Haven’t had time for writing, so this is a big catch-up.

I had a piece of juniper which had a crotch with a large bark inclusion. I looked at it a few different ways before cutting the blank to fit on a faceplate, which I decided would be “down” on the bowl. I quick turned the opposite face flat enough to put another faceplate on that end, flipped the blank, and turned a tenon. I mounted the bowl in a chuck and roughed it to bowl shape, and liked what I saw.

Three epoxy pours later (first one with 5-minute epoxy to fill the bulk of the void with sawdust, since I’ll be turning it away, later two with purple-tinted slow-cure resin), and I had this.

Flipping it over revealed that I still had a little filling to do, so that got another small pour to level things out.

After more rough-turning to remove excess resin and expose the bark inclusion, I really like what I’ve got. The epoxy chipped out a little, so tomorrow I’ll fill in the chips with more purple and give the bowl the weekend to cure, since we have company coming to town.

I also rough-hollowed it, and you can see the hook-shaped bark inclusion from the inside. The wood is still a little damp, and leaving the heartwood in as I did risks some cracking, but I have a plan for that if the bowl cracks over the weekend.

It’s about 6 inches (150mm) across the rim. More tomorrow after I patch up the chipped-out spots, probably, but I think this will be a pretty one when it’s done.