My First Bowl

amazonHere is a shot of the first bowl carved on my lathe. I should clarify - this is the first bowl I actually completed. I had more than one piece fly off the chuck and break - one hit the floor, the other broke on a rafter above my head. So please - wear your safety gear - a full face shield really helps.


First, here is the bowl:

It's relatively small and simple in design. However, it's cut from a piece of box elder which fell in my backyard and is riddled with worm holes and truly unique characteristics. I absolutely love the gnarled wood, which brings nature completely into the piece. This is about artwork, right?

I definitely had a learning curve figuring out how to initially mount the blank, and then remount on the opposite side to somplete it. I tried several methods I learned in the books, but none helped me make it to the end

I ended up buying a Barracuda chuck from PSI (off Amazon). It REALLY makes chucking a partially finished piece very easy. I really couldn't do it before I bought it. It's a pretty solid tool and well worth the money.