STELLAR POMANDER

By Roy Wood

(the UFO comes at the end - ed)

Two years ago, at the Surrey club open day at Mytchett, I couldn’t resist some abstract multi-coloured resin on sale by GPS. I immediately knew that when the material was turned the various bright strata would form interesting patterns that might simulate the planets, so, in summer 2007, I began to plan an entry for a competition in Vancouver.

I was already familiar with David Springett’s work and had made and used his chuck for working on spheres. The resin’s thickness, 35mm, lent itself perfectly to turning both halves of the standard 62mm ball. Suspension was to be by a crescent as used in previous clocks and pomanders and the notion of “Space” became the overall theme.

I formed the two halves and drilled at 4mm, the twenty constellation points 3mm deep to act as guides for the wall thickness and allow the ventilation of the pomander. Resin turns beautifully, although the swarf tends to wrap around the work-piece unlike wood shavings.

The main problem is that if you get too aggressive, then the material chips with dire results. Unfortunately, this happened to me when cutting the critical equator joint rebate, so I had to make a third hemisphere whilst muttering about old ‘Coffin Dodgers’ finally losing it! I was saved from further torture at this point by the Canadian competition being cancelled, together with most of the traditional Autumn shows in the UK. Having entered for Alexandra Palace, 2008, the project was resurrected and the spindle was turned from Ebony with a loose top cap, while the pivot and a further two moons were all turned at 10mm from the resin

Next came the crescent. I knew that it should appear to be light, even delicate, so decided upon a hollow, pierced shape. I purchased Ebony veneer from MCB at St Austell, which I laminated and cut to shape. Foolishly, I thought that with the connection of the new moon, this element should resemble a slice of cheese (don’t ask!). The difficulty here was in persuading the two sides to taper inwards without deforming. Many elastic bands and clothes pegs later, led to final success. Piercing with a Dremel holds no fear but I had reckoned without the splintering of this fragile veneer on the inside. As always with these affairs, much more time is spent on cleaning up with improvised implements such as pipe-cleaners & etc, than on the original operation.

After discounting the first plan of a triangular base of smaller planets, I opted for offsetting some of my previous grief and my carbon footprint, by using the discarded resin hemisphere. This then allowed me to indulge in an old daydream of making Saturn’s rings which I justified by the need to add size and weight to the mounting. A lower half was turned from Ebony, and the 1.5mm x 150mm disc for the rings, from laminated veneer. I tried various techniques for forming the rings, practising on old CD’s, in the end, using a perforated mask, spray paint and Brush Markers eventuated. (Aussie-speak).

Once again, having more spare time than is good for me, I set out to angle the disc from the horizontal by mounting the base 8 degrees off centre and levelling in the ‘Springett’ chuck. Next; Oh dear! Have you ever contemplated cutting an accurate curved, tapered dovetail slot through a sphere at an angle to achieve a joint that will stand up to the scrutiny of critical judges? Well I pondered a bit and overcame the tapered dovetail elements by making a jig to router a semi-circular section of the crescent to parallel. A further sliding jig was constructed to mount the sphere onto a chop-saw with a suitable diameter blade. This sounds like a horrendous operation and indeed did slow me down a little, but by practicing on blanks, I achieved a very satisfactory result.

Now I had to join it all together.

The crescent was glued into position and the Saturn disc attached to the resin half of the base. I was now able to rotate the Ebony half until the spindle hung directly over the centre, which came as a relief when all the calculations proved to be accurate! The problem working with crescents is that they have two centres to add to any normal confusion. The resin pieces had been brought to a very fine finish with ‘Brasso’, and the Ebony with many applications of ‘Cherry Blossom’ Boot Polish.

Although the work, like a government contract, made a mockery of both time and budget estimates, the outcome fulfilled all my expectations. I decided that the piece would benefit by revolving while on display, so purchased a small retail turn-table which I modified and sprayed satin black.

The effect of it’s 1.7 rpm appears to lend the ‘Stellar Pomander’ a serene calm which was ‘Light Years’ away from what had gone on in my workshop!

The final irony was that my inspiration from the bright resin caused my downfall as the judges said that had I used duller material I would have been successful....Now, could someone guide me to that drawing board?