The plus side of the cold temperatures lately has been beautiful clear sunny skies.  I propped up this cherry bowl in the window to bask in the sunshine and help along the curing of the flax oil.  I do this twist carving with a couple knives and a gouge or two.  The constant narrowing of the field toward the handles means that the curves and dimensions of the pattern are constantly changing, and the knife is free to adjust.

The two knives I use for this are pretty commonplace.  One is just a standard utility knife blade that I have ground to a gentle curve.  The other is the pen blade of my pocket knife. It requires some pressure in cherry; softer woods would be ideal.

This is how I hold the bowl against the front apron of my work bench.

Last year, I carved this same style of twist pattern on a similar style of cherry bowl and made a short video of the process. You can check it out below.  This pattern is an example of just one of the many variations of the guilloche design.  In this case, the pattern tapers; on furniture pieces it is often laid out between parallel lines.  There are a lot of possibilities to check out at Peter Follansbee’s blog.  Here is a great post by Peter about the possibilities of the guilloche and other patterns.