A bit of holiday fun & perhaps for a competition.
So sounds complex but fairly simple:-
The bowl is oak - selected some time ago at a local yard to be at right angles to quarter sawn (half-sawn?), that is with the growth rings tangential to the surface to give the best liming effect. Conventionally formed exterior with a faceplate at first and a 75mm dia tapered chucking point made on the opposite face, but with the chucking point made at least 10mm deeper than the chuck jaws. This enables the bowl hollowing out when held in the chuck to cut into the hole leaving a bowl with a hole in the base. Finished with commercial liming wax loaded with ultramarine powder pigment (this is a pigment not a stain and chemically identical with lapis). This to get a lighter blue than the ultramarine on its own, which I have used before but is quite dark (blue).
The 'eye' plug (centre stained black) and base are lignum vitae with a cast-in-place pewter ring and the whole assembly is held together with a single central screw (a normal decking screw but with the head removed so that it screws both ways into pre-drilled holes and is fully concealed).
The pictures are probably clearer!
Microcrystalline wax finish.
