Here’s a kitchen island that my wife and I completed (finally!) early last year. It is made of Pine and has a thick Birch top. It measures approximately 36″ long by 24 inches wide and 34 inches tall. The base has been painted and the natural top has a polyurethane finish. It also features Southwest style icons on all sides of the base.

This has been a project that was a long time in the making. The wood that was used to make it was reclaimed from other pieces of furniture that somehow found its way back to us.

The four beautiful Maple legs and the Birch top came from an old table that came with our previous home when we bought it almost 25 years ago. We used it as a computer table for several years and then it went on to be used as same at our niece’s home. Years later it returned to us and with no one else wanting it we hung onto it. After visiting Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2009 for the 2009 AAW Symposium we were inspired to use the table in a Southwest style kitchen island for our home.

Here’s a photo of the pieces that we used:

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Here are a couple of small woodturned boxes made from African Blackwood. The larger one is about 3″ tall and 2 1/4″ in diameter. The smaller one is about 2″ tall and 2 1/2″ in diameter. As you can see, they both have been textured quite a bit.

The taller box has been textured with staggered ‘brick’ to make its cylindrical shape almost castle-like, perhaps a turret .

The smaller box, with it’s fez shape, seemed more suited to be mostly textured with a few bands of plain wood left for contrast.

Both of them have been finished only by polishing and buffed with wax creating a brilliant shine.

Here’s some more photos:

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Here’s a hollow form made of spalted Sugar Maple that I finished recently. It was turned while still wet and since it has been finished it has slowly taken on an expected slight ovoid shape, giving it a unique appearance.

It is 7 1/2″ by 4 1/2″ and finished with tung oil. The hole in the top is 7/8″ and the wall thickness was turned to around 3/16 of an inch which gives the surprise of lightness when lifted. The base was stained black.

This was my first attempt with my new 5/8″ hollowing tools from Trent Bosch, which I’m obviously quite impressed with.

Here’s a few more photos:

Continue reading 'A Spalted Maple Hollow Form'

Here’s a Southwest style bowl that I turned for my wife for Christmas. It is made out of Maple and it is 12 1/4 inches wide and 4 inches high and features ‘sinew’ lacing around the rim as well as a bit of turquoise inlay.

The rim was first stained a Cherry red and then over 15 yards of ‘sinew’ lacing was laced in a criss-cross pattern around it.

There was a small area on the bottom where a branch had been so I cleaned it out and inlayed some crushed turquoise in it.

Both of these features really accent the Maple, adding a bit of Southwest flair.

Here’s some more photos:

Continue reading 'Southwest Bowl With Laced Rim'