My First Lathe Project - Wabi-Sabi

[alupton]

Hi Everyone. Here's my very first lathe project. I wanted to make a special bud vase for my wife. I used my Ryobi 350W 970mm wood lathe and the two chisels that came with it. I think both chisels need sharpening now.
As you can see from the photos, the end product wasn't where I was intending to go - but I loved what happened. I'd removed the tailstock ready to make a small hollow in the top BUT kaboom! I finished the piece, applied four coats of O'Cedar furniture polish (all we had) went looking for a couple of feathers, found none, took this photo and called it wabi-sabi.

Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
This image search will show some examples. https://tinyurl.com/wood-wabi-sabi I'm sure many of us enjoy the wabi-sabi in our work whether serendipitously discovered or intentionally planned. I'd love to see some of your wabi-sabi works here. Cheers, Al

 Wabi-Sabi Twig/Feather VaseWabi-Sabi Work in Progress

[Jason]

Looks wonderful @alupton. I'm sure your wife loved receiving such a unique gift.

Many thanks for sharing your first lathe project with the community. Looking forward to seeing many more.

Jason

[robchin · Accepted solution]

Love this @alupton 

When I started wood turning I made a lot of small bud vases. off-cuts of wood and little glass vials from the School Science supplies shop. 

[alupton]

Thanks so much, @robchin What a wonderful selection of bud vases. I particularly like the third from the left. Very elegant. Your idea of using vials is a great one and I'll look online to get some. What woods and dimensions are these vases, please?

[robchin]

@alupton 

The vials were from local School/science supplies shop - about $1 each about 100mm long and 10-15mm wide. This means the piece of wood needs to be a minimum of 150mm long - as wide as you like. These ones are typically 25mm or a bit more - hint is not to cut the block too big as you just have to turn the extra waste off. Because of the size I use scraps. Old redgum sleepers or any off-cuts in the shed. Some I don't even know what wood they are. I have done a couple of bigger ones as well with a bigger vial which look good as well.

2nd tip - drill the hole first and then turn it.

Good luck and post some photos.