The spiral vessel is noteworthy in that it is the first hollow piece I managed to make on a new lathe that hasn't had major pieces fly off it. Admittedly, this is likely more to do with the smaller diameter of this piece than any great increase in skill on my part, but it is nice to put it on the shelf rather than a scrap box.
Not having a large selection of turning blanks locally available at the time, I instead made this vessel based on wood that I had on hand. And one of those pieces was a section of trunk of a Paper Birch tree from the back yard. Locally, many birch trees are succumbing to the Bronze Birch Borer beetle, and that was eventually the case with all four of the Birch trees in our yard. This was one that we cut down in 2003. I saved some (uninfested) pieces of the trunk in the basement, with a thick coating of wax on the ends to slow the drying and prevent cracking.
After the bark was stripped off, this piece was simply turned on the lathe, hollowed out, and then the outside carved by hand in an eccentric spiral (speaking geometrically rather than psychologically). There are a few details of the process
here.
| Material: | Paper Birch |
| Construction: | Turned and carved |
| Finish: | 3 coats Miniwax Wipe-on Poly, Clear Satin |
| Size: | 3.4" dia x 11" h |
| Done: | January 1, 2010 |
