Pillar bases

 I've made a few steps forward with the pillars. They have been waiting patiently for bases for a while.

Unlike the capitals (totally carved), I started by trying to turn the bases. I soon realised that the orientation of their grain would not allow me to do this, so ended up carving them also. It did make me think how to make a round form without a lathe.

 

This arrangement worked well, allowing the base to be turned around while sawing to depth, chiselling and subsequently gouging to finish. It's easy to loosen and tighten the bench screw with your mallet hand to move the base between strikes. The holdfasts keeping it all solid.

 

 

It's glacial pace with this, but as usual, lots of other things to take up time; some much bigger pillars on the cards this week!