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Plain bowls.

Looks great, Rusty. That timber is beautiful in its own right. It’s fun to experiment. Your basket pattern is very cool. This is one of those things that (in my opinion) imperfection begets perfection. If that makes sense. Steve Mawson and Curt Fuller have accomplished some of the most realistic basket patterns/textures I’ve seen. I know @Curt Fuller is pretty active here. Maybe he could impart some of his expertise.
 
That's a good looking bowl and a great idea to add the braided accent ring. Just my 2 cents, but I first thought it looked like a tire track, which I also think would be a great idea. On the basket work I've done I've found that the rim I decorate with a braided pattern kind of needs to be the opposite of precise. I picture a Native American woman weaving and braiding her baskets from natural fiber materials that aren't very consistent in color, diameter, or anything else. So I try not to get the weave and braid burn marks too exact. And then because the real baskets I've seen have cracked and split fibers from time I add a bunch of little lightly burned lines, again not very exact, to try to make them also look old. And then I do the braiding on a round bead at the rim. Adding a similar bead as an accent to just a normal bowl would probably work better on a smaller and round bead. But you know how much 2 cents is worth nowadays.

BTW, thanks for getting the wheels turning in my head with that tire track. That should get some mileage!
 
View attachment 60179View attachment 60180View attachment 60181View attachment 60182All of my bowls have been plain. I am trying to come up with ways to liven them up. I am going to do one with a basket illusion ring. I made this one today with a weaved ring. Thinking I might need to burn around the top and bottom of the weave.
I think it would look nice with a burn line above and below. Try it and see. You could put a piece of black tape on it to see if you like it.
 
My bowls have always been very plain and simple. They are all warped, but maybe that isn't so plain after all. Never had a problem selling them. One potter came by and commented that all of my bowls were so "utilitarian". Yup!

robo hippy
 
To me, one of the best tests of design is to build something out of very plain wood. This holds true for furniture as well as turnings. A great design needs nothing else. I have seen some amazing pieces made from plain grain. But when that same design is used with spectacular wood, magic happens. On the other hand, sometimes complex designs work against beautiful woods.
 
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