Yew Bowl - Inlaid
with Brass
Diameter 35cms.
Some time before I left Anglesey, a friend gave me a couple of Yew logs after he had cut down an old tree in his garden. They had lain in a corner of his shed for about five years and were quite dry. However, they were still very heavy and the more I looked at them the more I became convinced that, because they were so mis-shapen, I would be unable to turn anything substantial out of either of them.
I looked at them frequently, stacked in the corner of my workshop, and I felt determined I had to make something out of them! In a rash moment, I put one of them on the lathe and started....
Here is the result - still a very heavy piece of wood - and not without its faults. If you look closely at the second picture on this page, you will see that this was originally four separate stems of Yew, which, as they grew older and thicker in girth, eventually fused together - trapping bark in the centre. I had to fill a large void in the centre of the log (caused by the removal of the bark inclusion) and fill the space with a mixture of brass powder and epoxy resin. The exercise was rather like a dentist drilling out a filling and replacing it with a new one.
Finally, the bowl was sanded with six grades of abrasive before being given four coats of Danish Oil and polished with beeswax. The result is an intriguing bowl which is VERY heavy, and which has a wonderful grain pattern and a silky smooth finish on the inside - which contrasts with the rougher, undulating surface of the outside.
