Maple Candy Dish

To get some woodturning practice in this afternoon, I turned a small piece of maple (6″x6″x2″ I believe) into what I’m calling a candy dish.

It isn’t a regular bowl shape. Rather, there’s a small base upon which the dish sits and the sides of the dish have more character than a simple bowl shape.

Looking at it now after a few hours, I can see the base could use a little shaping itself and possibly be made a little shorter. I find it funny that I’ve seen bowls and dishes my whole life but it isn’t easy to come up with pleasing shapes when turning. This is close, I think, but could benefit from some tweaks.

Two other new things for me in this piece are: 1) the black groove, burned in with wire, and 2) the use of friction polish to give it it’s glossy finish.

I bought this wood as cheap practice blanks but, wow, I really like how they look.