simple maple vase

Re: simple maple vase

Shawn - in ID

>I think the vase looks great; nice curve/line near the base. What is the purpose of the vase? I think a slight touch on the bottom and on the lip/top can make a lot of impact. Did you contemplate a small feature on the lip?

Re: simple maple vase

Tom Sweeney - Coatesville, PA

>Hey Mike,

Looks good - different from most of your stuff - but still good. I'm thinking you make 2 more matching vases - same diameter with each one being 2" shorter - IE" 11", 9", 7" - or maybe 3" shorter. Then make a centerpiece arrangement out of it. I think it might be pretty cool. Maybe fill them with those mettalic looking glass "marbles" that you see in small decorative glass bowls / vases. Just a thought.

Re: simple maple vase

Richard Allen

>WOW Tom

Where did that come from? I really like your thinking here. My thoughts are different, but this idea of making a "family" out of this... Well I am surprised! I re-read your posts from the past couple of months and there is nothing in them which would lead me to expect this from you.

For me the form is vertical and I expect something in that vain. Instead the shape ends with the abrupt rim. There are a lot of things which could be done to make it different. Slope the rim in, slope it out, put a slight flair at the rim to direct your eye back down the piece. Make the rim jagged to extend that vertical feel. Put a collar of a darker wood on the top to stop the eye. The impact the piece has on me, from the picture, is that my eye drifts up beyond the piece. I would like something to hold my eye on the piece so that I was encouraged to reexamine the piece.

I hope you know that this is all just blowing wind. It doesn't matter at all what I think. It is what you think that matters. BTW my first thought when I saw the piece was David Ellsworth.

Thanks

Richard

Re: simple maple vase

Bob Hackett

>I like it just the way it is.It`s very understated and simple.

I`ve said it before but it bears repeating here.The closer you get to the most basic elements,the harder it is to get it just right.

I think that little bit of spalting is all the detail that piece needs.

I do like the idea of a grouping though.You do realize that just makes it three times harder to nail it.

Mainely,Bob

Re: simple maple vase

Mike Rubes, Apex, NC

>Hi Mike,

I like it. I'm a fan of very simple, yet graceful lines and I think your vase has them. It's sort of minimalist in its appearance, but that's OK to me. What I like most about is that it is the form that grabs you, not necessarily the wood.

I know that I am as guilty of this as the next guy, but it seems we woodworkers often spend so much time concentrating on the grain in the wood and how to best highlight this piece of curl, etc, that the shape and form are sometimes almost secondary considerations. I like this piece because it has good form and the wood is, to me, clearly not the primary thing being shown. I think the wood should showcase the form, and this piece does that. That's not to say that your gold leaf sphere thingy wasn't cool, it certainly was :)

Anyway, everyone's got their opinion and that's just mine! Worth exactly what you paid for it :)

Thanks for the pic,

Mike

Hoping for a little turning myself over the next 3 days in Apex, NC

Re: simple maple vase

Bill Grumbine, Kutztown PA

>Mike, I think it looks very nice indeed. I have to confess that I stopped reading your commentary when you wrote "What would you have done to add more interest to this piece?" I looked at it a while and then I thought, I would taper the sides in towards the top just a little to make it a wee bit narrower. Then I went back to reading!

I like Tom's idea too, although I am not sure about the marbles. Maybe he is missing a few! (Sorry Tom, you can smack me we we get together for lunch) There is a challenge for you now. Make three or four that all look the same. ;-)

Bill

YMMV

Tom Sweeney - Coatesville, PA

>Hey it was just a thought - maybe all my ideas aren't dead on but at least once a year I usually have a good one - I still have a few months to come up with one for '04. ;-).

Admittedly the mables are a little off the wall but hey you never know until you try.

Just my 2� worth - free suggestions are usually worth what you pay for them.

A turquoise collar just under the lip.

John Crissman

>

Re: simple maple vase

John Lucas

>Mike

I like it a lot. It will be interesting to see if you sell that one. My friend Joe Looper who passed away last year made only one straight sided piece. It was the only one he wasn't able to sell. It was a beautiful piece and people always picked it up but no one bought it. He dug that out one day when we were talking about form.

Rookie Question?

Tony - Memphis

>Mike, that's real similar to something I would like to make for my wife to hold paint brushes. Can you describe how you did it? Thanks.

Tony

Re: simple maple vase

Michael Pollina

>I like it.

Re: simple maple vase

Brad Vietje

>I like it as it is, Mike.

You could leave the opening the same size, but bring it in a little below the opening, so it has a bit of flare to the top -- a somewhat more feminine form, I suppose.

Safe Spinning,

Brad Vietje

Thetford, VT

Don't ask for advice. It's perfect!

Pete Lamberty

>I don't think you want any ideas from me or from most other people. This piece has a very elegant shape. If you start adding to it you will just be taking away from it. I have been following your progress through your posts Mike, and I will say that you are one of the few turners here that is actually turning art and not just bowls and vases. There are a number of great technical turners on the sites that I visit but very few of them are artists also. You have a very good eye for form, proportion and balance, to name a few. Be very careful who you take design advice from. Me included. You are doing great work! Please keep posting your work. Others should be asking you for help.

Re: Rookie Question?

Mike Schwing from Maryland

>First, thanks everybody! Great ideas and suggestions, even yours Tom , minus the marbles. I just might make two more, and I have the end grain blanks from the same tree, fortunately. (one of them is the one I bandsaw'd my finger on)

Tony, nothing special going on for the production of this one. It is "spindle" orientation rather than side grain. I first true the blank between centers, then form a tenon for my supernova chuck, large jaws. It then goes on via chuck, gets retrued and turned with a bowl gouge (Ellsworth) used as a skew, because silver maple tears out otherwise. When the outside is formed I determine what I want the bottom to look like and start the inward curve, but don't finish it because that mass is needed during the hollowing for stability. I then sand it as needed. After that I set up my hollowing rig (Kelton) and hollow it out. This part can be done with a long, strong, heavy bowl gouge but it takes a lot more time than with a torque arrested hollowing rig and a laser guide.

Sand the inside, and then finish forming the bottom, finally parting it off with a razor saw. I use a tiny little handplane to finish up the bottom and make a nice flat surface for it to rest on.

Thats all. If I were going to use it for something like paintbrushes, I might coat the inside with epoxy. It would darn near hold water then.

My goal with this one was to make a very simple, easy on the eyes form. When I saw what the grain looked like I realized I could make it look almost like stoneware if it was left unfinished.

I tried to soften the top and draw the eye down into the interior by rolling the inside lip. Russ's comments always make me think about stuff like that.

Re: Don't ask for advice. It's perfect!

Mike Schwing from Maryland

>What a wonderful compliment! Thank you so much Pete! That means the world to me.

Now that people are buying my work just from seeing it posted on the internet (this was a VERY good week for me, I sold 3 pieces), my wife is having a really hard time believing that I am an artist. She knows me as an endurance athlete, and is having a great time with this "art stuff". Me, I'd prefer to be called just "Mike". I like "Schwingding", too.

Re: simple maple vase

Keith Tompkins

>My first thought was Ellsworth also!

Re: Don't ask for advice. It's perfect!

Pete Lamberty

>Mike, Now that you are an artist, you will have to start wearing a beret and speaking in a French accent when you are around your wife.