Nice piece . I guess I just can't visualize these pieces with so much open space.

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

You really do have an eye for the different and difficult😁. looking good and you are right, I DO NOT ENVY THE SANDING

I'd say elm burl is as good a guess as any. That's gonna be pretty cool once finished.

Lew; you really did set the bar high with your celtic knot bowl. I studied your process extensively, then made the same mistakes, even though I knew better. That is one difficult glue up. Anyway here is my poor attempt at a copy.You don't have to look too close to see the problem

Another view Closeup of the slip. Hats off to you Lew, even with you paving the way I made the same mistake.

Looks great Rusty.

@Rusty S WOW! that sure is pretty! Don't beat yourself up even the one in the article wasn't totally symmetrical!

Looks good to me. I would never have noticed if you had not mentioned it

Thanks guys. I would like to follow your advice but I have this problem about keeping my mouth shut, I know the slip up is small but it sticks out like a sore thumb to me. I know don't get stuck looking for perfection, GMA. Always told me that there was only one perfect carpenter and he was nailed to a cross. My language alone keeps me out of his category🤣

Started sanding the salt/pepper grinders. Spheres are not my forte.

12 hours ago, lew said:

Started sanding the salt/pepper grinders. Spheres are not my forte.

Maybe not, but it looks really good to me.

I'm with Fred, they look like a sphere to me.

Nothing wrong with those Lew, looking good to me. Now how many more to practice on🤔? Thank you I'll go now.

Don't know abut spheres but that looks good to me

Lew they look great ! I don't know about you but the junk I turn NEVER ends looking like I had on paper. It looks actually pretty nice ! I have a voice in my head , ( actually many voices) the one I try to hear best says if it is nice don't try to fix it twice !!!!!!!

@Fred W. Hargis Jr , @DuckSoup , @Rusty S , @Gerald and @calabrese55 Thanks for the kind words!

Holy cow I finally got this crusade to a finish line, seems like it took forever.

This thing required 13 resin castings of Super Clear Deep Pour epoxy. The assembled upper and lower staved sections were cast in molds made using plastic sheets formed into fitted cones one for the inner and one for the outer mold with the bottom blanked off. The resin for the lower staves were cast in blocks each supporting one half of the oval cavity and then glued together to get the finished oval cavity. Later the blocks with the cured resin were milled to create the required stave tapers. It was a bunch of messing around but it was a fun build. The only down side was when my wife saw the finished piece she said "THAT WOULD MAKE A GREAT LAMP" ☹️

Amazed at how you envision the mold designs to get the desired results!

37 minutes ago, lew said:

Amazed at how you envision the mold designs to get the desired results!

Thanks Lew for you kind words. As a real young buck fresh out of trade school I was hired as a draftsman at a pump company. I worked with many pattern drawings for the pump castings that were abstract and complex at the same time. To better understand what the pencil marks I put on paper really meant I spent many hours in the pattern shop, core shop and the foundry. So I kind of have some of that mold making background.

Wow, Mikwe...you certainly get some spectacular results with that casting process you do. Well done!