Christmas Ornament Challenge – Viewer Review
This video is also posted on YouTube.
Here are the ornaments in the 2018 Christmas Ornament Challenge.
This is the opportunity for viewers to pick their favorites. Please express your favorites in high to low order separated by commas such as 1,2,3,4,5. For voting purposed, it will be easier for us if you vote via YouTube. But if you cannot on YouTube, please vote via a comment to this post.
Enter your picks in a single comment by December 11, 2018. Multiple comments from the same person will not be tabulated.
We’ll announce the winners in another video.
Enjoy and VOTE!
Live Center Options For Woodturning
This video is also posted on YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook.
I appreciate my OneWay live center. It is well made and a good design. The design enable me to tap other items to enhance its capabilities.
In this video, I make a finial steady that mounts to the live center and keeps thin finials from breaking while I’m turning them.
I also show how to drill out a #6 rubber stopper. I use a rubber stopper whenever I need pressure from the live center but do not want the wood to be marred.
I use a standard 3/4″ 10 tpi tap from a industrial supply company.
The #6 rubber stopper came from Amazon.
Similar live centers are offered by: (may have different threads)
- OneWay
- Penn State
- Robust
- Easy Wood Tools
Enjoy!
Woodturning Segmented Thanksgiving Cornucopia
This video is also posted to YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook. Where best? – Right here!
I’ve been planning the cornucopia for over a year, letting the design evolve until I could take it on. It is a long project because I wanted it large enough to be able to put fruits inside.
This cornucopia is 10 inches in diameter at the largest ring and about 20 inches long. The wood is mostly oak with one ring of cherry. With 22 rings of 12 segments each, it has 285 pieces including the veneer added to strengthen the rings. The finish is walnut oil. Rings are held together with 22 gauge copper wire. Small coconut shell beads stretch one side to bend.
The Christmas Ornament Challenge entry is open. Get yours in during the month of November 2018. All crafts are invited. No video required. See http://www.AsWoodTurns.com/Challenges for rules and entry procedures.
Enjoy!
Resource:
Woodturning Planetary Ornament – Insert Fun
This video is also posted to YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook. Best? – right here!
This one is my daughter’s favorite ornament of all my recent ornaments. It used a piece of scrap walnut and other left over thin wood strips to create random angle slices in the body. This I call my “Saturn” style.
For this ornament, it is important to drill a center hole entirely through the ornament. Then insert a dowel in the hole to keep the pieces aligned when gluing. Unfortunately, then the dowel has to be drilled out again after each slice is glued to align the next cut. With the final slice, I still drill out the center to hold the finials in place.
The woods are walnut, maple, honey locust, oak and padauk finished with shellac friction polish.
The Christmas Ornament Challenge entry is open. Get yours in during the month of November 2018. All crafts are invited. No video required. See http://www.AsWoodTurns.com/Challenges for rules and entry procedures.
Enjoy!
Segmented Woodturning – Not A Plain Christmas Ornament
This video is also posted to YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook. But you’re already here!
What do you do with leftover wood? How about when you worked a lot to make a laminated blank?
In this case I had to make additional segmented rings to have enough for the globe of the ornament.
It is traditional when describing a segmented piece to describe the number of segments. In this case, there are eight main rings but the piece count varies with each ring. Did I handle each piece individually? No. But I still count them individually.
Counting all the pieces, this ornament has 147 pieces of wood, Oak, cherry, yellowheart,maple, walnut, and a tropical hardwood. It is about 3 inches in diameter and 8 inches in height, finished with shellac friction polish.
The Christmas Ornament Challenge entry is open. Get yours in during the month of November 2018. All crafts are invited. No video required. See http://www.AsWoodTurns.com/Challenges for rules and entry procedures.
Enjoy!
Woodturning The Vase That Refused To Be A Box
This video is also posted to YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook. Best right here!
When I received this block of figured poplar at our club’s wood raffle, I immediately thought, Box based on its size and grain orientation.
However, as I started turning and seeing the amazing grain patterns, the wood talked then screamed at me, Vase.
