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Banksia Pod Hollow Form Study
Allen Alexopulos

Banksia Pod Hollow Form Study

A lidded hollow form fashioned from an Australian Banksia pod with African Blackwood base and finial.

Base Diameter: 1 3/8"
Height: 13 3/4"
Max Diameter: 2 3/8"
Finish: Spray Lacquer, Friction polish
Very nice shape and form, crisp detail and beautiful finial.

personally, i would have made the final shorter but hay, to each his own
 
Hi Allen
Yessir this is gorgeous love it. I have a couple od Banksia pods but not got round to letting the spiral pairs go long enough to do anything with the pods. Later project or as a rest.
Best from Jeff
 
VERY good!! I gotta make me one of them!! How did you turn the inside without breaking, and how thin did you go??
 
Hi Jerry, Odie, Michael, Don, Frank, James, GA Darling, Jeff and Mr. Don,

Thank you for taking the time to critique my study piece. The banksia pod that I turned this piece from had been sitting on a shelf in my shop for about 6 years. During the process of reconfiguring the shop I "rediscovered" the pod and decided that it was about time to either toss it or turn it. I'm glad that I chose the latter!

Despite their fragile appearance, banksia pods are structurally stable and reasonably easy to turn. You do have to turn away a great deal of fuzz to get down to the solid internal material and this part of the process can be very messy. The hollowing process didn't vary much from any other chunk that I've turned. Since there are plenty of "eyes" distributed throughout the piece, it was easy to control the wall thickness without any fancy laser guidance. The final wall thickness on this piece ended up averaging about 1/8". I used a steady rest to constrain the pod while I was hollowing it out.

My target proportion for the ratio of the distance from the bottom of the foot to the top of the pod to the finial length was based on the golden ratio (1.618). The finial ended up being about 3/16" longer than theoretical, a variation of less than 4%. I'll do better the next time...

I also replicated the basic shape of the pod and base at the top of the finial. I am going to try to take another photo at a lower angle with improved lighting that will better show the proportions of the piece along with some details on the base that are pretty much hidden in this view.

Thanks again for your comments, good turning, and have a pleasant evening.

-Allen
 

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Member Galleries
Added by
Allen Alexopulos
Date added
View count
12,387
Comment count
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Image metadata

Device
OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD C5050Z
Aperture
ƒ/7
Focal length
13.8 mm
Exposure time
3.2 second(s)
ISO
100
Flash
Off, did not fire
Filename
BanksiaPodBox_Small.jpg
File size
240.1 KB
Date taken
Mon, 30 November -0001 12:00 AM
Dimensions
613px x 1200px

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