>This is something new for me. I'm at a place in my turning where I think I'm trying to figure out what my style is. With that I guess comes a lot of experimenting. This past week has been full of that and then some. I think I had some success, but I also think some ideas could use some work. Here's my first attempt at using my new woodburner. A very conservative effort, but got a new look I've never done before. I grabbed a piece of wood that I didn't care much about since I new it would be the guinea pig for my burner. It's about 7.5" diameter, finished with Rockler wipe on gel poly. Your comments are welcome.
>It's amazing how a lot of little short lines strategically placed can make such a pleasing pattern! Looks great, Jen! How long did it take you to fo that?
>I like it Jennifer and as someone else mentioned it's strange how a few simple lines around the rim of a bowl can give it character. I bet it was time consuming though, am I correct. I never tried burning but on second thought I remember back when I was just a young boy I got a woodburning iron for Christmas one year... we used to burn designs in soft light colored wood. It was probably some form of balsa wood. I don't think I have the patience to perform this operation on turned objects. Anyway nice work.... take care and enjoy the day.
As you know this "lace" effect is quite striking. If you did 20 like that you would discover things about that type of burning which no book could teach you. A single effort like this feels nice and lets you know if you are interested in this sort of enhancement.
I often wonder about value added. That is to say, if I spent the time it took to do this, doing something else, which would provide more value. Value to the object and value to me as a "maker". At this experimental stage, the value to you as a "maker" far exceeds the time taken to do this burning.
The burning appears to be random and purposeful at the same time. That random aspect is difficult to maintain over time. As you become more accustom to burning order will creep into your burning. One of these is quite nice but making 20 with that same randomness is a gift that would be worth while looking for. I would like to see hidden things in the randomness. Kind of like the constellations in the stars. That would provide a secret to the piece which would surprise the owner and make them feel like they had discovered (or were privy to) something other viewers couldn't see (unless it was also pointed out to them). It would invest something in the owner. The hidden aspect can't detract from the overall pleasing impact. It would have to be "Look at this wonderful woodturning I got!" The piece would need to be admired regardless of the hidden aspect. The hidden aspect would become a bonus.
I like the overall impact of the piece as I am sure you do. I do have an issue with the inner rim. I don't understand the ledge between the burned area and the inner rim. I don't see it replicated anywhere else in the piece.
One of the terrific things about burning is that you don't have to stay within the lines. I wonder how the impact of this piece would change if the random burns "spilled" over one of the boundaries and trailed off.
I haven't taken it over to Betty's yet. She's been experimenting with some burning as of late as well and we keep saying we need to do a show and tell some morning. She's been very busy with some up coming shows on her plate. I may stop over tomorrow morning.
Funny you should mention the hidden things in the randomness of the texturing. In fact I often do this, when I'm doing texturing with my Dremel engraver. There is in fact is a "secret" message on the rim of this one as well that would only mean something to a very special person in my life. They get a kick out of it and yes, it does give the piece a unique meaning.
I think I did trail over the burning onto the outer edge of the rim? The rim of the inner bowl was to define it from the burned outer rim.
Thanks for the comments! I do appreciate them all.
Thank you! Well when I started it I thought, oh this will be easy enough....after about 45 minutes to an hour I was pretty well tired of it. I'd say it was a good hour of the same repetative thing.
