Thread: A Vase and a Bowl

I turned a cherry vase on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a viburnum bowl on Wednesday. These are 80th birthday gifts for an aunt and uncle (unrelated except by marriage to my direct uncle and aunt, respectively). Her birthday party is Saturday 19 Apr, and his is Sunday 20 Apr, so I dare not dawdle.

The vase is 3 7/8" (97mm) diameter x 8 1/2" (210mm) high. I missed gifting her husband's 80th last October, so this is also a joint gift. I added three captive rings to allow for an oops (which didn't occur for some reason), and at the end snipped the supernumerary - an agonising choice, but the design called for only two rings: His 'n' Hers, their two offspring, or whatever significance they want. And absent other specific signifance, Feng Shui says pairs of things are better than singles or triples anyway. I used an empty Rolaids jar for a waterproof insert; just the right size and HDPE is easy to trim to size.

Up until now, I've left pieces with captive rings either unfinished, or waxed by hand on and off the lathe. For the present effort, I tried a quick and not-quite-dirty expedient for spray finishing. I mounted the vase on a rotisserie drive (5 rpm), and formed some insulated wire fingers to urge the rings away from each other and the vase bowl and foot. The fingers are well clear of everything, to avoid their own marks and to allow the rings to drift. The fingers also have a drip curve, so that excess coating falls to the newspaper below. The rings swab the stem as the process proceeds, but left surprisingly little evidence. The finish is clear semi-gloss polyurethane, about 10 coats in close succession over about 4 hours to avoid sanding, then left the rotisserie running overnight. Satin might have worked better; gloss probably worse, but lacquer would have allowed subsequent polishing. (Minwax is silent about polishing PU.) There's more than one way to skin a cat, so I'd welcome other ideas.

The viburnum came from a shrub I cut down a few months ago. The trunk has a bizarre cross section. Another blank shown here is one of the more orderly ones. The lump at hand suggested a natural edge. I reinforced the bark with some CA dribbled onto it and rubbed dry with a paper towel. Some of the CA soaked into the sapwood, which I more or less ignored. I'll claim that the darker spots add "character." The bowl is 4 1/4" (110mm) diameter x 2 3/4" (65mm) high, finished with paste wax on the lathe. I considered CA for an overall finish, but the wood is still somewhat green.

Joe