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Icicle Christmas Ornaments
Featured speaker at the October
meeting was Steve Sherman, who demonstrated creation of his “icicle” Christmas
ornaments.
The ornaments are finished in three
stages: a) hollow form production, b) turning the finial, and c) coloring or
finishing the piece.
1. Hollow Form: The centerpiece of the ornament is a hollowed sphere or
cylinder. To prepare a sphere, Steve selects a burl and turns it to a cylinder;
this stock is inserted into a recess in waste wood and lightly glued. The waste
wood block becomes a jam chuck by adding a flange on one side for use in a
spigot chuck.
A 5/8” hole is drilled through the burl cylinder using a Forstner bit in the
tail stock. The hole will extend slightly into the waste wood. This cavity is
the entry point for hollowing and will eventually receive the top and bottom
finials.
The burl cylinder is now turned to the desired outside shape: it could be a
sphere, ovoid, or left as a cylinder. Steve shear cuts the shape with a detail
gouge. He also roughly hollows the shape at this time, but the sphere must be
remounted to finish the hollowing from the other side of the form. When the
desired outside shape is attained, the sphere is cut off from the waste wood.
To remount the sphere, Steve dishes out the waste wood jam chuck and leaves a
5/8” peg at the center. To complete the hollowing, the sphere is remounted on
the peg in the jam chuck and secured by electrical tape.
Steve hollows the sphere with a
shortened form of a goose neck scraper, which he made for this purpose from ¼”
HHS stock. It is helpful to leave a shoulder by the opening on both sides of the
sphere – it can be used for threading if one wants screw the finials to the
hollow form, but also the shoulder will assist a tight bond when gluing the
finials.
2. Finial: Top and bottom
finials are turned to fit the hollow form. The success of the finial is
dependent on the overall grace of its entire shape and the fine definition of
transitions between the coves, fillets, and beads within the finial. Steve
studies classic shapes to gain ideas for finial design. A good suggestion for a
beginner is a tapered finial ending in an onion-shaped point. To gain definition
between transition points (any area with a “shelf”), Steve uses a skew (point
down), achieving crisp edges between coves and beads; he angles his fillets
slightly, as well. The entry points for the finials are turned to 5/8” to match
the opening in the hollow form. Steve normally dishes a flange to match the
curve of the hollow form just below the tenon of the finial.
3. Color and Finish: Obviously, the entire piece can be kept natural and
finish of choice can be used. Steve prefers to color the hollow form with
McCormack’s food coloring. He mixes a diluted batch of the dye, as well as a
more concentrated batch. The diluted food dye is applied first with a que-tip in
random daubs, followed by random application of more concentrated dyes. To
achieve a spalted look, an archival ink pen (.5mm) is used to apply a wandering
pattern of lines.
The ornament is joined together using medium CA glue on the finial and
accelerant on the hollow-form. A screw eye for hanging is added to the top
finial.
Next Meeting: November 9 at 7PM, Opdahl Barn: Joe Benkert will
demonstrate a turned pepper grinder.
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