Couple more pieces

[bodrighywood]

One is a WIP and is an apple burr hollow form with an ebony and holly finial. two clay medallions are suspended on a red silk cord. It is temprarily put together to see if it needs adjusting in any way. I can see a couple of things already. The second is a simple laburnum pot (with obligatory split naturally LOL) and stands approx 12" tall. C+C welcome as always. ready for the 'don't like the shape of the hollow form' LOL.
Pete

[edbanger]

I like the shape of both the finial I think is a bit over the top.

Sadly the photos let them both down I think someone needs to play around with photoshop a lot more 

Ed

[bodrighywood]

I agree re the photos, I need to get my acto together and do some proper ones but it takes ages to set it up in the first place....laziness I know.

Thanks fr the comments on the pieces though.

pete

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Pete following a thread on here ages ago I got a photocube of the web, cost about 12 quid then. Easy to set up and with a digital camera the results aren't that bad.

[GBF]

Hi Pete .
I would be very interested to here your thoughts on the first one how you arrived at this. What was the thought process behind it.
The hollow form looks like a bag of sand or maybe coins and is the top something to do with the scales of justice .
Personally I would reduce it.

Regards George

[bodrighywood]

LOL George you do have a way with words. I have a book of chinese pottery and this was one of the basic shapes from way back. I wasn't sure if it would transpose into wood so decided to have a go. The finial is something that came to mind from some of the temple adornments you see in Japan.  I agree it is a bit OTT and I don't know if it will stay as is. I personally quite like the overall idea but until I refine it I can't say whether it will be an idea that didn't work or not.

Pete

[fuzzyturns]

I am afraid neither of these do much for me. In terms of photography, as BHT says you don't need a lot. I also bought a light cube off amazon, about £60, with 2 x 500W lights on tripods (essential for diffuse lighting through the cube walls). On the inside I use a box to lift items up a little, and a variety of coloured A1 sheets from hobbycraft for the backgrounds. The cube is up pretty much all the time in a spare room, with a camera on a tripod.

As soon as you start cutting things out and putting them on a different background, the whole picture starts looking artificial unless you spend a lot of time. I found it much better and faster to have a range of differently coloured backgrounds to suit the various colour balances in my pieces.

[Bryan Milham]

Pete,

The Apple form is different. You occasionally produce very different lid tops (I can't call them finials) that are going in a completely different direction to anyone else. I don't know that the top sits on the form as well as it might but I'd look to a different form, the top is great. The only thing of note on that is the two side spindles don't quite look to be on a level, they both rise up slightly (at least in the picture). Level them up and (for me) you have a winner.

The laburnum pot's only failings are the neck it a little too high and the lack of defining point between the pot and the neck. The continuous sweep does not work for me and from the sound of it, you.

[David J. Ross]

I think that what you have tried on the first first item is good
I would IMO change the shape of the base and make it more curved on the bottom
Around the rim IMO I would try to align the lid and the rim to make it more in line with each other
As for the top I like it a lot

The laburnum pot is well shaped I was looking at something in a well known magazine it had a pot with some carving on it  and I think this pot might benefit from something the same

Well designed Pete

David