Cherry plum burr turning and carving

This is an object of no real function whatsoever... just an interesting piece of wood with great raspberry ripple colours.

I turned it off-centre on the bowl lathe hoping to see some interesting patterns in the burr, but that was relatively plain all the way through. I then carved the bowl some more with a spoon gouge so it has a more bulbous inner.

The lip or rim of this piece was possibly the most interesting result of this project and I like the way it falls away from the top, although if I'd thought about it a bit more before taking it off the lathe I would have tidied that up a lot more.  I hand carved the back of the rim to make it less weighty.

And these were the helpful suggestions as to what it is:

An otters head sticking out of the water.

A hat.

An animal skull.

Darth Vaders mask.

Something for flower arranging.

Objet d'art.

A berberis spoon and room for improvement

A little berberis spoon, had a bit of a crack in the bowl, but I thought I'd persevere because it's such a great coloured wood.

Although some of you may think this would go with the 'natures ugly bowl series', as the twist in the handle makes it a bit impractical to use. If my spoons start this badly, I tell myself, then surely the scope for improvement is immense...and it can only get better... (keep repeating until it does (get better that is))...