Eloise becomes a princess!
An alternative version to an amended design - particularly to get a fuller skirt starting from a larger piece of wood (only for the skirt - the other sections sized as before).
I think this works reasonably well, especially the fuller skirt, although I think the hat may work better than the coronet! Comments welcome.
Notes:-
- The new skirt is ripple sycamore - which gives a lovely and appropriate silky patterning (particularly at rear - see pic) after oil finishing, but the grain tends to tear even with sharp tools so a good deal of sanding is needed.
- The top is tulipwood as before but the necklace, belt (my wife's suggestion) and coronet base are purpleheart. The coronet is a hand bent piece of pewter sheet. Base oak.
- The waist has a pre-fitted dowel in the middle (locating needs care because of the offset) - this worked but the piece did still split in turning and get re-joined now at the necklace joint. I would appreciate some guidance here. I have tended to keep speeds down to say 500rpm when turning these but I now think I might be better off with a higher speed where the tool is easier to keep steady and stresses may actually be less. The balance as such is not a problem as the piece is quite light.
- At the dress/headstock end I drilled a few mm deep 25mm diameter hole before turning which fits the crown driver nicely. This is probably a good idea as this end gets tilted (but not moved - this end is not offset). The offset at the head/tailstock end, on an extended piece removed after turning, is 24mm, which is fairly big as an offset I think, to get the flowing full skirt.