I'd appreciate some constructive critisism

[John Abt]

Hi,

I've been turning about six months or so and I thought that I'd finally post some pictures in the gallery of my first attempts at turning.

I'd appreciate any constructive comments you have. My photographic skills also need to be improved.

Thanks, in advance.

 

[dkulze]

Hi John,

Well, for a newbie you're doing pretty well. Your work has clean lines and nice form. You're pieces still have a few steps to go from utilitarian to graceful but that comes with lots of practice combined with looking through galleries and experiencing your own finished work beside others' to get a sense of proportion and style.

I would encourage you to begin playing around with form and texture (both added and inherant) as quickly as possible. This will help you begin to move away from attention to the cut and into attention to the piece.

My personal route for this has been through turning a variety of distressed woods just to see if I could do it and what would happen. It's led to a tendancy to turn a rough form, stop and look at it, and choose a feature of the wood to base the whole piece around. Others in my club have found themselves led to precision turning (miniature boxes with snap lids), whimsy (a combination of design and naming to bring out the humor in a piece), freeform design carvings (random patterns of carving that flow into percieved shapes and trick the eye), segmented work, etc.

Just remember, the only person you're here to impress is yourself and, if it ain't fun, you aren't doing it right.

Dietrich

 

[C Edward Moore]

Change shape

John,

You asked for constructive criticism and I hope to provide just that. I think that it was three of your bowls that had tall walls and a flat bottom. I have over-simplified that, but you have turned what I call a beginner's bowl where you were determined to use all the wood in the blank and optimize the capacity of the vessel.

Please try this experiment. Take a piece of light chain, possibly from a jewelry box, set the first bowl on the edge of a table, kneel next to it and hold the chain as if the ends were on the rim on opposite sides and let it hang so that the chain just touches the table top or has a small portion on the table. Now ask, which has the nicest profile, your bowl or that chain? The bowl shaped like that chain is easier to turn and will produce more pleasing results.

It appears that you have some ability - don't be put off by my bluntness. To optimize the results turn only shallow bowls for a month or so and check Keith Tompkins notes on design that are posted on the AAW website. You will immediately understand what I have said and will not be offended, I hope.

 

[MichaelMouse]

We all made those pieces along the way. Some of us still do cut more or less what the wood gives because we're selling utility rather than artwork. I minimize flat areas, preferring smooth (fair) curves. Easy to do them really, because you can forget that business about equal thickness walls and bottoms and make a fair curve inside as well, leaving some extra wood depth and weight on the bottom as you narrow the base. As long as the curves are fair and the walls get thicker rather than thinner as you descend, they'll feel and look right. Equal thickness is for potters. They have to keep things in limits for the sake of the kiln, where we don't.

Remember as you experiment that good technique allows you to make anything, art is someone's opinion.

 

[Andy Coates]

As long as the curves are fair and the walls get thicker rather than thinner as you descend, they'll feel and look right. Equal thickness is for potters. They have to keep things in limits for the sake of the kiln, where we don't.

How refreshing to see this statement posted; for far too long now, IMHO, wires have been crossed, and as a consequence a kind of misguided dogma has grown up. Even thickness walls are, of course, important, if not essential, for wet-turned work, but not so for dry work...but that's not the message that has promoted. I have read articles, book extracts, heard it at demonstrations, on video and DVD..."must have an even wall thickness"...

Why? If, as MM says, the wall thickness increases rather than decreases, and it is within the dictates of the size of the piece, then there is no earthly reason why this should be considered a bad point...and yet it so often is. And new turners spend far too much time worrying about the eveness and less about the form and line as a consequence.

Even walls are pleasing on many levels, and, where possible, I see no reason not to have them so, but it shouldn't be cast in stone. Well done for posting, MM.

So it's nice to see it posted

 

[Griesbach]

MM and Andy,

Well said on both counts and, also, well over due. Now, can we also drop the foolish notion that every turned piece must be super thin?

 

[John Abt]

Ed,

Thanks. I am not offended by your comments and I appreciate the time you took to offer me your thoughts (and I will follow your advice). I felt that I am currently in a stage of learning tool control and techniques. Hopefully, I'll be able to "find my voice" and become more creative in my work.

I also appreciate all of the comments from everyone else, in both the gallery and this thread.

Thanks!

 

[hockenbery]

What I prefer in most turnings are curves. I think Ed said it well.
Your pieces tend toward flats rafther than curves. A nice curve will make an ok piece in a great piece.

The bevel on the turning tool wants to follow a straight line cut. Holding the tool to your side and "dancing" the "dance" will help you get curves. I teach my students to turn bowl by first establishing a notion of the foot and a notion of the rim. Then connect the foot to the rim with a pleasing curve.

Get some firewood and turn a dozen balls.
This will force you to turn curves. look at:
http://www.hockenbery-woodturnings.com/SphereDescription.pdf

This describes a layout that gets you to a sphere by cutting straight lines. After turning 5 or 10 you will be able to turn one by eye alone. But you still follow the process of cutting away the corners frist. Once you get to that point you should have no trouble turning curves on bowls or goblets.

Also you have two resouces within a 1/2 hour. The Chesapeake Woodturners and Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. Both are in Annapolis. Maryland Hall offers excellent classes in basic and intermediate woodturing as well as masters classes. The Chesapeake club has some superb turners. Take a bowl to a meeting and ask Allen, Margaret, Joe, Jeff, and many others for advice.

Happy Turning,
AL

 

[DeanGThomas]

Curves and feet on bowls are two of the biggest issues discussed amongst bowl turners, I think. Rightfully so because they make or break the design aspect of a piece.

One of the previous posters commented about thin walls being primarily for potters and kilns. Mostly true. Green wood turning requires at least some attention to those issues, probably depending on the species.

The point about potters brought an interesting thought, though. Trained potters spend time on design issues in classes. They learn about how the eye treats curves on bowls, what works and why. I'm not qualified to teach the course, but they talk about curves that continue beyond the table and don't just clunkily end there. You might want to see about finding a potter to converse with and the procurement of a book on design of bowls. Raffan has or had such a book that talked somewhat about curves, but I honestly don't remember if it was in great depth.

Feet on bowls serve an interesting purpose. Beyond the fact that the wider foot makes the bowl more stable, it lifts the curve fully above the table (in many if not most cases), making the eye's job easier to define the entire curve.

Just a drive-by comment.

 

[MichaelMouse]

One of the previous posters commented about thin walls being primarily for potters and kilns. Mostly true. Green wood turning requires at least some attention to those issues, probably depending on the species.

Just a drive-by comment.

Consistent thickness, actually. Care to slow down long enough to tell why you think green wood turning demands attention to thickness? Only one I know is the folkore about thick bottoms splitting. As a guy who leaves 6" thick bottoms on a 6" deep bowl, I'm here to say that's a myth.

"Feet" get people carried away. I think they come from the mud side as well, because flat bottoms, once warped in the kiln can't be smoothed with a block plane like warped wood. I'm an anti-foot type, personally. A modest recurve ("reveal") to hide the base in a shadow is about as far as I go on most pieces.