The turning club has a new president, so the “president’s challenge” for 2018 have all been updated.  The first one up?  Make something with fire.

Fire!  Hells ya!!!

This is the first of several projects that I have in mind, but most of them will involve either using the fire pit in the back yard or somehow disconnecting the fire alarm system in the house.  It started with a shallow piece of walnut that was mostly sapwood (the white part of the tree, not the dark brown part) but the blank had warped so badly, the overall size shrunk down to about 8″ across and maybe 3″ tall.  The black on the rim was created by using a blowtorch to singe the wood just enough to turn it colors, but not enough to change the texture.

Not too bad for a first effort!