Several years ago I had the opportunity to salvage the remains of a 125 year old White Oak Tree that had been removed to make way for a new housing development and golf course. In the process of cutting the sections into bowl blanks, I ended up with the center section of each of these pieces which was about 2 1/2" - 3" thick with the pit in it. Some of these sections were up to 36" and even though they contained the pith, I could not throw them away. I seal coated the bowl blanks and set them aside until time for turning. The center pith sections were left "as is" and generally ignored for about 2 years. As time went on, I took 2 of the center pieces that had warped considerably but had minimal cracking so I brought them inside where they sat for another year. (By the way, the other ten or so pith pieces warped and cracked so badly, they even made ugly firewood.)

As most of you know, burl can make some very beautiful pieces and is exceptional when shown over a larger area such as a platter or wall sculpture or wall hanging. One way of creating an interesting space is to have a wall hanging and one or more turnings from the same material placed in a grouping in the same area. When bowls or hollow forms are shown in conjunction with the wall pieces, they can give a wonderful feeling of warmth and continuity from the wall to the sitting piece.

There is no limit to size, these hangings can be as small as 2" to as large as the wall it is to be hung on will support and display it well. In all practicality sizes run from 2" to 40". The majority of wall sculptures/hangings I create are in the 16" to 24" range, which is a range that will fit well into hallways, entryways, offices and of course any room in your house.

Remember to use all of the resources possible whenever you are doing any kind of turning. When doing Wall pieces I usually let them be Greek, Roman or Egyptian influenced. A good part of your design will also depend on the type of wood you have at hand. Excellent reference points for ideas are libraries, art museums, art galleries and art shows.

Basic Assumptions:

• As in all areas of life there is no one way of doing anything. The only wrong way is the UNSAFE Way.
• The following criteria are used for this exercise:
• The capability of the lathe to mount a piece between centers. (For safety and for better tool control.)
• The use of an expanding type chuck. (OneWay, Axminster, Carlton, Nova, etc)
• A variable speed lathe. (Again not necessary but extremely helpful and time saving when turning. It can also be safer because you can adjust speed up or down when a piece is shaking the lathe and this can smooth out vibrations.)

Selection of piece material can be Big Leaf Maple, Redwood Burl, Myrtle Burl, Center slabs containing pith of trees, crotches of trees, glued up pieces, etc. The selection process depends on whether we have an immediate or future need for our material.

• Gifts: These are pieces that we find in downed trees, trees we harvest or others have harvested and share with us. In this case, we work with what we are given and use the material whenever it is appropriate.
• Choices: If we choose (cut, harvest or purchase) the piece we may or may not have a particular use in mind.

• Have stabilized wood (Dry to local conditions for the time of year - moisture content of approximately 8-12% here in Minnesota)

Now that we have our material we should have a plan or design in mind or even on paper but be prepared to be flexible as to the end product. Flexibility is necessary when turning, as different pieces, especially Big Leaf Maple, can sometimes reveal hidden flaws or inclusions that have to be worked around. I especially like these inclusions as they really add character to a turning. The random and disordered characteristics of the burl and high figure can be used in the design of the piece and can make a mundane piece stand out for its' uniqueness.

As a form of sculpture, the piece should elicit some type of response from the viewer, preferably because it is aesthetically pleasing and possibly because it excites an individuals imagination.

If it is an irregular piece, figure out the best orientation of the wood to show its' features off

Will it be strictly for form or will it also be a functional piece

• Beauty of wood, Burl or Grain design, cracks, splits that can be emphasized
• Do not be afraid of using a piece with defects, these can be used as attributes to the work most of the time
• Cracks can be filled with various materials, brass, turquoise, Inlace, pewter, exotic woods, avonite, semi-precious stones, bleaching or burning of the wood …
• Splits can be left as is or emphasized by filling, carving around, coloring
• The design applied to the platter by the Artist
• Is it for form (looks) or function (usable)
• Carving radiating lines out from the centrifugal forms, the pieces can suggest the sun, the moon, and even the halos of Byzantine icons and other Christian art.

Mounting the material

• The piece can be held between centers with a spur center and revolving tail center or you can glue a block on the front of the piece to be held in the chuck, with the back of the piece facing the tailstock.
• Figure out balance of piece

• Run at the maximum safe RPM possible. (I will bring the speed up to where I am comfortable with from experience.) I have had to run pieces slower than I liked because of balance but I have not to this point added any ballast to a piece to balance it.
• A lot of the Big Leaf Maple and Redwood have some nasty edges and a person has to be extremely careful of these. On sharp spurs or growths, I will use a sticky masking tape to cover the points or to bridge gaps that can catch. The nice thing about tape is that it will just turn away as you get to that point in the piece

Turning the material

• Smooth and shape back of piece. (The back is as important as the front when designing and especially finishing and the same care in turning and finishing should be used on the back as is used on the front.)
• Cut opening for dovetail to be held by chuck. (This opening should be just a fraction on an inch larger than the jaws when they are fully closed. (On all of the chucks I am familiar with, the closed position is the one that is a concentric circle and goes out of shape the more it is expanded.)
• The nubbin that is left will be taken off at later stage unless the piece has a glue block on the front where you can then release the tailstock to finish opening

Remove piece from lathe and finish sand, finish and buff to final finish.

When purchasing wood, there are several things to take into consideration:

• Initial Price
• Shipping and Handling cost
• Do you buy with bark inclusions still on and in the pieces or have them pressure cleaned, which can add up to 50% to the cost of the wood.
• Do you want Good Figure Maple =Curly, Quilted, Burl. Not enough figure to make high grade, but very nice. 30% figure or better throughout, variation in color or for High Figure Maple =Curly, Quilted, Burl, 60% figure or better throughout, variation in color mild to dramatic. (again price rises considerably for High Figure)
• Is the wood wet, semi stable or dry