calabash

Dogwood usually has a pretty subdued color, but if you incorporate some sapwood you are reward with some beautiful rusty red/brown streaks. This is a little covered calabash (3.5” d x 4” h) made to highlight these colors. @Kent Reisdorph was kind enough to give me the wood for this one. Thanks Kent!

Bradford Pear, Wenge, Environ biocomposite, Gaboon Ebony, metal hardware. 4” x 4” x 4.75”. I made this calabash for a swap with another turner. I’ll let him chime in if he wants. I designed this to look like a normal calabash in one view, but spin it around and you see a forked piece holding a...

Black Oak, pyro'd, carved, and painted to mimic mosaic tile. Though, it might look a bit more like stained glass. In any case, this was a fun and time consuming project that gets me excited for the next version. Interior finished with hemp oil, exterior finished with satin lacquer. 7.25"d x 3.5"h.

Fairly heavily spalted Pecan covered calabash. I’ve made several of these now, and this is my favorite (in the context of form). Not too big, not too small, 5” x 5”. Exterior finished with lacquer, interior unfinished.

Black Oak bowl, Bloodwood pewa, Koa, Bradford Pear, and Bamboo canoe, India ink, acrylic and milk paints. 7.25"d x 3"h. When I posted a previous piece, "The Vessel", Emiliano commented on Hawaiian wayfinders using the stars to navigate the seas. I went down the rabbithole,and came up with this...

Although the Portland symposium was a blast, I was definitely missing my lathe. It was fun to come back and turn this small calabash as a gift for a friend. I roughed this out last year, and have been looking forward to the final turning for a while. Seemed about the right time. I really enjoy...

Osage Orange calabash form with three Wenge pewa. I carved the interior, coated with two layers of India ink, and then painted a ton of tiny dots with Acrylic paint. The idea: Vessels are so common and important in societies across the world, I have a hard time imaging that extraterrestrials...

Two miniature calabashes of different styles. The taller bowl is 15/16" diameter x 3/4" tall. The low calabash is 15/16" diameter x 3/8" tall. Betel nut is an interesting and challenging material to work with. Every nut has different patterns inside. Pretty wild! These have no finish, aside from...

Black Locust end grain calabash that I fumed with 10% ammonia for around 8 hours. Black Locust has a high tannin content, and as such responds well to ammonia fuming. It looks very similar to Wenge, but has a slight yellow cast. This is also a fairly small bowl at 2 5/8"h x 2 7/8"d. I made this...

In between projects that require a lot of embellishment or otherwise off-lathe time, it's really satisfying to turn some bowls. These are a few calabashes that I've turned recently, and they represent some of my favorite native Tennessee hardwoods. Moving clockwise: The upper left is heavily...

This small walnut bowl was inspired by this months AAW Forum challenge to turn a low calabash bowl. I had roughed this one out about a year ago. I instantly thought it would be a great opportunity to play with some more sandblasted black-on-black effects. I was working on this while we were...

The name is a bit of nonsense, but fun. "Fake palm" because to me the texture has the appearance of an endgrain Black Palm bowl. However, the wood is Black Cherry. I created the texture on the exterior with a sharp woodburning tip applied mostly in an upward stabbing motion. I also added a lot...

9.5 x 8.25. Finished with Seal a Cell, Arm-R-Seal, and Ren Wax.

This one is part of my personal collection. The wood looks a little like Mahogany, but it is native to Hawaii. The bowl is finished in shellac and bee's wax. 3 1/4 inches in diameter by 2 1/8 inches high. As always, questions, comments and/or critique invited.

Milo is a BEAUTIFUL hardwood native to Hawaii, and very prized. I was lucky to get this and several other fairly substantial pieces on one of my trips there. This bowl is 6 7/8 inches in diameter by 5 1/2 inches high. The finish is nothing more than oil and bees wax, much like a native...