I was talking with a co-worker and he told me about a storm that came through Central Illinois this spring and slammed his parents.  They had damage to their house, a shed, and it tore up an ash tree.  As is usually the case, as he was telling me about all the work he was doing to clean up the property for his parents, I kept hearing “free wood”.  The standing deal is, you bring me wood, I’ll make you something, so it didn’t take long to broker the exchange.  (I actually kinda like these deals, because it gives people the ability to say “remember that tree that used to be in the front yard?  Well this bowl came from it!”)  The two logs he brought, should yield 4 smaller bowls, about 7″-8″ in diameter.

I roughed them out back in May and left them to dry.   I figured there was plenty of time, so I just let them set, continuing to dry.  When I checked on them in October, one bowl developed a deep crack that may be problematic, but seems stable enough to continue.  The others look fine, minus the usual warping that comes as wood naturally dries, and will have to be “turned out” on the final product. I figured I had all kinds of time to complete the project, since there was no real deadline.  WRONG!  Things changed at work and my co-worker will be taking a buy-out offer and leaving the company.  I decided to get these turned and done before he left, perhaps even before Christmas.

One piece of wood I’m going to hold back (call it a tax) but the first three are all finished.  The first bowl started out as a typical, small, ash bowl about 7 inches across and 5 inches or so deep.  Ash can look kinda plain if left it’s natural color, so I decided to try to dye the wood with an airbrush.  This was only my second attempt at using an airbrush to spray and blend aniline wood dyes and I’m very pleased with the way this turned out:

The second was really non-descript in terms of grain pattern and color.  As plain as ash gets!  I decided to add a ring around the top to give it some kind of contrast and decided on adding a ring of santos mahogany from South America.  Using just a renaissance wax for a finish allowed the piece to stay fairly close to the initial colors, yet still brining out the redness of the mahogany.  Like this one, too!

The third bowl had a significant crack that developed right across the bottom as I was turning it.  I tried to “turn it out”, but realized quickly that the bowl would end up paper thin if I kept going down that path.  Since I don’t know if the crack will continue to grow, heal up, or stay exactly like it is, I skipped adding any embellishments and stayed with the “brown and round” approach.

Hopefully, Mr. Jacobi will enjoy the pieces and share at least one of them with his parents…

Since I started getting heavy into turning, I had always admired the way some turners were able to stain their projects to get deep, rich color, without covering up the natural grain pattern of the wood.  I did some research and found the best thing to use is aniline wood dye, so I bought some.  Even though the videos made it look really easy, by early efforts all ended with hard lines between the colors.  Instead of getting a bowl that was green on the bottom, fading into  purple, then fading into blue on the top, I’d always end up with something that looked like a bad Easter egg colored by a 5 year old.  Hard lines, splotchy coverage, and nothing at all like what I had envisioned in my head.

Last Christmas, I got an airbrush for my daughter to use on her costuming projects.  After seeing a video on YouTube from a guy in England who was using an airbrush to apply the dye, I figured I’d give it another shot.  While I still have a LONG way to go to get the effect that I want, this is a pretty good freshman effort!  I love the way you can still see the woodgrain and natural spalting of the wood through the stain.

When Hobby Lobby opens, I’ll be heading in for more airbrush supplies…