Sometimes, things just happen. You don’t really plan them to, you don’t really even know it’s happening, but one thing just leads to another until you’re done.
That was the case with this one. It started as a small mulberry bowl blank that came from a tree I took down at my daughter’s house. As I was cleaning out old projects, I found the chunk of wood and since it was dry, I started spinning it. What came out when I turned the lathe off, was a small, mulberry bowl. While the grain was centered very well, there’s still only so much “excitement” that comes from mulberry. As I was looking at it, I thought “this needs some help”. I took it off the lathe and set it on the workbench. It sat there for at least a week, waiting some kind of inspiration to strike.
There’s a podcast I listen to that just got sponsored by Sabertooth burrs. As I was listening to the impromptu commercial the hosts were doing, I looked at the bowl and though “I otta carve something”. had a vague idea of making ridges and valleys, thinking it would eventually become something work looking at. Just in case you’re planning on playing along at home, it’s always a good idea to KNOW what you’re going to carve, before you pick up the tool and start carving. For this project, I got about a 5″ section done and realized that mulberry isn’t that good of wood to use for carving. Not to get all wood nerd, but the growth rings are a LOT softer than the surrounding wood, so the surface gets real uneven, real quick. I decided it was a practice piece that would end up in the burn pile, so I kept going.
After about half the bowl was done, I decided that was enough fun, that this was enough of a learning lesson, and I was done. Here’s what it looked like when I called a truce. I posted a picture on my club’s Facebook group and people said it either looked like the bowl’s brains or intestines were showing.
After a week or so, I decided that I had nothing to lose, so I turned on the wood burner and decided to play around with adding some textures. This was actually kind of fun and the heat not only put in the textures, it also evened out the peaks and valleys. When it was done, to get the color of the burned part of the world to be consistent, I dyed all the burnt part black with India ink.
After sitting it aside for more time, I finally decided that the color of the mulberry was too yellow, so I added Danish Oil to all the non-burnt portion. That dropped the color to a much warmer brown. After it dried, seeing nothing to lose, I decided to practice with the colored gilder’s paste, picking a unique color for each texture.
This is the final outcome. Not too bad for something that was destined to be pitched!
Not sure what the fate of this one will be. It’s currently sitting on a counter so I can see it when I walk by. I figure in a week or so, I’ll know if it’s staying or going!