Woodturning | Emeralds and Rubies

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Today's video: Hello, friends! After proving that I could indeed pull off a board/economy bowl two weeks ago, I decided to really test my limits and make something much more complex. And, oh boy, did this one take a lot of work! I lost track of how many separate steps there were in making this bowl, but I think it took the better part of two weeks to complete from start to finish. For this project, I used 3/4-inch redheart and 1/4-inch red oak wood. I first made 3 separate planks of redheart and oak glued together. Once dry, these were cut down to size using my miter saw (I really need a band saw for this sort of stuff), and additional red oak pieces were glued onto the inside surfaces of the planks. After another day of letting the glue-ups dry, I chiselled down the excess oak to flatten the planks, and then I hot glued all the planks down onto a mould for the resin pour. For the resin, I went with an opaque emerald mica that I felt complemented the redheart very nicely. This was again left to cure for 24 hours, and once hardened, I sanded the whole board flat, mounted it on my lathe, and began turning the rings off. The angle I used was somewhere between 45-50 degrees for each ring (couldn’t get a perfectly precise measure), and for the majority of this process, I used the same jig I built in the last uploaded video. My parting tool, however, snapped in half while turning off the second ring (this scared me half to death when it happened), and although I’m still trying to figure out how that occurred, I resorted to using my 1/8-inch parting tool for the final ring (which worked surprisingly well!). Once all the rings were cut, I connected them all together with epoxy resin between the seams and again left the piece to cure for 24 hours. After this, the rest of the process was quite easy. I trimmed down the rough edges on the lathe, sanded the piece up to 2000 grit, and finished the bowl with several coats of Waterlox.

This might be one of my favourite bowls I’ve ever worked on. Despite the many, may hours I sank into this, the whole process went extremely well (minus the broken parting tool), and I absolutely love the final result! For a while, I had considered using a blue mica pigment (light or dark, I couldn’t decide), but I’m very happy I went with green in the end. I just love how it looks with the redheart.

I’d love to hear what you think down below! Should I have used some different colours?
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Key equipment/products I used:

Mould Material

[ThePapa]

Looks great with a dandy finish. I have never used Waterlux and think I should give it a try.

[ryanakers]

That is the most clever way I've seen to make a bowl. You are a master of efficient use of your materials!

[FranWhitten]

Absolutely no other color would do but the emerald! Such an exquisite bowl. Wish I could afford to purchase it! Thanks for sharing.

[blueboy]

Great piece of artwork. You did a good job on it.

[ShinyFeral]

WOW! I couldn't figure out how this was going to come together. It's beautiful!

[barry.w.christie]

I could hardly see your pencil lines for parting off the rings 🤣
What an absolutely stunning creation, the colours are just fantastic and compliment each other perfectly 👍

[marycatherinelebouef-ophf]

Another absolutely gorgeous piece! I love, love the woods and the resin colors you chose! These bowls look Italian, 🇮🇹 so beautiful and full of color and shine! Marvelous work sir!!

[valeriefuqua]

Absolutely beautiful! I Love it. I also love the name. So beautiful.

[mjrulez]

Just simply a very beautiful bowl. Great work.

[frann.]

Magnificent work-these colors are gorgeous!👌👌😁😁

[AllenOxendine]

Beautiful Piece and interesting process. Full View and Like 👍

[shawncrane]

I don't normally like green, but that is beautiful!

[lyndaowen]

Absolutely beautiful work! Thank you for sharing your talent

[angelalewis]

Those camera angles of the bowl with you and the chisel on the other side were unexpected and really cool!

[pennymartin]

Very beautiful and engenious. I say 10 stars 🌟 🤩. Love ❤️ it thank you.

[jamnjef]

real nice bowl Davis PS. just bought stock in glue sticks LOL😊😊😊😊😊

[justinadamson]

What is your process for finishing with Waterlox? How many coats?

[alanlucas]

This is gorgeous! Stunning. I love your work with resin. But where did the central red wood come from? Because as you were assembling the rings at 8 minutes and 11 seconds in, the wood used as the centre was a lighter colour. Curious, as I might have a go at this myself. Which should be a giggle, as I'm just starting out in woodturning!