Personally, I think it could have been a beautiful box. But, it is a beautiful vase. I hope you can see the grain patterns in the pictures.
The vase is about 4 inches in diameter and 5 inches tall finished with walnut oil.
The Christmas Ornament Challenge entry is open. Get yours in during the month of November 2018. All crafts are invited. No video required. See http://www.AsWoodTurns.com/Challenges for rules and entry procedures.
Enjoy!
Woodturning Christmas Hand Bell – Laminated and Segmented
This video is also posted to YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook. But you’re already here.
Preparing for this year’s Christmas Ornament Challenge, this hand bell was inspired by a presentation by Robin Costelle at the Segmented Woodturning Symposium.
However, it does deviate from his bell in that it has multiple layers or rings.
The wood in the bell is maple, cherry, walnut, yellow heart, and red oak. The handle is gum. The bell and handle are finished with shellac friction polish.
Strips of wood are first laminated into a solid block. In turn, this block was cut at 45 degree angles to make 2 rings with complementary patterns. After these rings were glued, they were re-sawn into thirds, making six layers. These layers were then stacked alternately and glued with maple veneer in between.
The bell is about 3 inches in diameter and 7 inches tall including the handle.
The Christmas Ornament Challenge entry period is the month of November 2018. All crafts are invited. No video required. See the Challenges page for rules and entry procedures.
Enjoy!
How To Turn Perfect Golden Mean Ellipse Christmas Ornament
This video is also posted to YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook. But you’re already here!
For my first entry to this year’s Christmas Ornament Challenge, I chose a traditional globe style ornament with bottom icicle finial. I wanted the globe to be a perfect ellipse similar to a perfect sphere. Of course, a perfect ellipse would express the Golden Mean.
However, a perfect ellipse does not fit into a regular polygon. Instead, I used the math to graph an ellipse to define the diameter at the middle and three points between the middle and the end. These factors are multiplied by the length of the ellipse cylinder as follows:
00% 0.618 (Middle or maximum diameter)
25% 0.598
50% 0.535
75% 0.409
100% 0.0 (End or minimum diameter)
The finished ellipse persimmon globe is about 2″ x 3″. The top and bottom walnut finials bring the ornament to 8″. All are finished with shellac friction polish.
The Christmas Ornament Challenge entry period is the month of November 2018. All crafts are invited. No video required. See the Challenges Page for rules and entry procedures.
Enjoy!
Woodturning Cross Grain Bowl With Matching Lid
This video is also posted on YouTube, Vimeo, and FaceBook. But, why go anywhere else?
This piece of elm has been underfoot in my shop for several months. Another club member harvested it some unknown time ago and sealed the ends with latex paint. It feels dry.
After rounding, I parted off the top two inches of wood to serve as the lid. Making a lidded bowl is essentially two projects in one: the base bowl and the lid bowl plus a abbreviated finial aka a knob.
My lidded bowl set is about 5 inches in height and 9 inches in diameter finished with walnut oil. The knob is walnut.
Enjoy!
Christmas Ornament Challenge 2018 Announcement
This video is also posted to YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. Best right here at the source.
Announcing the Seventh Annual Christmas Ornament Challenge. The challenge is open to all crafts, all materials, collaborations, mixed media, whatever. All skill levels may also enter.
This year NO video is required. However, if you make a video, we’ll cross link to it.
In years past, our international craftspeople could not receive a prize due to the prohibitively high cost of international shipment. Therefore, we’ve discontinued prizes and sponsors. Winners will have bragging rights and international recognition. But the challenge is primarily an opportunity to show our best work and celebrate Christmas.
To enter, make your ornament, take a picture, and upload here to the Challenges page, complete the form. But sure you get a successful confirmation message. The challenge ends midnight November 30, 2018.
After the submission period ends, we’ll produce a video of all entries and ask viewers to select their top choices. After we tabulate your responses, we’ll announce winners in December.
Again. the challenge is open to ornaments from all crafts and combination of crafts.