• May 2025 Turning Challenge: Long Neck Hollowform! (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Phil Hamel winner of the April 2025 Turning Challenge (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Dion Wisniewski for "Basketweave" being selected as Turning of the Week for 12 May, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

First basket illusion

A

Adam Buttress

Joined
Sep 1, 2023
Messages
13
Likes
20
Location
Golden Valley, MN
Website
www.woodsworthhandmade.com
I recently learned about basket illusion turning and loved what I saw...lots of examples on this site. Here's my first effort from a laminated maple blank. About 8.5" in diameter and 2" tall. Used Copic Classic pens. Some of the beads didn't take the ink very well. I wonder if I sanded too much and that affected it. For those who do this, how much do you sand?

IMG_4700.jpeg IMG_4706.jpeg IMG_4701.jpeg
 
I don't really sand after cutting the beads. Just a quit touch with a folded piece of 320 grit to remove any fuzz. What type of wood are you using? I usually use hard white maple (bleached). It seems to take the pens pretty well. Which pens are you using? I use the Faber castel Pitt pens.
 
I don’t know much about basket illusion techniques, but I’ve done a fair bit of coloration. One thing that could be helpful is to coat the wood in dilute shellac (1/2 lb cut) prior to adding color. This should help with uniformity.
 
Adam, this is a very nice basket! If you've done this well on you first I look forward to seeing your future baskets.

As for sanding, my experience is that turning the beads in hard or soft maple won't need any sanding. And sanding risks flattening the bead which makes them harder to get a fine burn line. There are lots of styles but I try to make my baskets look somewhat like an old Native American basket and a little bit of roughness enhances that look and feel. I use quite a bit of the softer woods on mine.
 
Curt Fuller said:
Adam, this is a very nice basket! If you've done this well on you first I look forward to seeing your future baskets.

As for sanding, my experience is that turning the beads in hard or soft maple won't need any sanding. And sanding risks flattening the bead which makes them harder to get a fine burn line. There are lots of styles but I try to make my baskets look somewhat like an old Native American basket and a little bit of roughness enhances that look and feel. I use quite a bit of the softer woods on mine.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much! I appreciate the info.
 
There's a war about us non Native folks doing Native American crafts for fun and profit. I showed a picture of a pretty complex one I'd done to a Native American and he actually thought it was a woven basket. When I told him what it really was, he walked off so steaming he left a trail of ash behind him. This isn't real important, but there are folks that take that stuff seriously. I take it seriously too but for different reasons. And since I'm not competing with any of that group, I don't even want to engage in the discussion. Just a word of caution. As long as you are clear that you are NOT a Native and are NOT replicating authentic baskets, there is little room for their arguments. But I'd sure like to have them as friends rather than throwing tomahawks at me.
 
Congrats on your first basket illusion piece! I agree with Curt Fuller in previous post - I do absolutely no sanding -- I use extremely sharp tools to get a super smooth and clean surface prior to cutting any beads. Ideally, you want to end up with rounded tops on the beads not flat tops! Rounded bead tops make the burning process and applying the ink easier/better. That said -
after burning the index lines, I will put the piece back on the lathe and at very low speed, I lightly touch a very fine scotch-brite fiber pad to the surface for a few seconds - this is done to gently remove the rough nibs from the burning process - thats all. The very fine fiber pad will contour to the beads and will not change the shape of the bead or surface quality of the wood in a few seconds time -just make sure to not over do it! Remember that it is desirable to have a smooth, scratch and chip free surface, not just for appearance's sake, but also for the simple reason that a smooth surface will not wear out the tips of the ink pens nearly as fast.
Have fun & Good Luck!
 
Using hard white maple is best. If you are using soft maple, the pores can take the color differently depending on the grain orientation.
 
HI Gabriel, I agree - hard maple is also my favorite for basket illusion pieces. I have tried a few other types of wood with the basket illusion technique ---beech was nice to work on too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top