Below is a photo of a recent end grain carved vessel. Wood is Butternut, rough turned as a green log, end grain orientation. After drying for about 6 weeks, the vessel was turned a second time to final thickness -- between 1/4" to 3/8" thick. While still mounted in the chuck, the leaves were sketched on the exterior, and I used a jig saw to cut out the exterior of the leaves. Having an articulating jig mounted in my tool post allowed me to flip the vessel 90 degrees (or onto it's side) making the jigsaw cutting very easy.
The remainder of the carving was done using my NSK EVOlution carver, with carbide bits. Thank you Ed Kelle for your advice on carvers. This is the upgrade that I purchased when I burned up my WeeCher. Sanding was done using Jennifer Shirley's suggestions (per J. Paul Fennell) of small abrasive discs attached to flat head nails using double stick tape, and held in my NSK. Sanding using this method took less than a day. The carved vessel I did immediately previous to this one was entirely hand sanded and took a week!
Dimensions are 8" high by 6" wide at the tips of the leaves, finished with several coats of Bush Oil. Comments and critiques about turning/carving/photography welcomed.
