These are some of the examples of the work brought by our demonstrator for the evening, Warren Carpenter, one of AAW's three newly-elected Directors.
Warren, visiting from his home and gallery in South Carolina, sees things inside trees that most other people miss. He is a passionate and animated teacher who is able to impart his many insights to his audience. Note the size of the boards in the table. This is a very impressive and large piece of wood art.
Warren turns pieces of wood that most people would burn or throw away, and he finds the most amazing things inside. For example, this triple-winged hollow form is what he envisioned inside this triple branch junction.
Another triple-branch junction goes in an entirely different direction. It's all in there -- and up to the artist's inspiration to visualize and his talents to excavate.
A fresh walnut branch junction might end up looking like this -- with some walnut slices imbedded in the carving.
A random osage orange limb might have these kinds of things inside. A bark inclusion is just a gift from Mother Nature.
Are you getting the impression that Warren is not afraid of pith? If your first step in processing fresh wood is to remove the pith, you might want to rethink that. By using proper techniques, pith cracks can be controlled, and when you have a bowl this beautiful, you don't have to worry about the salad dressing leaking through.
Ah yes, the old branch junction trick. So that's how he did it. It's right there waiting to be freed from bondage. Tonight, Warren will free a smaller version from that wild cherry crotch. If you look carefully, you'll see where he has already bandsawed some of the waste wood away and glued it back in place for the benefit of teaching. Yes, using a bandsaw for that kind of cut carries dangers with it. If you're not well trained, don't do this at home!
Warren's demonstration tonight is about how to find and reveal the works of art hidden in crappy pieces of wood that most turners would reject. He talks about how pieces like this come into existence...
...and like this... (happy Valentine's Day!)
...and like this... (ET phone home!) All kidding aside, these are magnificent works of art that Mother Nature has hidden inside trees. They are there for the taking if you have the proper insight and training. Warren did a great job of helping us gain the needed perspective.
Waiting patiently on the lathe, you can see these two pieces of "waste wood" that are the raw materials for tonight's demonstration. Go figure!
If you look carefully, you can see the lines where Warren has already cut this wild cherry crotch up, like a jigsaw puzzle, into the needed sections and glued it back together for the demonstration.
OK, this one's not hard to see. With luck, you'll be able to see some of the crotch feather pattern on the bottom of the bowl.
You might also find some interesting patterns in your bowl by orienting it this way.
And here's an unexpected way to bring out the crotch pattern in the pedestal of a natural-edge winged bowl.
You should have seen that tree that got away... it was this big...
Don't throw that cutoff away! Look inside, and you may find a little bowl form like this.
So, is this an ugly piece of osage orange, or what? Well, maybe not, if you can see inside.
Maybe you'll find a number of things like this...
...maybe they're in there face to face, like this...
Cutting a chunk out near a branch junction can produce spectacular results.
Now what's inside this multiple branch junction brought in by Gary Guenther? Warren found two nice, natural-edge bowls that can be released with a proper bias cut of a saw.
Enough talk -- to the lathe. After disassembling the puzzle pieces of wild cherry, Warren gets down to hammering in a spur center.
It goes on the lathe like this.
Warren prefers an Ellsworth grind on his bowl gouge.
A little cutting starts to reveal what's inside.
Man, that is a propellor. Keep your fingers behind the tool rest!
It's coming along nicely. Put on a tenon and shoulder for chucking.
Reversed into the jaws of a scroll chuck.
Cut from the outside in and do only an inch or so at a time. You want to keep as much mass as possible at the center to prevent flexing. It's not a good idea to ever go back once you've blended in your newest inside section.
You're turning more air than wood -- that's the challenge.
Moving inward.
Making good progress.
Finishing up the middle -- this is a bowl's-eye view of a gouge!
Using the Braille method of measuring thickness.
Nearly done. To remove the chuck tenon and finish the foot, use a jam chuck like this, with the tail center brought up.
It's still an impressive propellor. Don't touch those wings!
And there you have it -- a lovely winged form.
This was done very quickly, due to time constraints, to show the basic principles, but you get the idea. A little sanding, and you'll have a very interesting conversation piece.
Moving along now to the osage orange log. It has also been cut up and reglued like a puzzle to show the transition from log to turning blank.
Things are not always as they seem. Warren points out how this is going to be a very asymmetric piece...
...Note the location of the tail center nearly in the rim. This is what you call "vision".
Turning away the waste wood...
Checking to see the result...
Getting closer to the goal...
Add a tenon and shoulder for reversing... At this point Warren would normally put CA glue on the pith to keep it from cracking, but he didn't do it here because he didn't want to sling it on the crowd.
Reverse into the jaws of a scrolll chuck...
And turn the inside shape of the bowl...
That looks about right. Another little gem. You'll want to put CA glue on the pith now here too. Otherwise it will almost surely crack as it dries, no matter how thin it is. With his CA procedures, Warren has a very high success rate of avoiding cracking.
Warren had to rush this to completion because we were out of time, but this will do nicely. It's easy to see the possibilities.
Warren reminds us of the infinite number of forms to be found in random pieces of wood, limited only by our imaginations and turning skills. Thanks, Warren; that was a ton of fun. We all learned a lot that we can apply to our own work.
