All 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.
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Plain bowls.
- Thread starter Rusty Nesmith
- Start date
All 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.
looks nice but I see nothing wrong with “plain” if design and wood are pleasing . . .
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.
I like plain bowls myself but plain bowls don’t sell very good where I live no matter how nice they look.
Michael congrats on your article in American Woodturner. That is awesome.
Thanks Rusty!! 
Is the weave wood burned? It's so perfect. Great looking bowl.
Thank you. Yes I burned it in with a Burnmaster wood burner.
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!
BTW, thanks for getting the wheels turning in my head with that tire track. That should get some mileage!
Yes, I think you will like the result. It will help “separate” the embellishment.
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
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.
Looks great but I am thinking that if the decoration was at the rim would be even better. And here is another idea for you I have tried a rope pattern but never quite got there , would be great on a bowl rim.
Rusty, the bowl looks great! May have to try that in the future on some of mine, beautiful work.
We have a group of friends that meet every Tuesday morning for three hours at Woodcraft. I brought it for show and tell and added the two lines when I got home. Here is the updated version. I like it much better.
