Ash Box (Urn?)

[fuzzyturns]

Here's a piece I finally finished tonight.
This was in fact a bit of a mission. The bottom started out as a hollow form, but then the top exploded on me. So I decided to make it into a box. Since the top part was unusable, I had to find some different timber for it, and I chose a piece of curly olive ash I had left over from making some nice plates (which can be seen on my site). Hence the colouring, because otherwise the contrast between the bottom and the top would have been too extreme.

And then the nature of ash almost got the better of me. When I did my first attempt at colouring the ring in black, the stain ran off into the grain and it looked just terrible, so I had to take one centimeter off the top and start all over again. Well, in any case, here it is. My wife says it looks like an urn. Hmm.  What do you guys think of it? Any C&C (including harsh words) welcome.

[Les Symonds]

Sorry to say that this one doesn't work for me. I'm nit particularly fond of the colour and it all seems a bit too fussy - too much going on.
Les

[Dancie]

Yep she's right it does look like an urn and it has an old fashioned look - As a newbie, I like it 

[Bryan Milham]

Fuzzy,

It's a little busy for me.

The two different but strong grain patterns don't sit too well together. It would have been better if the lid had been made of a plain wood, the lines and colouring you've used would have helped bring it together.

But I note you say it was a recovery from a mishap, so as a save it's better than consigning it to the scrap bin.

[Graham]

On the whole I like it. I find the shape pleasing though, if it had been me, I would have made the finial more of a small button type knob.

[fuzzyturns]

Graham: I was considering that, but my doodles didn't result in anything I liked. Maybe I need to doodle more and then try again. As it is a box, I could just try making another lid, which would also address dr4g0nfly's comments.
And the slightly old-fashioned look is intentional.

[Graham]

It is weird how some things can look 'just right' when laid down ( on the lathe ) but change when stood upright.

[Bryan Milham]

but my doodles didn't result in anything I liked. Maybe I need to doodle more and then try again.

I like this statement. It means you are turning to a design, to few people do that, mostly it's tool to wood and see what happens.

[fuzzyturns]

Well, well. Some good feedback here. I didn't expect everybody to like it, but it seems that at least the opinions are divided.

Working to a design: I don't always do it, but I find that I generally use a design when I make boxes or more intricate pieces. For most of my bowls, I tend to see where the wood guides me. On my site is a fruit bowl/dish on a stand. That piece would have been impossible without design. The stand is actually made from 3 segments which were turned together with 15 others to achieve a turned, curved outside and inside to the legs, something that would otherwise have been nigh on impossible. And in order to get that right, I needed a drawing with precise dimensions. Coming from an engineering background, I am no stranger to drawings, and I have a sketchbook with loads of design ideas. Not all of them will make it into actual pieces, but some have. And some are still to come, when the time is right. It's something Mark Hancock recommended, and I am very glad he did.

[GBF]

Experience has told me that if it does not go as planned then turning it into something else very rarely if ever works.
If something goes wrong for me I just bin it and start again after all it is only a piece of wood.
Nothing leaves my workshop unless it is perfect and that includes students work
My stuff only goes to two places either a good Gallery where it has to be perfect or the firewood pile outside my workshop as did two pieces  today that I was not happy with.
In the picture below is about three weeks of stuff I have rejected.

Regards George

[fuzzyturns]

Ah, George, then please tell me: what is perfection?

[GBF]

The same as I told you when you come here for tuition there are only two things that make a turning perfect and that is form and finish.

Regards George

[Graham]

Ahh, but what is the perfect form and finish ? and does it not change for different people ?

[Bryan Milham]

Graham,

I ask the same question. I have been looking at ceramics a lot lately, for ideas. Somehow a potter can make a shape from clay I know would not work in wood, but it still looks amazing in clay! I could not make something that bad if I tried but in ceramic it looks good.

Anyone care to offer a good reason for that a poor layman could understand?

[Dancie]

In a previous life I lectured in Photography and occasionally design, it seems to me that too many woodturners get hung up on the principals of 3’s, It doesn't always work and depends greatly on where the object will be finally viewed from and at what angle . . . . . . . . but what do I know.