Sherry Batten's bowls

I have finally started another project. This time I am making a charcuterie board. My kids are coming here for Thanksgiving and I hope I get it done before they come. I am going to put on pictures as I am working on it, and so far it's not going too good. Maybe I should stick with bowls. I am wanting to make another and bigger bowl, a walnut bowl with a lid, but I am getting ahead of myself now. Anyway this board is going to have a river down the middle of it. The first couple of pictures show after I split the board, built a framework, and laid out the river. The next few pictures show after I poured the river, I hope I didn't get it too dark blue. I am getting ready to go to my workshop and try to make foam along the edges of the creek here and there, which I have never done before, so wish me luck. I will put on pictures after I do it.......................maybe, lol. I was going to do it last evening, but the epoxy wouldn't set up and it just ran everywhere, and I had to wipe it back off, so here we go again.

I am finally getting around to putting on pictures of the latest bowl I made. It is another small one at 5 1/2 inches across and 4 inches high. I think the wood is called purple heart, I have the name of it out in my workshop, and I was too lazy to walk out to see for sure. The pictures don't do it justice because the color isn't just right. The wood doesn't show up as purple in the pictures but it really is, and I didn't stain the wood, that is it's natural color. I had to use my old phone to take the pictures, because I think I lost my phone out of my purse yesterday going to church, and now I have to probably buy a new one, sigh, oh well.

If you have tried to message me in this Bowl page and haven't been able to send me a message, please let me know in my regular web page. Meta Business Suite has taken over my bowl website and I am unable to see your messages that you leave me. I am so sorry.

I have made you all wait a long time to see my finished little table, but I have finally gotten it done. I have gotten slow in my old age and just can't seem to work every day. But all's well that ends well, and I am posting pictures of it on here for you to see the finished project. The table is 20 1/2 inches high, and the top is 24 1/2 X 17 1/2 at the widest points. I am not sure what kind of wood it is, but it was very hard to sand, so I am guessing it is oak. Maybe some of you woodworkers can tell me.

I finally got my board sanded down, and now I have to epoxy the edges and then pour epoxy on the top of it. After that is dry I will put a coat of epoxy on the bottom just to seal it good. I used 16 different grits of sandpaper on my board so the epoxy will be clear and shiny. They say you don't need to sand as much as I did when you are going to pour the epoxy on, that the epoxy itself will make it shiny without sanding so much, but I wanted to make sure.

Here is a picture of what I have done so far on my little table I am making. I have poured colored epoxy in the small holes and one big one and in the low area to try to level it out a little more. Now it is ready for sanding, and once I do that then I will pour clear epoxy on all of it to create a nice waterproof finish and shine. I have never done this before so hopefully it turns out nice.

I am taking a good while to finish my small table because I have a lot of outside work to finish before winter, a lot of doctor visits, and a lot of mowing to get done. I will get the table finished eventually and then put on pictures. If I get a chance I will take a picture of what I have done so far and put it on here. I still have a ways to go to get it done.

I want to show you what I am starting on for my next project. I have a fancy piece of burl wood and a metal stand, and I am going to make a small end table first before I tackle the bigger coffee table. I don't remember what kind of wood this is,, and I usually write on the wood what it is when I buy it, but I forgot this time. Maybe magnolia. It has been a good while since I bought it, so you will have to tell me. I have just started sanding on it as you can tell by the lighter spots. I hope I am not getting charged for my post because this is not a business post, it is just a post to show my friends what I am making. It is showing public and I am not able to change it to my friends, but it says I can after I hit post. We shall see.

I just completed another small bowl. This one is made from Tigerwood, and is 6 inches across and 3 1/4 inches tall. Next I am going to try to make a table using a wide rough edged board, and split it in the middle, reverse the edges with the rough edges in the middle and make an epoxy river down through it. I have an antique pedal type sewing machine, and I am going to clean up the base of it, and I have removed the old sewing machine, which still works, and I will fasten the table top on the base. This will be a big project so I don't know if it will go the way of the toilet seat or not. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that I can do it. Here are some pictures of my bowl I just finished making.

