This is a collaboration between myself and Andy DiPietro. Andy saw my Trefoil piece at the Totally Turning show in Saratoga Springs this spring and thought that it might make a great collaborative piece with me completing the form in oak and let him sandblast and finish it with one of his great finishes. I had to think about it some, as I have only done one offs, but finally decided it was really a great idea. I got back to VT and started looking around, but came to realize that white oak does not grow this far north. Andy and I were both doing demos at the New England Woodturning Symposium in Derry NH a month later, and he brought me up a chunk of some chestnut oak for the collaboration.
The trefoil form is pretty much the same as the first piece. This minimal surface has multiple iterations and I considered doing a piece with 8 lobes (4 on each side) but figured that would be too symmetrical, and more than that would get to be too busy, so I stuck with the original form. The base was bit of a different idea I came up with that I thought would give it some lift. It took some time to turn as it had to be turned and hollowed from both ends to match my concept of the final form, and stepped at the top to hold the piece securely. I wound up re-chucking it several times from both ends and used a steady help to complete the turning. The legs and arms were then carved out of the turned form.
I then sent it off to Andy to do his magic and left all those decisions to him. He decided to do his Oakobolo finish, and I think it works perfectly. I love the sandblasting combined with the color treatments that he has been doing.
This was my first collaboration, and I have to say it is an enriching and fun experience. You certainly get more out of it than a nice piece of work. We will be doing another, as we have decided to keep the results for our own collections.
Trefoil form
Chestnut Oak, Andys Oakobolo finish
6 H x 7.5D
Stand
Maple, USMC black leather dye
7.125H x 4D
13H x 7.5 D together
Andy did the photography
