Ruby Nebula

This turned hollow-lidded vessel is made from Manzanita Burl, with a lid of Buckeye Burl from California, and accents of Gaboon Ebony and Pink Ivory from Africa. The vessel is hollow-turned, and the lid is separately turned and applied.

To create the piece, the artist inlaid melted pewter into the voids with a solder iron; he then inlaid the stone using a technique called "chip inlay" using semi-precious stones. After breaking the raw turquoise into smaller pieces, he placed the chips into the wood's natural void. A matrix of several viscosities of different superglues cements them. The stones were then ground by hand to the vessel's surface, polished, and sprayed with multiple coats of lacquer for a secure and lustrous finish.