so I left the top solid and hollowed thru the bottom. Hence this musing. BTW, are the cremated remains ground to dust, sealed in a plastic bag or something? How should I finish the urn's interior?

Of course due to our current fetish with tippy miniscule feet (on turned wood vessels, I hasten to add) we may as well save up and tool up for hollowing big vessels thru narrow orifices, and maybe embellish with a nicely turned collar or finial.

When the design (ok if you must, a big ugly foot) allows, is there anything esthetically or criminally wrong with hollowing thru a comfortably sized hole in the sole of the foot and plugging the hole? Then making a fashionable tiny opening on top? To anyone doing this, we will of course respect your privacy and the CIA and AAW need never know. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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Reply to
Arch
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Nothing wrong with hollowing through the bottom. I've done quite a few narrow-neck weed pots that way. For years John Jordan cut a plug off the top of his hollow vessels, then, after hollowing the vessel he re-installed the top and used a very small opening. He did some carving to hide the joint. It wasn't a secret because he wrote articles about it.

Reply to
Wally

"Cremains," as the funeral folks her refer to them, are packaged in plastic, so you'll have a container for a container. Not much left after the heat of the oven but ash, if my Mother-in-Law is any indication. Spent nearly a year in the closet in her urn before the kids all got together to scatter her ashes.

Small feet are all right, you just have to make sure you have a thin enough top and thick enough base to get the center of gravity low. Shame to spill aunt Martha.

Hey, if you're in the "decorate what it sits on" crowd, you're going to have a few rings and ridges to hide the plug's origin anyway. Who's going to know? Certainly not aunt Martha.

Hell of a lot easier to sand with a bigger hole.

Reply to
George

I'm a little confused here, Arch. You are leaving the top closed, hollowing through the bottom, and then plugging the bottom so that both ends are sealed. If someone wants to scatter the ashes, do they bust open the urn like a pinata or what? Oh, and velvet flocking for the interior.

LD

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

Lobby,

Some people retain the remains in the urn permanently.

Arch,

I don't think the size of the opening or its location are the issue here whether the piece is a cremation urn or a decorative artr piece. The issue is that the form is beautiful no matter what its function. Can a piece with a large foot be beautful? Yes. Can it be bored through the bottom? Yes. Keep in mind that the weight of the piece is part of the form. When a person picks it up, does it feel right? Shape, contours, decorative features and weight all factor in.

Joe Fleming - San Diego

Reply to
Joe Fleming

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