pierced iroko tea light.

[wider]

completed this tea light holder from last night. it is in iroko. the holder is 6x2 in size and finished with Hampshire sheen high gloss. all comments welcome.

[andy44]

I like the shape Dennis, I think the piercing lets it down a bit fella, it looks a bit rough on the insides of the piercings
Andy

[wider]

thank you Andy i am in the proses of sanding down the piercings and will re post a cleaned piercings

[edbanger]

Dennis

If your going to do a regular pattern then the spacing and the shape of piercing have to be exactly the same and clean.

To get it right it can take 10 times the time it takes to turn the item.

Nice idea

All the best

Ed 

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Dennis as has already been commented on the piercings let it down a bit. I also think you should have used a sealer or grain filler before polishing as the shine is not as good as it could be. But I think the design is very nice and, finished nicely the whole piece would look pretty good. I know sometimes we have to work with whatever wood we can get hold of but I am not a fan of Iroko as the dust really does irritate me (to the point when I can't stop coughing) but because it is an oily timber I wonder if finishing with an oil would have given a better finish? The nice thing about Iroko is it will turn thin and take nice delicate detail.

[Bryan Milham]

Previous comments noted,

the overall shape is quite pleasing to look at, however if the piercing had been more random it would have looked better as the slight variations in the pattern stand out quite dramatically.

[Nick Simpson]

I agree with most of the above. The human eye tries hard to make order from chaos and therefore needs regularity along with symmetry. Hand held piercing works well for random designs but simply falls down with repeated patterns. Most would recommend a jig to produce repeats. Alternatively decorate the rim with random or nearly random shapes (much more difficult than jig-made patterns)
You have made a very good start but have a look at some other similar works on Pintrest or google
Kind regards Nick