# Palm root jewellery box...!



## robutacion (Apr 1, 2012)

Hi peoples,

In continuation on my attempts to utilise materials that aren't that common among wood-turners, the Palm root material has fascinated me from the start and one product has already been born out of it, the Resifills pen blanks but, I wonder how big of a blank I can go using this material as the base.

The thought has been there since day one but, the need to utilize what I've got wisely is also of crucial importance, as I don't know when I'm going to have an opportunity to get some more so, wastage is not welcome...!

While wastage is not on, using all I've got in a half a dozen "big" blanks is certainly not what I want either so, and with that in mind, I had a good friend here, teasing me with some talk we had about mini jewellery boxes of about 2.5" square x 3" tall...!

It got me curious so, I decided to make 2 of these blanks in the same mold so that means, same colour for both blanks.  I wanted to created the blank using the palm material from where the roots grow from as the base of the box and them the root strains shooting up like "flames" but, due to the orientation the root material grows in relation to the tree centre material meant that, to have this base with a uniform(ish) thickness, I had to follow the natural orientation growth and that meant that, the root strains would come out not straight but, in a angle but that was OK...!

The funny thing was that I missed deep violet Pearlex with dark blue and then I decided to put just a few drops of the liquid translucent fluorescent yellow...!
The mix looked a bit strange but when I was pouring, a bluish/viloletish come up to the surface and after the mold has been through the pressure pot and put in the sun to dry, the same colours were showing.

I got a big surprised when I went to trim and separated the 2 blanks, this greenish was everywhere and the more it dried, the darker it got...!

Anyway, I decided to see how strong and solid these blanks were and after cutting the lid part off, I hollowed the base with a 13mm square carbide tipped tool, the same tool used to turn it from square to round.  Straight walls, about 5mm thick right to the bottom, no problem at all, with the lathe speed at just under 2.000RPM

Surprisingly, due to the fact that the blank wasn't yet cured or hard enough on the inside, that would require about a week to achieve with this combination materials, the carbide tool cut solidly all the way and no loose bits or tares did occur.  The hight speed could have made the blank disintegrate if the 5mm material left in the walls, wasn't solid and combined with the soft nature of the root strains.

Turning the outside and lid, I use the 18mm round carbide tipped tool, and  a Bedan HSS tool, the final thickness on the concave part of the lid and the  recesses on the bottom's body, are no more than 2mm still, everything kept together beautifuly...!

The inside was finished with CA but the outside, I decided to use Floorseal, one of my preferred finishing products.
An overnight drying and a few hours in the sun the next morning, got it done for good.

I was quite pleased with it also and, the "clarity" of the root grain formation, within.  The close up detail is just amazing, in my eyes, off-course...!:wink:

The wife was always going to be the recipient but some how, I manage to have it made without her notice what it was so, she got a nice surprise yesterday when I gave it to her, one more jewellery box for her collection but, this one is very different than any other...!:wink: 
That gave me a few rewarding "points"...!:biggrin:

So, what do you thing...???

Cheers
George


----------



## Pioneerpens (Apr 1, 2012)

Love it!! Very nicely done!!


----------



## ossaguy (Apr 1, 2012)

Wow,that's really beautiful!




Steve


----------



## boxerman (Apr 2, 2012)

Wow that is beautiful. Really like that wood and what you did to it.


----------



## nava1uni (Apr 2, 2012)

George,
That is quite something.  I like how the wood is highlighted by the coloring.


----------



## johncrane (Apr 2, 2012)

Great look George!


----------



## Papa mark (Apr 2, 2012)

Great looking jewelry box, I'm sure your wife loved it. Good job.


----------



## robutacion (Apr 2, 2012)

Thanks guys and gals, it is certainly fascinating to look at it from very close quarters and I'm quite pleased that the strange colours mix reaction did turn out an interesting/different shade green that I don't see often but, worked very well in this case.

The wife is obviously pretty pleased with it and I notice that she has tried at least half a dozen different places around the house to display it and when I said that, jewellery boxes belong to the bedroom, she looked at me with a serious look and said, " that's too pretty to be hidden away...!" well, I sort of agree with her on that...!

And while I've though that, its size inside wouldn't allow for that much, she surprised me when the showed me what she manage to put inside that tinny little box...!:biggrin:

Cheers
George


----------



## Wingdoctor (Apr 2, 2012)

That is beautiful!!!


----------



## jasontg99 (Apr 2, 2012)

Wowza!  That's a beauty!!!


----------



## Padre (Apr 2, 2012)

Great job George.  Are you making your own molds for the pours?


