Black Locust Basket Illusion Series #5

[trc65]

In a previous thread, Frank mentioned changing things up and doing one with a spiral design, so had to take the challenge. He was correct in his statement that it would add a little complexity and it did.

In planning this one, I put the form back on the lathe to draw a nice looking "S" curve thinking how nifty that would look. However, figured out quickly that it wasn't going to work for this design element that has a significantly sized horizontal and vertical footprint. Instead I had to rely on a set horizontal spacing between the elements and let the curve develop naturally as the design moved from bottom to top and right to left. The only layout needed for this design was 5 index marks on the bottom to be used as starting points. Used dividers to evenly space the elements horizontally in each spiral, but the rest was just eyeballing. Pleasantly surprised that when I got to the top everything was fairly evenly spaced.

Similar in size to the other vertical forms in this series at ~ 5 inches tall and wide.

 

[djg]

Simply amazing! I like the spiral design. Curious if there are historic examples of a spiral design? Not that there has to be.

 

[Phil.H]

Great looking piece! Nice job!

 

[Nature Man]

Really like the spiraling effect! This is a tremendous addition to your series! Chuck

 

[Alancw]

Do you sleep? These must take hours and hours. Really a brilliant series.

 

[daniscool]

Isn’t a break in order soon? This is getting unbelievable.

Nice form

 

[Steve in VA]

Production line 101 - wow! The hits keep coming and I really like this one Tim both from the perspective of the overall shape and the design.

I’m sure your eyes and wrist are getting tired

 

[trc65]

Simply amazing! I like the spiral design. Curious if there are historic examples of a spiral design? Not that there has to be.

Thank you. There are examples of spirals, but not a huge number of which I've seen examples. This design element is one directly from Dat So La Lee although she used groupings of spirals. I'll post a couple pics tonight of some examples.

 

[trc65]

Do you sleep? These must take hours and hours. Really a brilliant series.

Thanks Alan.

They do take many hours, but a little work each night and it's not as long as you might think. There's also an advantage to doing several of these one after the other. You do develop some muscle memory burning lines which helps with accuracy and speed. Laying out and coloring designs also becomes second nature.

 

[trc65]

Isn’t a break in order soon? This is getting unbelievable.

Nice form

Thank you.

I've got one more form dry and ready to go and this little series of Dat So La Lee designs will be done for now. Still plan to make many more of these little forms, but will be using other designs. With the growing season upon us, won't have a lot of time at the lathe.

 

[trc65]

Production line 101 - wow! The hits keep coming and I really like this one Tim both from the perspective of the overall shape and the design.

I’m sure your eyes and wrist are getting tired

Thanks Steve.

One more to go with this series. Really enjoying these small forms. A lot less work than a larger bowl/platter and enjoy exploring the forms.

 

[DLJeffs]

Do you have a plan for all these bowls and vases? Display in a museum? Sell? Keep them yourself and take them out every once in awhile and hold them?

 

[trc65]

This series I'm keeping. They fit together so well, and they are small enough to display in a grouping on shelves/small tables. Most of the ones I do have just been gifts for family and friends. Getting to the point though that I'm going to have to start looking into other ways to disseminate turnings, running out of places to display and room to store ones that aren't currently out.

 

[Gdurfey]

@trc65 Tim, I know I get obsessed with the design, colors, etc. but as a couple have mentioned, I believe the form itself has evolved with your skills that even if you were not doing the basket illusion they would all be magnificent pieces. I have tried to admire that with each but I can easily be distracted with designs that I also admire the origins.

 

[JD1137]

Awesome job again Tim! Lovin’ this series. Excellent forms as usual too.

 

[trc65]

Here are some pics of the original.

This picture is an extreme zoom of a screenshot and was all I initially had to work with originally. Doing a spiral was in the back of my mind, but when Frank mentioned it, knew I had to do one. Based on the first picture, I assumed it was a monochrome design. Very difficult to get any details, so I kept looking for other pics.



Eventually, I happened on the following pictures and looking closely, you can see a faint red color. These pics also show how the design was utilized on a much larger form.

Because of the small forms I'm using, I haven't been able to use varied groupings of spirals, rather just individual columns or spirals. Hope to at some point work on some larger forms and play with different groupings.







This particular basket is held in a museum collection with many other Dat So La Lee baskets in Nevada.

 

[Barb]

Another stellar piece! Your forms and designs are top notch but I really love how subtle your touch is with the burner. It’s so easy to burn the lines in too dark but you don’t. Can I ask what tip you use? And do you set it to certain temp?

 

[trc65]

Another stellar piece! Your forms and designs are top notch but I really love how subtle your touch is with the burner. It’s so easy to burn the lines in too dark but you don’t. Can I ask what tip you use? And do you set it to certain temp?

Thanks Barb. It's the 1/8" beading pen from PJL Enterprises. Using the single port Optima burning unit on a dial setting about 2.1. that really varies though depending on what else is running an the circuit you are plugged into. I've got a space heater that is on part of the time, and I've got to adjust accordingly.

I think that pace and bead shape all fit in the formula too. There are always places that beads with some flat spots and take extra pressure/time to get a burn line. The last variable is speed/pace and that's hardest to measure. Out of curiosity, I did some crude tests and counted burn lines while timing for 5 minutes. I averaged a little less than 1 second per burn line, but that also takes into account repositioning and moving from row to row so its a "quick" pace.