The Woodshop Shed

Tortoise Bowl

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


This bowl is a big departure from the other bowls and forms I've been turning lately.
This piece is much more experimental in the form and technique and even the finish. Some of these experiments were very successful and I will continue playing with the untraditional forms and other techniques. This bowl is made from ash.One of the experiments that was not as successful was using encaustic wax for the finish.In the end it did work.
Encaustic wax is beeswax with damar resin (pine resin) and oil colors. I made a LOT of different color bars of it a few years ago. The resin gives it a very high melting point so is applied when hot. It also makes it a hard coat once it sets up. Encaustic wax is a preservative and some of the oldest paintings and art objects were painted with it. It also buffs out to a very nice shine.The finish is a base coat of white wax but I was not able to layer it with other colors the way I wanted. Initially it was only going to be the interior that had encaustic wax and I wanted to do a gradation of color from light pink to dark purple. The end result was removing the excess wax and buffing it out. I also decided to color and finish the entire bowl with this white wax. That was followed with Renaissance Wax and buffed. The result is not bad but very different from what I intended. It has a very subtle white stain and a medium gloss shine. It reminds me of a Danish Soap Finish.There was a lot of experimenting with this piece once the bowl came off the lathe.
It was fun.
I have not been posting my other lathe work in the project section but there are quite a few of them.
I've been posting them in groupings in my Wood Turning Blog.Here are some links to those blog posts
More Adventures into WoodturningMore Adventures into Woodturning 3and More Adventures into Woodturning 4

0 comment(s)