Last year I got a lathe thinking that it would be a winter hobby. What I didn’t really appreciate is that the garage is cold and dark in the winter, so I don’t much feel like turning wood when I could sit comfortably by a wood fire instead. The days are growing warmer and longer, though, and yesterday I turned this vase from a piece of madrone I salvaged from the much diminished wood pile. It was spared because it had a lot of character, but it was also very punky, and especially while working the end grain there were plenty of moments I thought it might explode. Madrone vase, finished in lemon oil and beeswax, backyard Olympia.
