This is a vase I made to support a metal insert with spikes in it to place flowers in.  It is colored with our latest favorite for the house.  I had to redo the top a  number of times because the color brought out lines that I needed to sand away to look right.  Gary Bingham 

This started as a very large piece of camphor wood.  It ended up as a 12 inch shallow bowl.  Lots of chips.  I needed to turn it on the outside of the lathe where I can turn items up to 24 inches.  This involved a lot of mechanical changes to the lathe.

I just completed ten boxes.  Many of these boxes are very small and it was a challenge to construct them.  My chucks that I had would not allow me to finish them (I thought at the time).  I remembered that I had bought a very small chuck at Harbor Freight years ago thinking that I might come in handy.  It worked fine to complete many of these boxes.  I tried to make each one a different design.  I think I succeeded overall.  I wanted to do something different then make a bowls.  I do have three bowls roughed out so, back to the bowls soon.

Gary Bingham

June 22, 2015

I just completed making a mortar, pestle in Linda and my favorite aqua color.  I am also working on a batch of boxes.  This is the first completed box.  The top comes off the box and it is hollow inside.  The mortar and pestle inspiration came to me last year when I was on a tour of Turkey.  One of the places we visited had this item for sale and I resolved to make it in the future.  

I made 9 pedestals for Earl's gaming activities.  

Today I used my coring system which was the first time i used it since we moved to the new house in Rio Vista.  In the move, some of my coring system was missing, stolen so i had to buy some new parts for it before i could use it.  This is redwood which is a soft wood and it is wet.  I am letting the wood dry before I finish it.    Gary Bingham

I recently turned on my lathe a number of jewelry pieces to go on a necklace for Linda. Previously I had made her the ear rings. Assembling the pieces was just as much work (almost) as the it was to turn these many small items. One of the largest challenges is to find the attachments, pins, chains to assemble the necklace. We are still working on that. Michaels selection is poor so we ordered many of the findings from the internet. It is a skill in itself to twist the backs of the devices to make the loops to attach the pieces to the chain.