Seaurchin ornaments

[turnerted]

G'day
At the Sydney WWW show I watched Theo Haralampou turning one of these and I decided it was time I tried making them.
There is about 4 videos on Utube on making these, with Cindy Drozia's probably the best and I took a little bit from several of them.
Theo used brass rod for the hangers but I couldn't source any suitable and I ended up using 1/8" SS rod which I could buy quite cheaply.
I started off bending a hook on the end of the SS but bending a small hook on the rod was not easy so I made the little donut fittings as hangers which I think look OK.
I played with several designs for the base.Theo uses a base similar to 1.Which one do you like best?
Hope you like it.I look forward to your comments.
Ted

[Pat]

No 1 for me. The base flows into the support.

[Christos]

I like number 1 base as well.

[mick59wests]

I have to vote for 1 as well

[Rod Gilbert]

Hi Turnerted and all,
Looks like no.1 is it gets my vote also. I like the composition very much.
Regards Rod.

[ian thorn]

1/4/2/3 in that order as said No1 flows very nicely where as No 3 looks as if I was an atfer thought

[powderpost]

No. 1 Ted.
Jim

[smiife]

Hi ted,
Looks very nice, i like 1 and 2 myself
and the finial looks good too!
even if it is upside down!!!!:U

[turnerted]

Thanks for the comments.Looks like I'll be using 1.
This is the first design I tried , but I thought it was too unstable , which is why I looked for alternatives . Further experiments with the angle on the base and increasing the diameter of the blank ,improved the stability. The only problem with this design ,is that the blank needs to be about 200mm long, where as the length of the base is only about 95mm . The extra length is needed to hang on to while sawing the base off.I have found I can get round this by glueing a bit of scrap wood on as an extension.
By the way,Theo said he got this base design from Ashley Harwood.Remember her from Turnfest?
Ted

[chuck1]

Number 1 and the bottom finial on 4 for me. I was going to ask if you have seen Ashley's work! Very nice work Ted! Trying to find seaurchin shells in tacked is a hard one. Have to wait till the king tides wash them up!

[turnerted]

Chuck1
No problem finding whole ones on Ebay.I thought about diving for some, but there is a fair bit of work in the preparation.These only cost me $22 for 6 and that included about $7 for postage.
Ted