One of the benefits of living near the Black Canyon in Montrose, Colorado is that I have access to great amount of juniper wood (note: I do not take any of the wood off of federal land - only privately owned land). Here is a view of what we call our back yard - The Black Canyon.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison River

So, I have been experimenting with juniper turning. It is easy to turn and it has great characteristics which makes some really neat features on the turned bowls, as you will see. I recently found a small piece of juniper. here is the piece when I started. 

Rough Juniper

I cut a piece that would be workable and formed a hold for my lathe chuck.

End for Chuck

Once mounted on the lathe...

Mounted on Lathe

Then I was able to turn a simple bowl. I think it turned out well.



Juniper Bowl 1

Juniper Bowl 2

Juniper makes a nice finish to the project. I like how the heart of the wood was a nice red (see the second picture up) and there was a nice crack down the side that when through the lid and the whole side of the bowl (see the left side of the project above). The dark streak down the right side also provides some nice natural character to the bowl.

I plan to work more with juniper. I hope to post some creative projects using this beautiful wood. Let me know what you think.