The unique and lovely cedar odour is still as strong today, 3 months after turning it.

Finished with the usual combination of a few coats of danish oil followed a wax coat buffed to a shine.

This Cedar is a close grained wood which produces a lovely shine when buffed. It was a joy to turn too as the wood wasn’t too dense or hard. The shaving were long and flying which is always nice!

Based on the dimensions of my wood blank I created 6 variations along a similar theme. I’m torn between two of the designs but before I plough on with the turning I thought I’d ask for your input – so please leave a comment saying which you prefer.

Red and Black Japanese Bowl

My latest creation is this Japanese influenced bowl. Again, like the last bowl I coloured, this bowl is a reworking of an old one as an experiment with colouring.

Japanese wood turned bowl

Orange - red interior

For those interested in the process I re sanded down to 400 grit and then applied a yellow dye to the interior. Once I had the intensity I was looking for I then blended the magenta dye from the rim to the center creating a gradient.

After that I applied numerous coats of black dye to the outside, finished the whole thing with danish oil and Renaissance wax.

BTW, I re sanded between coats of dye as the grain would lift once wet.

The bowl is around 10 inches in diameter and approximately 4 inches tall.

It’s very hard I know that. It’s only had danish oil and microcrystalline wax applied. If anyone call tell from just looking at it then please let me know. Thanks.

I must point out straight away that this entire project was a shameless copy of a cup I saw on Ed s Woodturning – where he set out his process. I wanted to see if I could recreate his lovely example. I failed to match his work – but enjoyed trying.

I took an old ash bowl as the guinea pig. It’s not it’s first time as a guinea pig having previously been a different shaped ash bowl.

I sanded off as much of the old finish as possible and set about staining with some Procion MX dyes mixed with water. My first coat was with turquiose followed by countless coats of black.

Once I had the colour I wanted I added a coat of liming wax and finished with some danish oil. Added a coat of Rennaisance wax a few days later.

The interior is a series of titanium white acrylic paint layers. I wanted to smooth the finish and so applied some 600 grit to it – bad mistake – took off the paint on a patch by the lip! Had to build it back up with further coats to that area. So not sure how robust the interior will be – and uncertain as to where to go from here – maybe apply an acrylic varish.