Stone Inlaid Turnings

[WoodWrangler]

Last night Charlotte Woodworkers hosted Stephen Hatcher, who is a master woodturner from the northwest who specializes in stone inlaid turnings (bowls, platters, etc). First let me say ... amazing. I watched in full attention as the night progressed.

The demo was instructional and before our eyes he taught us how to reproduce the process used to create these stone inlays. While the process looked fairly straight forward, one would be fooled to think they would just whip out true quality art by following them. Stephen has an artistic eye -- though is background is an engineer -- and the detail and thought he put in his work was incredible. For instance, on one of the vessels he inlaid four "sides" to represent the four seasons, however each image "flowed" together and represented the life and growth of a tree (or person?) from a seedling in the spring to a stable, snow-covered bare tree in winter.

Anyway, I share this with you because I was impressed by it...

A few samples of his work from his website: http://www.stephenhatcher.com/

 

[DavidF]

Those are gorgeous beyond belief, and the middle one gives me some ideas....

 

[MikeH]

Those are beautiful. Thanks for sharing Jeremy.

 

[tjgreen]

Wow, those are amazing, and the stuff on his website is doubly so. Would love to have watched that demo.

Looks like there are articles describing the process on his website, fyi.

 

[skeeter]

Amazing work!!

 

[Trent Mason]

Stunning! :thumbs_up:thumbs_up

 

[TracyP]

WoW!!!!!!!

 

[PChristy]

WOW! - thanks for sharing

 

[Kdub]

those things are unreal.
i'm planning on reading the article on techniques on his website. were there any jewels of information that you took away that you would like to share?
thanks for sharing. look forward to seeing your pieces.
kurt

 

[WoodWrangler]

The article on the website is a nice overview. It's the most simple form I think he could imagine to get one going. The demo was fairly detailed and much more complex, but still doable.

In short, he uses a Dremel with very small bits (from widgetsupply.com) and plunges into against a hand-drawn pattern about 3/16". Follows up by using a flat bottom bit to clean up the trenches.

The stone is bought in rock-size pieces, he then crushes it down, and seperates it with regular kitchen siffters into big, medium, small, and dust. First he covers the area with a diluted shellac to keep it from bleeding into the wood. He then begins with the largest size that will fit and places it into the crevaces that he has created. Loads them water-thin CA and lets it dry (usually without accelorent).

Then the grinding and sanding begin ... until it is smooth again.

He gave several pointers on design, wood selection and such ... but most were good artistic priciples of which none I will probably remember (haha).

 

[Outa Square]

that's cool....

wasn't there someone here that turned a pen with crushed amethyst inlay?

 

[CaptnA]

Outstanding, thanks for posting this

Someone in the Southern Highland Craft Guild does similar work, I think maybe Davis or Noggle but I can't remember for sure.
Stunning work. I'd love to see the process.

 

[lonehunter]

Awesome!

It really gives me some ideas.

Jeff

 

[BobcatBob]

I can't even imagine doing something like that. Thanks for giving us a look.

 

[CrealBilly]

Hey his shop looks a lot like mine n FredP's To quote Duster last time I was at Fred's "Man this place is a **** hole" :rotflm:

 

[CaptnA]

Jeff
you saying you got a Oneway in yours???:tinysmile_tongue_t:

 

[CrealBilly]

Jeff
you saying you got a Oneway in yours???:tinysmile_tongue_t:

Nope, didn't say that at all