Sometimes I feel obsessed with getting a project completed.  Last night was one of those nights and I eneded up staying up well past my bedtime.  It would seem that it paid off however and I got quite a bit done on a new project.  I’m calling this new Blues Bowl “My Demons” due to the really interesting pattern in the spalt on the top.

I started the design with the top in mind.  It’s book matched spalted sycamore that I glued up and ran through my planer.  I then cut a circle from the glue up on my bandsaw and used a friction mount between the top of the bowl and the tailstock to turn the piece round and mark where the rabbet would be in the top of my bowl.  The technique worked well and the piece fit perfectly.

The bowl is a piece of walnut and turned out nicely I think.  It’s a little heavy but I think it will be fine.  It has good balance in the grain patterns on the bottom of the bowl.

I made the neck by turning two face jointed pieces of cherry between centers.  I put a piece of brown paper between the two pieces of wood to make it easier to get them apart once I finished turning them.  The neck is approximately 1 1/4″ across.  I ran the face across my planer to clean up the glue joint and then faired the edges to make it comfortable.

To finish it up, I need to make make the plug for the bridge, wire it up with the pickup, place the nut, and possibly put some sound holes in it.  I’ll do some final sanding and then finish it with lacquer.  Still a ways to go. I’ll post the finished project soon.