Basket Illusion

Hi All,
I don't mind admitting that I'm fed up with this hot weather. Throughout the winter my workshop was like a fridge, but for the last few weeks it has been like an oven. Needless to say this is curtailing my creative desires in a frustrating way.  I have to grab what time I can early in the morning, but that ain't much because life's other boring duties jump over each other to get in the way.

Anyway, that's enough moaning because it could be a damn sight worse. When I did get a bit of time to myself I thought I had a go at a bit of basket illusion. No, relax, I haven't taken up weaving of the willow, basket illusion is a woodworking term used when decorating a piece of wood to make it look like a basket.

Above is a picture of the one I did. It is very small and is turned from lime with an African blackwood knob. The horizontal lines were made with a skew chisel and then burn in with a wire.
The vertical lines were done via the indexing facility on my lathe. I marked each position with a pencil then drew lines between them. Once I was happy I carefully burnt them in with the pyrography iron.

The red and black colours were applied with Winsor and Newton pro markers which made it very easy. Regarding the pattern, I just experimented on square paper until I got something that looked half decent. After the colouring I gave it several coats of Chestnut melamine lacquer.

I'm quite impressed with the outcome and found the whole process to be very enjoyable. I have even purchased a Robert Sorby bead forming tool to make the line marking simpler and more effective. I am looking forward to making something similar, but slightly bigger. In the mean time, I've got to turn a couple of pens for gifts. So please keep an eye on this space if you want to see how they come out.

If you want to see more about basket illusion, here is s link to an expert on youtube