----------



## thewishman (Apr 2, 2012)

George, that is an awesome box! Very, VERY nice!


----------



## Glenn McCullough (Apr 2, 2012)

Exceptional work, well done.


----------



## robutacion (Apr 3, 2012)

Padre said:


> Great job George.  Are you making your own molds for the pours?



Yes mate, I do, using those white kitchen chopping boards that are getting damn hard to find, at least with some decent thickness...! 6 to 12mm is ideal, with the thinnest material being the ones that screw into the thicker ones from the bottom and 2 sides, capish...???:wink::biggrin:

Cheers
George


----------



## reddwil (Apr 4, 2012)

Now thats dang right cool looking. Awesome!!


----------



## markgum (Apr 4, 2012)

WOW...


----------



## dplloyd (Apr 4, 2012)

NNNICE!


----------



## David Keller (Apr 28, 2012)

I'm late to the party here, but I love that box, George!  I'm glad that Marissa likes it too!


----------



## corian king (Apr 29, 2012)

Beautiful Work!!


----------



## rizaydog (Apr 29, 2012)

Great looking box.  That is a fantastic piece of wood.  Nice job.


----------



## toyotaman (Apr 29, 2012)

I will have to say, that is a beautiful piece. Do you have any pictures of the root before any work was done? Or maybe one similar to it? I was just curious of what it looked like before you started.


----------



## PaulDoug (Apr 29, 2012)

Very, very nice, indeed!


----------



## 1dweeb (Apr 29, 2012)

Excellent from start to finish. That is one of the most unusual turned boxes that I have seen.


----------



## holmqer (Apr 29, 2012)

Brilliant concept on casting an unexpected material and turning it into something beautiful.


----------



## robutacion (Apr 29, 2012)

toyotaman said:


> I will have to say, that is a beautiful piece. Do you have any pictures of the root before any work was done? Or maybe one similar to it? I was just curious of what it looked like before you started.



Thanks everyone...!:biggrin:

Well mate, you will have your question answered if you have a look at the first thread I posted about this material, here

All Palm trees will have at least, a bit of this root material, I can't tell you (because I don't know) the names of the Palm species that produces the most root material however species such as the Banana Palm will produce some.

This was a very large and very old Palm tree that had to be removed for the road construction works, I was fortunate that I spotted it in time (even though the tree was already cut) and before the "root grinder" come through and grind anything that was above ground level, before the big machinery come through and dig the hell out of that ground or buried everything with meters of compacted soil for the construction/raising of the road by-pass, high-up from the ground.

That less than 1' thickness/high that I removed, would have been half if I didn't dig lots of dirt around to go as deep as I could, however, and despite my best attempts and destroyed chains, I just could not go any further down and when I though that I would try to get the road guys to dig that particular Palm root out, which I would expect to be the size of a normal car, it was not to be as that spot was going to be raised-up/filled-up so, was no need to dig anything on the ground, damn...!

Not that I was too keen in having to organise and pay for the transport of a few tonne of root ball (mostly dirt/soil, attached to it) to my storage paddock and spend days cleaning the soil out that never will totally be free of blade destroying material, as sand is the soil type around here...!

So, if you're lucky, you will find some Palm species that will grow some of this root material above ground level and then is when you can be a winner and get it easy, otherwise be prepared to dig...!:wink:

PS:  I have been keeping my eye on these Palms growing at a nearby large super-market store, not a lot of digging on them...!:biggrin:

Cheers
George


----------



## SDB777 (Apr 30, 2012)

Not sure I can describe this one....truely great things coming out of your shop sir!





Scott


----------



## glycerine (Apr 30, 2012)

George, that is gorgeous!!!


----------



## wouldentu2? (Apr 30, 2012)

Reminds me of a Gustav Klimt painting "The Scream"

I like this.


----------



## robutacion (May 2, 2012)

SDB777 said:


> Not sure I can describe this one....truely great things coming out of your shop sir!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thank you Scott,

I like to believe that, some of the most interesting and beautiful materials to work with or, create things with, are all around us but, we haven't became aware of them yet,  and their potentials.  This is what drives to do what I do, within the world of trees, shrubs, bushes, pods, nuts, roots, burls, and other natural elements that nature offer to all of us as raw materials.

Not everything works or finishes looking look however, there is a great self satisfaction experienced through the process...!

*wouldentu2?*
I wish that some of my work would have a value fraction of the 80 million of the paint "The Scream" by Gustav Klimt...!
I would change the name to "What a Dream...!":wink::biggrin:

Cheers everyone,

George


----------

