# Cholla Cactus Woman's Bracelet



## BangleGuy

Here are some pictures from my latest project making a woman's bangle (bracelet) from a alumilite cast piece of cholla and a stainless steel metal core.  I started with a 4 in cast cholla puck that I purchased from a fellow who sells it for turkey calls. I then used hole saws to cut the bangle blank, bored the ID to size, cut to width and glued the blank onto the core for support.  After curing, I roughed the OD to size, filled some voids with CA and then began the same CA finish technique used on pens.  

Comments and Critiques welcome.  Thanks for looking.
Eric


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## Toni

Your bangle is gorgeous!! Never would have thought you could make it out of Cholla Cactus.


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## nativewooder

Eric, do you use any cores other than metal?  You really do nice pieces!


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## tkbarron

Beautiful!!!!  

Tom


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## JohnU

Beautiful work !  Ive never seen one on a metal core before, but love it!  This is another reason why Im glad my wife doesnt visit this place on her own.   So many " musts" on the  
" to try" list.   Mine would suffer poorly in comparison to yours. Lol. Thanks for sharing!


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## BangleGuy

nativewooder said:


> Eric, do you use any cores other than metal?  You really do nice pieces!



Thanks!  I make the metal cores and have designed the wood to match.  What other materials were you thinking about for a core?  I am always looking for new ideas!


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## BangleGuy

JohnU said:


> Beautiful work !  Ive never seen one on a metal core before, but love it!  This is another reason why Im glad my wife doesnt visit this place on her own.   So many " musts" on the
> " to try" list.   Mine would suffer poorly in comparison to yours. Lol. Thanks for sharing!



Thanks John! Making a bangle is very similar to making a pen, pretty straight forward once you have made a few. I have a brown alumilite puck I am working on now.


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## robutacion

Wow, this is a heck of a nice piece and execution...!

What gets me is that, I keep going from pic 3 to pic 4 a dozen times, and still I can't get how the metal insert was added to the piece, considering that the metal piece looks to be one piece and the sides are a lot higher than the centre where the cholla cactus was inserted in...???

OK, that may be your secret and I would respect that but still, puzzles me as the cactus material will have no "elasticity" to be pushed over, no way Jose...!!!

Anyway, the cast is very impressive as the end result is nothing short of specular, well done...!:wink:

Cheers
George


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## BangleGuy

robutacion said:


> Wow, this is a heck of a nice piece and execution...!
> 
> What gets me is that, I keep going from pic 3 to pic 4 a dozen times, and still I can't get how the metal insert was added to the piece, considering that the metal piece looks to be one piece and the sides are a lot higher than the centre where the cholla cactus was inserted in...???
> 
> OK, that may be your secret and I would respect that but still, puzzles me as the cactus material will have no "elasticity" to be pushed over, no way Jose...!!!
> 
> Anyway, the cast is very impressive as the end result is nothing short of specular, well done...!:wink:
> 
> Cheers
> George



Thanks George! There isn't anything tricky here, my metal cores are simply made in two parts and pressed together around the wood blank. The wood insert ends up being about .08" thick, which reduces the overall weight. Wood stabilization is really key to keeping the wood from expanding due to humidity. 

Oh, hey I just remembered that I just got some Red Mallee, Coolibah and Gimlet burl this week to make more exotic bangles.  All from down under   Great stuff you grow there!!


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## robutacion

BangleGuy said:


> robutacion said:
> 
> 
> 
> Wow, this is a heck of a nice piece and execution...!
> 
> What gets me is that, I keep going from pic 3 to pic 4 a dozen times, and still I can't get how the metal insert was added to the piece, considering that the metal piece looks to be one piece and the sides are a lot higher than the centre where the cholla cactus was inserted in...???
> 
> OK, that may be your secret and I would respect that but still, puzzles me as the cactus material will have no "elasticity" to be pushed over, no way Jose...!!!
> 
> Anyway, the cast is very impressive as the end result is nothing short of specular, well done...!:wink:
> 
> Cheers
> George
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks George! There isn't anything tricky here, my metal cores are simply made in two parts and pressed together around the wood blank. The wood insert ends up being about .08" thick, which reduces the overall weight. Wood stabilization is really key to keeping the wood from expanding due to humidity.
> 
> Oh, hey I just remembered that I just got some Red Mallee, Coolibah and Gimlet burl this week to make more exotic bangles.  All from down under   Great stuff you grow there!!
Click to expand...


Oh...!, so that is how its done, huh...??? makes sense, but being so well joint, was invisible to me on on the pic so, great job there...!

Oh yeah, down under has lots of great woods, it happens that a have a "few" of them, from this area...!:wink::biggrin::biggrin:

Cheers
George


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## Justturnin

Great one Eric, though I may be a bit bias on this one.  Can't wait to the the others.


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## BangleGuy

Justturnin said:


> Great one Eric, though I may be a bit bias on this one.  Can't wait to the the others.



Thanks Chris!  Yeah, I have all sorts of plans for alumilite cholla!  The color selection is awesome and it is pretty easy to turn. Now if I could only get the house remodel done so I can get back into the shop


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## WildThings

Justturnin said:


> I may be a bit bias on this one.


 
Do I read between the lines where the blank comes from!!!


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