Orange Blandy is made with a 9-4 SegEasy plate.
To accomplish a more organic look, I cut it apart and repositioned the pieces to make it look more fluid.
The strips are supported with ebony rings fitted into internal grooves. The strips look as if they are floating in the air.
Rubber bands are necessary to hold the large segments in place.
Temporary shims are glued into place and removed later.
A groove for an ebony ring is shown. It is measured and the ring is made to fit.
Getting a tight glue joint requires sanding, especially with large segments.
Even though I am going to separate the strips and shape them, I find it heplful to keep the glue cleaned up.
I use damp pipe cleaners. Use you fingers to remove most of the water.
We add more layers.
After stacking and turning I cut it in several places and repositioned the pieces.
One of the cuts was in the upper part of the vessel. It was sanded to an angle of about 10 degrees. It does not look like a lot of change but if you look at the final picture, it shows a subtile movement.
The ball helped even out the pressure on the glue joint.
It seems when I start carving, I forget the camera.
After smoothing the outside of the entire vessel and separating the strips, they were smoothed and carved on the inside to a convex shape. At this point the grooves are measured for the rings.
The strips are numbered as each one is different.
As you can see, the strips are very delicate.
The rings are made of two segmented layers each.
Pre-assembly before finishing.
Now you can see the subtle curves. It was worth the effort.
Orange Blandy