Little things

Small things are fun to make, but they require infinite patience, a steady hand, close attention and above all, a good magnifying glass!

These are made to 1/12th scale of yew, yellow box burr and masur birch. The larger yew bowl is a shade under 25mm (1 inch) in size.

Clockwise from top left: Yew 25mmW x 18mmH,
Yellow Box Burr, Masur Birch, Yew and
Yellow Box Burr (natural edge)

Just as I would turn a larger bowl, each has been held by a screw chuck into the top. The outside was shaped,  a 6mm holding dovetail spigot was turned onto the base and the bowl reverse-chucked into a home-made set of dovetail jaws made out of corian. They form a 6mm circle when closed onto the base spigots. The inside is turned out and the bowl is then reversed and re-chucked so that the dovetail can be turned away and the foot completed.

Turning out the inside of the bowls is usually fun. The forces on the tiny spigots are so great that if you don't take it very gently and slowly, you spend a lot of time turning new spigots onto the blanks because the last one has sheered off.  Grain that runs across the width of the bowl is the most difficult, but results in a beautiful end product, just as it does in larger bowls.