I finally had my first mishap while making bowls. Up until just a few days ago I had only small cuts and bruises, but now I have a busted tendon on the ring finger of my left hand. I was trying to use a side grinder with a cutting wheel on it to grind down the wood on a log to make a flat place so I could screw on a faceplate onto it. The faceplate holds the wood on the lathe so you can cut it. I started cutting through the thick bark with no problems, but when the blade hit solid wood, it kicked back real hard and my left hand came off the side grinder and made me sock the wood real hard. I guess I am lucky I didn't lose some fingers. So now I have to have surgery next Tuesday to sew the tendon back together, and any prayers would help a bunch, and would be highly appreciated.

Getting back into my bowl making by starting small. Just finished another small bowl made out of bloodwood which is a wood from South America. This bowl is a little bit bigger than the last one, it is 5 1/2 inches across and 3 1/2 high.

Just finished this little osage orange wood bowl. It is 3 1/2 inches high and 4 1/2 inches across.

I am finally getting back into my woodworking again. Here is an epoxy bowl I just finished. It has pine cones, chunks of wood, seed pods, and acorns in it, along with a few other things. It was fun to make.

This is a charcuterie board I made for my daughter. I am rather proud of this one and I think I did a pretty good job on the river. I sanded it with 13 different grits of sandpaper to get it this clear. It is reversible but I think I forgot to take a picture of both sides. I have slowed down quite a bit and am taking a break from working for a while. I can't sit on my stool for very long anymore.

I just finished this Charcuterie board, which to us ordinary people is a meat and cheese board. It is 17 X 25 1/2 inches, and made out of hickory. Here are pictures of both sides finished. I have slowed down quite a bit on my woodworking, I guess I am getting old, lol.

Here is my latest mistake, and I wish I was saying creation. This is my most expensive mistake. I was trying to make a toilet seat and started with the lid. I spent about $50 to $75 in seashells, then I had to make a mold to make the toilet seat in. The mold making stuff was $140, and then all the epoxy to make the lid itself. Well, my mistake was that I forgot to spray mold release agent in the mold after I made it, and the mold and the lid became one. I had to tear up the mold to get it off the lid, so now I need to make another one if I want to try again to make a toilet seat, so another $140 to make the lid mold. It is yellow because there is still part of the mold on the lid. I ran it through the planer till I was close, but I didn't want to dig into the shells, but I noticed I dug into one anyway. I am so disappointed because I think it would have turned out really pretty if I could have gotten it out of the mold in one piece. It was going to be mint green, to match the green in my sink. See the pictures of both. Oh well, I bet I don't forget the mold release agent again.

I have gotten my latest creation done, it is a Charcuterie Board, which is a meat and cheese board. I finished both sides, so it is reversible. It is made of Black Walnut with dyed epoxy in the middle.

I got my cedar epoxy bowl done and wanted to show you pictures of it. It is 7 inches tall and 10 inches across the top. I am also putting a couple of pictures of it on here to remind you of what it looked like after I got the epoxy in it, but before I started cutting it. I am also putting on a few pictures of two cutting boards I made. They were fun to make and didn't take a real long to make them, but I had a hard time trying to get them flat. I didn't succeed very well and when I planed them down it didn't help any, they wobble a little bit, but I guess for the first ones I have ever made, they aren't too bad.

I decided to take a short break from bowl making and make this little beauty. It can be used as a little serving tray when grilling, or maybe to put beside the grill for my husband to lay his grilling tools on. Possibly even as a small cutting board. It is 12 inches across and 1/2 inch thick and made with a piece of cedar wood and epoxy.

I want to show you what I am starting on next. I have been working for the last 2 weeks or so putting epoxy in this piece of cedar. I cut the tree on our property so I could make a bowl from lumber off our land. I used blues, greens and lavender in the cedar and the piece of wood is about 12 inches across. I don't have a shape in mind for the bowl yet, so, if anybody has any ideas on how I should shape the bowl, please let me know. I welcome and appreciate any ideas. You can draw a picture, or take a picture of a bowl you have that you like the shape of, and I will see what I can do with your ideas.