Atlantis Art

I started experimenting with crushed stone mixed with epoxy resin as way to fill voids and flaws in the wood. This method has the advantage that its much more attractive that any putty or wood colored filler, and generally better structural properties as well. The downside is that it's also more expensive and much more time consuming. The stone infill is much harder than the wood and can't be worked with woodworking tools. It has be filed, or abraided away with tools more appropriate for metalworking. But it adds so much life and energy to pieces that I get sucked into using it, in spite of the extra work it requires.

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black walnut, olivewood, turquoise, amythest -- 7 inch diameter, 9 inches tall   A fellow woodworker gave me an olive tree root. This vase is the first project from it. There was a lot of rot in the wood, and it took a lot of stone to repair it.

black walnut, olivewood, turquoise, amythest -- 7 inch diameter, 9 inches tall   In this piece the olivewood tree was laid over on its side, and knot is actually the pith of the tree. In the third photo you can see the growth rings of the tree.

olivewood, jatoba, lapis, turquoise -- 12 inch diameter, 7 inches tall   I love olivewood. I love the grain, and the shop always smells great when I'm using it. It's rarely sold here, there's just no market for it. This salad bowl is one of my first attempts using it.

black walnut, maple burl, lapis, turquoise -- 6 inch diameter, 12.5 tall   This is the second time I tried to make design. On my first attempt it broke apart on the lathe. It's my favorite of all the vases I've made.

chechen burl, maple burl, black walnut, lapis, malachite -- 9 inch diameter, 12.5 tall   I made this for a local art exhibit. My friends christened it dinosaur's egg cup. It was a rather difficult piece to make, and I'm occasionally asked by other woodworkers how it was constructed.

camphor burl, maple burl, turquoise, malachite -- 9 inch diameter, 4 tall   I made this as a going away gift for a good friend. While I was working on this piece the shop smelled of camphor for days.

black walnut, maple burl, madrone, lapis, turquoise, peridot -- 8.5 inch diameter, 13 tall   I was in the mood to make a vase and I had great piece of black walnut with a big split right down the middle. This was a very difficult piece to make, but I loved doing it. I waterproofed the inside, and it can used as a vase.

maple burl, walnut, lapis, turquoise -- 13.5 inch diameter, 6.5 tall   I like the design of the ancient Greek drinking cups, called Kylix, and I've made turnings based on them many times. In this case, the crushed stone and epoxy resin doesn't just fill the voids. It is what holds the bowl together.

chechen burl, maple burl, wenge, lapis, turquoise -- 10 inch diameter, 6 tall   I experimented with this crushed stone technique several time to get ready for this piece. The chechen burl had a lot of holes and voids that comprised the structural integrity of the bowl. And I needed to be sure I knew what I was doing.