G'day from Alice Springs

[Desert Carver]

Hi all,

My name is Eryne, As a kid I always had an obsession with whittling pieces of wood, probably as much to do with using a sharp blade as well as the resultant "carving".
High school brought the lathe into my life albeit briefly.
Skip forward 10 years, and while camping I found a quite large red gum burl on what was left of a burnt log, I thought "hey that would make a nice bowl"....then spent the next week obsessively carving and finishing the piece with what tools I could get my hands on....enter my burl obsession!
I then bought an arbortech carving blade and did a handful of small pieces, and that was it for pretty much another 10 years.
At 35 my passion has returned, while on a job I found a nice root ball, which I carved 2 "bowls" out of (after digging the arbortech out of storage). I bought myself a chainsaw and went burl hunting; it really is amazing what you can find when you know what your looking for...
I have carved another 3 bowls in about as many weeks and have 2 more fairly large burls (35 and 66 kg bone dry off a burnt out tree) sitting on my verandah waiting to be worked on.
Up till my more recent pieces I had only really used linseed oil and wax as finishes with a little experimentation with shellac.
I have now been researching online and talking with some of the older woodworkers in town who put me onto some different finishing products, much to my delight.
All of my work has been hand carved to date but I'm chomping at the bit to do some lathe work again.

Cheers 🌳

[old1955]

Welcome to the forum Eryne.

Ross

[crowie]

G'Day & Welcome to a top forum "Eryne"....
There are a few members in central Australia with heaps across the whole country & the globe.....
You'll find a heap of helpful & knowledgeable blokes & ladies on the forum and for most very willing to assist
Keep showing off your handiwork as everyone loves a photo, especially WIP [Work In Progress] photos with build notes.
Enjoy the forum.
Enjoy your woodwork..
Cheers crowie

[dusteater]

Welcome, those desert timbers should be something special , looking forward to some pics.

[Desert Carver]

IMG_0350.jpgIMG_0351.jpg
These are from the root wood, linseed oil, shellac and wax finish.



IMG_0388.jpgIMG_0390.jpgIMG_0395.jpgIMG_0396.jpgIMG_0397.jpg
Early stages of River Red burl


IMG_0428.jpgIMG_0441.jpgIMG_0471.jpg IMG_0466.jpgIMG_0467.jpg
Sealed and progressive coats of burnishing oil



IMG_0297.jpgIMG_0405.jpgIMG_0445.jpg
The "Big Boys" ...might take some slabs off these ones.



IMG_0446.jpgIMG_0447.jpgIMG_0450.jpgIMG_0451.jpgIMG_0453.jpgIMG_0459.jpg
A small piece off the same tree as the two "Big Boys", sealed and finished with aerosol satin laquer then wax, very little darkening compared to oil.

[dusteater]

[Christos]

Welcome to the forum.

Very nice array of bowls.

[cava]

Welcome.

Some very nice pictures there.

[double.d]

Lovely stuff. Time to give up the day job

[Desert Carver]

Haha cheers! I've been thinking that a bit lately

[JJF]

Welcome aboard Eryne