I was given this vase by the owner of a restoration studio at which I worked. It depicts the animals of the Chinese "Zodiac". The original "bell", at the mouth of this vase came in damaged. Instead of repairing the bell, the customer decided to have us cut it off. Then we never heard from the customer again. It was considered abandoned. I've had this on a shelf in my house for some time now, having intended to do something, I don't know what, to the mouth of this jar. Now that I have a lathe, I thought this would be an interesting and challenging project, to turn a replacement bell for the vase.
I made segmented rings of various kinds of wood scraps I had (cherry, poplar, mahogany, maple). These were glued in a stack, mounted on my lathe and turned to fit the curve of the neck of the vase. It's almost a perfect match. I stained the lighter colored poplar, and finished it all with wet sanding in mineral oil up to 320 grit. Then the wood was oiled with boiled linseed oil, then waxed to a nice semi-gloss finish. It is not glued into place. Top photo is with the top sitting next to the vase. The bottom photo is with the bell in place.
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| Side view: the bottom part sits down inside the vase neck. |
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| Top view: 5 stacked segmented wood sections. |
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