Grinding week

It's been one of those weeks where it seems that everything has been a grind.  Well it's been mills and grinders all week so that's probably why it feels that way.  I did manage to finish up one hollow vessel this week.  I really like the way that it came out.  There was almost as much open space as there was wood.  I would say that better than one third of the vessel was open air.  But take a look for yourself and the picture can not begin to show all of the natural voids in this vessel.  The vessel was turned out of Oak Burl and finished with a spray on lacquer.  It's about 6.5 inches high by 8 inches in diameter.  Normally I scrape and sand the inside just like I do the outside.  However in this case the tool marks combined with the burl figure made it look like the walls of the Grand Canyon to me.  So I left the tool marks as is.  Artistic license I guess.  I have another long week of mills and grinders coming up this week and than I'm off to Baltimore for my last wholesale show of the year.  When I get home I will be here just long enough to see my two girls off to their first days of school and than I'm off to my first retail show of the year in Bar Harbor, Maine.  It's a new show for both the promoters and for myself so let's hope for a good turn out.  I'll have more about that in another post.