Wood-turned Top for Damaged Chinese Vase

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.

Side view: the bottom part sits down inside the vase neck.

Top view: 5 stacked segmented wood sections.

A new variation of the Trefoil Knot

This is yet another variation on the Trefoil Knot. This one is made from ABS plastic pipe and 90 degree fittings. It is roughly 18 inches in diameter. This is a variation of the all-right-angle versions I've done.

Another Trefoil Knot sculpture

This is a small prototype of a planned sculpture. It's a trefoil knot based on equilateral triangles with the three basic colors, red, blue and yellow, and their complimentary colors orange, violet and green. This mock-up is made of cardboard and is roughly 2" in diameter.

Pear Wood Bowl

Here we have a Pear wood bowl which measures 6.25 inches in diameter and 3 inches high. This wood is a real pleasure to turn on a lathe. The finish is wet sanded with mineral oil. No other finish was applied.

Small Spalted Maple Bowl

This is a small spalted Maple bowl. It measures 4.25 inches in diameter and 1 inch high. It was wet sanded with mineral oil. No other finish. The finish feels like satin.

Lidded Box

This is a box I turned this weekend. It is from a glued-up blank I made with scraps of Walnut (dark wood), Birch (med. colored wood) and Maple (lightest colored wood), with a Mahogany knob on top. The box measures 4.5 inches in diameter and 3.5 inches high. There's no finish on this. It is only burnished using the shavings created in the making of the box.

Scrap-Wood Glue-Up Bowl

This is 13 layers of different kinds of wood glued up into a bowl blank. Woods are (Left to Right) Mahogany plywood with a pressboard center, Birch, Mahogany plywood, Poplar, Mahogany plywood, Walnut, and Birch in the center. The other half of the bowl is symmetrical, so, same woods in reverse order. The bowl measures 1.25 inches high by 5.25 in diameter. There's a bead around the rim, and a "foot" around the base. I'm getting the walls and the base thinner. The finish is high speed wax. The finish is very smooth.