In 2017 Hurricane Irma blew through Central Florida leaving death and destruction – to many trees. One special, 100 year old oak tree fell to Irma’s destruction. That Winter Park Oak tree had over 50 burls growing on it. I got most of them. This piece came from one of them.
Hurricane Irma from Winter Park
This piece came from a 100+ year old oak tree in Winter Park The tree was destroyed by Hurricane Irma. Around 50 burls came from this one tree!
Hurricane Irma from Winter Park
The pictures here do not do this piece justice. The blue calcite inlay literally screams at you to look. Also, this is not how the piece looked in the concept stage. I made a blunder in the execution stage by completing one step before it was planned. That one mistake changed the whole piece. Sometimes a during construction design change is better than the original idea. In this instance it turned out way better than my original concept. Yea!
Close up of Calcite Crystal Inlay
Roger Dale Scott
Woodpops
Roger Dale Scott
Woodpops
This vessel has many layers. First a one pound cut of dewaxed shellac was applied as a sanding sealer. after curing I sprayed a coat of flat black acrylic paint next. When that cured I applied an even coat of Behlen’s Rock Hard Table Varnish. Two days later I applied the copper leaf and let that cure 5 days. To see the application of copper leaf click here.
A chemical patina was created on the copper by using a Sodium Sulfide wash. (Click here to see how.) Once that cured another coat of Behlen’s was applied and left to cure. The leaves were applied individually using silver leaf, copper leaf and faux gold leaf. Each with a different chemical patina to create different colors and effects. There are a total of five layers of leaves applied. After each leaf layer was tarnished another coat of Behlen’s was applied and then another layer of leaves and patina, and so on. Once all of the leaves were complete I carved the smoldering embers using my high speed dental drill. I then masked off the area around them. Using transparent paint in my air brush I added the ember effect. This took sever layers of transparent paint. The veins were added last using a fine line black Sharpie. The final finish is four layers of spray on gloss lacquer. It was then buffed and waxed.
Roger Scott, Woodpops
Silver leaf
A Sycamore Urn turned on the lath. At the transition of top and sides is a red Calcite bead. After the piece came off of the lath it was sanded to 400 grit sandpaper. A one pound cut of dewaxed shellac sealed the vessel. Next it was spray painted with black latex. When that cured it was brushed over with Behlen’s Rock Hard Varnish.
After curing several days it was ready to apply the fake Gold Leaf. To see this process go to http://youtu.be/BKY2Rj1snJs.
