This leaf pattern is a design that I’ve been experimenting with on bits of scrap for a long time, tweaking this and that. This four-sided shrink pot, made from a red maple log, was a good canvas for it, and the hard wood holds the detail nicely. The maple also lacks any prominent grain that might otherwise compete visually with the pattern itself.
The pattern is made up of a series of thumbnail cuts, where one makes a vertical stab cut then a back cut at an angle to the root of it to remove a chip. Simple idea, but one that offers a wide range of design possibilities by playing with three main variables: the sweep of the gouge, the distance of the back cut, and the arrangement of all the cuts. After the gouge work, I ran a central vein up each leaf with a v-tool.
The photo above is from this post I wrote about thumbnail cuts a few years ago.
Above is another example of creative gouge chips, a pineapple pattern on a serving board. More about that in this old post. Now back to the shrink pot:
I decided to do a sliding dovetail lid for this pot, with a little maple knob tenoned into the top.
It was a painstaking challenge to carve the dovetailed area at the top of the inner walls, but it worked out well. The inside of the pot has a gouged surface (unfinished) and is square like the outside of the pot, but with rounded inner corners. There is a taper to the piece overall; the top is 1/4″ smaller than the base. When the lid is almost closed, a pair of matching magnets in the top of the front wall engage to finish the job with a satisfying little pull and click.
This one is for sale. It is 8 1/2″ tall and 3 1/8″ square at the base. The leaf pattern is carved on all four sides. The price of $650 includes shipping. Email me at dandkfish@gmail.com if you’re interested. Thank you. SOLD
Time for me to get back to some bowls and spoons underway…
David Fisher, Carving Explorations 
Beautiful piece Mr. Fisher!
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That’s a very fetching experiment, Dave! Nicely done, as ever.
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Wow–
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So elegant, and the sliding dovetail lid is an inspired choice. But “inspired” describes all your choices. What a feast for the eyes!
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Thanks, Sue! But I could make a long list of uninspired choices. Most of the woodworking ones end up in the fire or as reminders here in my workshop. Then, outside of woodworking, there’s my 8th grade haircut, and so on…
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Always interested in the ‘hardware’!
I’d worked out the width……….comparing the gouge tip width to the hold-fast diameter – usually 3/4 inch – but the angle of the picture means that it’s difficult to estimate the sweep.
I presume that you are using the Sheffield pattern?
Modern manufacturers’ sweep-number-scales of gouges can differ somewhat.
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The #6/20mm gouge I used to carve the pattern happened to be a “Lamp Brand” tool made in Germany. Yes, standard Sheffield pattern system. But a different gouge is not necessarily worse or better. It will just make a somewhat different leaf shape. Same thing with orientation angles and such. Lots to play around with.
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Very nice! I had forgotten the pineapples, those are fun too.
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It’s absolutely lovely, Dave. In any work of art/architecture I am always moved by work that is created by a conglomeration of well-executed, simple choices that result in a beautiful, elevated whole. Your work always dose that; I can understand each individual element of the work when, but the whole is magical, individual, and impossible for anyone else to have been its author.
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Pardon my typos.
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Love the sliding top and contrast! The leaf pattern looks great.
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Looks like a #8/13 gouge. Asking for a friend…
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Tell your friend it’s a #6/20 🙂
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Wow, he was way off…
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Well, I understand the guess of a #8, because the back side of the chip does look more like that sort of curve. When you tilt a #6 back to make the angled back cut, it leaves a line (the edge where the cut surface meets the original surface) that is much more curved than the sweep of the gouge itself. The lower the angle, the greater the difference. To see the true sweep of the gouge, one needs to look at the inside/front of the crescent chip which was made with a vertical stab cut.
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Gorgeous work, as always. Fascinating that you created that leaf pattern with a single gouge and thumbnail cuts. Love the dovetailed lid too. Fabulous!
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So sweet…as always. Love that you went the extra mile and dovetailed the side of the lid that didn’t have to be dovetailed. Look forward to seeing you work this pattern into other design.
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