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After seeing a demo of this vase at my woodturning club, I searched for a good piece of wood. Ideally, it would be an entire round of freshly harvested wood. With wet wood, I could expect the fins to warp up and down randomly, adding to the visual effect of the fins.

The process is fairly simple:

1. Rough turn the wood between centers
2. Cut a mounting tenon. The club demonstrator used a faceplate.
3. Mount to a chuck using the tenon. (or faceplate)
4. Tool the exterior but leave large for now.
5. Drill or hollow the interior. For an even more advanced vase, hollow out the interior to a pleasing curve. However, this will complicate matters significantly later.
6. Finish shaping the exterior.
7. Sand but do not finish the exterior.
8. With the tool rest parallel to the lathe axis, start cutting the fins. Since my interior was drilled to a consistant diameter, I cut the fins to a consistent depth. If I had hollowed the interior, I would have to consider the varying internal diameter.
9. Part off the vase and clean up the bottom either now or after drying.
10. Allow to dry. For this vase, I placed the vase in a plastic bag and microwaved it in several 1 minute bursts. I quit when the bottom appeared to start cracking.
11. When dry, sand again with fine finishing grits.
12. Apply finish.. Enjoy.

My vase is about 7.5″ high and 4″ diameter finished with walnut oil.

I did not get the warping I expected. Perhaps, the wood was not fresh enough, Perhaps, I could have made the fins thinner. I could have turned it cross grain for more warpage but that doesn’t seem right for a vase.

Remember the Christmas Ornament Challenge submission period is November. Plan your ornament now.