Rick O'Ryan

I tagged woodturning, because that's primarily what I do, though nothing in this project got turned other than my head.

Back in the 1970s I was contacted by a wood collector, who, in his travels, would buy any species he did not yet have in his collection. He asked me to panel a wall in his basement pool room, with his collection. This is in DeForest, WI.
#art #woodturning

#art #woodturning #hydrant #bottleopener

My pieces at the Grant County Art Guild show, first two weekends in April, 2025.

This lamp model of a Mueller Super Centurion hydrant is going out the door this week. I'll miss it! Mesquite. The lamp switch is on the pumper port in the center.

#art #woodturning #hydrant #lamp #mesqute #Mueller

The bonnet lid...

Just finished this epoxy cast (to fill voids) emory oak piece based loosely on the high pressure Olympic Foundry model in use on the west coast. It is hollowed out and the bonnet is a lid held in place with magnets. On the bottom is a bottle opener kit.

#art #woodturning #hydrant #olympic #fire

Thank you, Val!

A fantasy hydrant, with Partial Recall of other images.. it required securing the piece in an eccentric position. Mesquite, 3-7/8 x 8". It has a bottle opener kit on the bottom.

#art #woodturning #hydrant #bottleopener #mesquite #offcenterturning

Gray oak burl. Most of these have had mistletoe in them. The roots of the mistletoe grow into the cambial layer where cells divide and distort, with the inner one becoming xylem, or wood, and the outer one becoming bark. The tree sends tannin to the injury.

#art #vessel #hollowform #woodturning

Exactly. And stop touting the stock market as success, that's crooked by design. Represent folks who earn their income, and back seat the ones with unearned income.

Thanks... I hope Isis is acclimating ok. Is she fun?

A tall faulty apricot crotch vessel, with azurite filling the cracks.

#art #woodturning #vessel #hollowform #apricot #azurite

thanks...

Oak, likely emory oak based on where this was found. Dead and down, and quite dry except where the branch was on the ground, so no leaves to help id. No. 1293.

#art #woodturning #vessel #hollowform

#woodturning

A bolo tie of mesquite, with a slice of a digger pine cone inlay, and crushed lapis inlaid into the cone center. The tips are Cleco fasteners adapted with mesquite.

#art #wearableart #bolo #bolotie #mesquite #pinecone #lapis #Cleco

One of my favorites from the 90s. This is box elder burl, around 12-3/4" diameter. I entered this in the 1994 Poudre Valley Art League show in Ft. Collins.

I sure like that bowl with the undercut rim.

Wonderful piece!

Yes, that was also my experience with the box elder bugs... pignut hickory - pretty stuff, I imagine. I don't get much hickory to work with. A few pieces of pecan blown down by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 as I recall.

It did indeed, and quite a bit of larvae activity down near the rot at the base of the tree.

Another box elder burl piece from a tree that blew down in 1989 in Loveland, CO.

#art #woodturning #hollowform #vessel

I'll post another couple pieces from that tree.

Real. I don't have process pics for it as I was shooting film at the time. Here's the tree it came from. The tree had two trunks. One blew down, and we were asked to take the other one down due to rot at the base. This was back in 1989, in Loveland, CO.

It is a combination of scalloping in the growth rings, and vertical curl. It is indeed a treat to work with. Most of the quilt pattern is seen in big leaf maple, much less often in some other woods.

To get my mind off the distressing national scene, for hope I look back to things I made long ago, and things I make today. This is from 1991. Box elder burl, from a windfall in 1989 in Loveland, CO.

#art #woodturning #hollowform #vessel

TBT, this is from back in the early 80s, forty+ years ago. I made this quilted maple bowl, and gave it to my brother, who kept it on the table next to his bed. When he left us in 1989, I passed the bowl on to my sister. It's top quality quilt. It's around 8" across.

#art #woodturning #bowl #quilt