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Fumed Black Locust Calabash
Michael Anderson

Fumed Black Locust Calabash

This is somewhat similar to a previous piece that I posted, but is a slightly different style of calabash bowl. Fumed with ammonia and finished with hemp oil. It is fairly small at 3" diameter and 2" height, and very thin. Almost too thin, but I think this works well with the proportions and scale. I do enjoy making these small forms, though they get a bit stressful. Black Locust tends to be pretty splintery when dry, so hollowing was somewhat challenging. In any case, I made this as a thank you for the gentleman that gave me the wood.
Looks terrific. Love the way the fuming treated the growth rings. Does Black Locust have a high level of natural tannin or did you treat it first?

Your choice, but I hope you were using household ammonia and not the copier heavy duty stuff. I've gotten very good results with household as long as my fuming container is air tight and I give it plenty of time (sometimes days...especially when I forget about it) to fume. I find coolers work great, if the project fits. I have a large 40 gallon igloo that handles anything I would turn/fume.
I also made a Curly Maple bowl with a raised outer band where I wire burned above and below the band and then painted the band with a good coat of very strong Black Tea (high in tannin), let it dry and then fumed. (Maple not being high in tannin.) The maple actually darkened slightly, but the band substantially so resulting in a very good contrast, dark chocolate in color.

Sorry for the ramble. Again, truly beautiful bowl in form, color and grain. Great work.
 

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