For the Neighbor

Hi again. It's been a week. Here is a pen and Wine bottle stopper that I turned for my neighbor. This came from the tree that he removed between the two properties. The wood was still wet so I nuked it for several short periods of time to dry it out (20 seconds full power, 3 minutes to cool off.) It still is not my favorite wood, but it did work. They did appreciate the pen and wine bottle stopper. Both the pen and the sopper were made of a combination of heart (brown) and sap (white) wood. The piece I brought into the garage was trying to sprout when I picked it up yesterday.

I have a second picture of the pen I did last week. This is made from Cherry, Australian M... and yellow Sculpty clay. The clays fires at 250 degrees. I did the first 10 minutes clamped between the 2 woods, then removed the wood and cooked it by itself another 10 minutes. It gave the pen a pretty cool look. I'll have to try doing this method on a few more objects, as it is kinda fun and unique. The worst issue is that on a twist pen the pattern goes out of alignment when you use it. I don't know if I like that yet.

Be careful of the splinters.