This was actually the first attempt at making a basket weave illusion piece and there was MUCH learning! I had to create an indexing system to mark all the spokes, which wasn’t that difficult – BUT – I also had to make a pencil holder that held the tip of the pencil exactly on center with the lathe. Lesson #1 was that I wasn’t exact enough, so the spoke lines aren’t at the right angle to the center. It doesn’t show up on the outer rings, but in the center of the bowl it gets a little funky. Lesson #2 was the inconsistent color of wood that I used. For this one, I used a scrap piece of mulberry, thinking the natural yellow color of the wood might look good in the final design. That was true, except only the heartwood has the yellow color, the sapwood is nearly white. That difference is visible in the end result. Mulberry also isn’t that good at holding a beaded edge, so many of these look like they’ve been chewed by beavers! Lesson #3 was a reminder that you have to have the right tool for the job. I have a set of beading tools, but they’re pretty basic and (I suspect) were designed for spindle turning in mind, not making bowls. The end result were beads that were very inconsistent in size, depending on which part of the bowl’s slope I was working on. After the initial turning was done, I sat it aside and waited for the next fire.
My second attempt (posted in Dec. 2017) took all of the turning lessons into account. After it was completed, I ordered some india ink markers to see if the coloring process would be better using markers over a brush. When they came, I decided to go back to the first, sub-par, turning and use it to test the colors. Below is the result. Using the markers is a LOT more precise than using a brush!
Both of these trial efforts have taught me a great deal. When I make the next one, I’ll be using a hard maple that will take the beads, will be using a much more granular guide for my indexing system so I have more dots to work with when constructing a pattern, and I’ll definitely be using the india ink markers to do the coloring.
This one will be likely be sacrificed to the fire gods:
