OK, I have to admit, this is starting to get spooky. Now I have also won the chairman’s challenge for August, being absent in Tuscany all the while, and with a fellow club member presenting my piece on my behalf.
This tazza has been lying around the workshop for several months in pieces. I started with it, then realized that segmented turning is not all that easy, especially of one doesn’t have a precise table saw. Which I don’t, and even if I wanted, I simply don’t have the space.
Making the segments with a bandsaw and then sanding them into the right shape is tricky at best. The slightest inaccuracies show up tremendously when glued together, especially in the center where they are all supposed to come together in a neat star shape.
I couldn’t achieve this, and therefore put it away and thought: ah well, another lesson learned. But then came up this chairman’s challenge, and I thought: OK, the other rough turned tazza I have is a long way from finishing, so why don’t I finish this as best as I can and we’ll see what happens. And there we go: I win again.
The good points are: It is a nicely balanced piece. The foot and the tazza walls are thing (I am talking less than 2mm). The colour contrast between the plum and the alder does come out very nicely and it is pleasant to look at.
The bad points are: The foot is too big. The stem could have some more interesting detail (and be thinner, but then I’d lose the pattern). And most of all: the segments do NOT match up all in the centre. You can’t see it in the picture above (devious, I know), but it’s bad.
Nevertheless. I’ll take the win. Sorry, guys. Not apologetic. No, not at all.