More $$$ than ....
Fly, yes it would make a cool looking bowl. But before you use up some pen blanks why not try some experiments. Take some 3/4" X 3/4" strips 4-6" long of a dark wood. Then some 3/4" X 1/8" strips of light wood. Glue them into a pad with light/dark/light/dark, etc showing. Make about 4 pads which are essentially square. Surface them off on a flatplate sander, performax other surfacer. They have to be flat, smooth and sanded to about 100 grit. Glue them one on top of the other, alternating the pattern. Let it cure a day. (BTW, use good old carpenter's wood glue, preferably a new bottle, to make all joints.) After a day of curing, drop it on the floor. That's right, drop it on the floor. If it cracks or rings hollow it would do so at 800 RPMs and smack you right in the face. Your finish work will be no better than your prep work. Bad joints are bad joints, glue doesn't make a joint, it glues a joint. And all that yellow run out or foam from poly glues is just crud, no strength, just crud.
Now, if your block makes it this far, shape it up on your bandsaw, at least take the corners off to make the initial turning easier. Then put it on a screw chuck or woodworm screw, bring up your tailstock and start shaping up a piece of art. You'll love what a few rounded corners and edges will do for that block. Leave it a little thick 3/8" or so and sand it slowly from 100 grit to 320 grit, (sanding inparts heat to the wood, heat melts glue, melted glue means the piece comes apart. I've never experienced this, just heard about it. ) coat it in O.B.'s shine juice and plan your next one.
Want a nice variation on a theme. Glue up a cube of 4" to 6" on all three sides, miter off a corner and turn it from a point. Talk about a design, especially of you vary the light and dark thicknesses and the layer thicknesses and the pattern. Try to use woods of the same density for ease of turning. Good luck
