Here are My Woodturnings!
by David A. Mallory
Port Orange, FL
Note: click any picture to see a larger version.
Working out of a small shop in my garage, I was limited in the size of my projects. So, when I took on the task of building a reproduction of my deceased mother’s fold down desk from the 1800s, I wondered if I could manage its size. It was not the size that ultimately challenged me, it was that I needed to turn two shelf supporting spindles which I did not know how to make. I had an old basic Grizzly lathe, which I had used for only 30 minutes years ago, collecting dust in the corner of my shop. I got it out and had an experienced woodturning friend give me a short lesson on spindle turning, then left me to figure out the rest. I made the two spindles and matched them pretty well and the desk turned out nice. That was the last piece of furniture I have made and it is now going on seven years. My next project was a small bowl and as they say, the rest is history. I was hooked big on woodturning after that day.
Most of my turnings for the first one to two years were from tree trunks and branches, mostly from roadside waste. Inspired by a friend’s segmented bowl and his use of contrasting wood, I started exploring the technique to the point that I now use segmenting technique in almost all of my woodturning.
Although the construction time for each piece is lengthy, the turning portion of the project is much more enjoyable to me than having to rough out a log. With this technique, for me, the greatest pleasure is the freedom it allows in the varied shapes and woods I can chose to create a vase, bowl, or platter. My ideas continue to well outpace my ability to bring them to fruition.
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This pedestal bowl above is made of Maple, Brazilian Cherry, and Dark Walnut. It seems with each project I am learning something new. A note about this piece, the bottom portion was intended to be part of a vase which never turned out as I wanted. It sat around the garage (I’m one of those who save everything remotely valuable) for several months until I went back to the drawing board and came up with the idea to pair it with the upper bowl portion. This was a challenging piece for me as it was one of the first ones in which I turned two independent portions and fitted them together to make one piece. It’s nice to have this one turn out nice since I failed terribly on the previous vase.
I have been intrigued with negative spaces in my woodturning, whether they are produced by knots, splits, or cracks in the wood. I like to incorporate negative spaces in some of my wood-turnings. In the two vases below I utilized hammered copper sheeting to provide the negative spaces. In each of these vases I enjoyed the engineering aspect of fitting the pieces of copper, trying to make them seem part of the unit as a whole. In the taller vase I was trying to make the copper pieces appear as though they are floating between the upper and lower layers of the vase.
You can email David at
david@davidamallory.com
. You can see more of David's work on his website,
www.davidamallory.com
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