Bookmark Collector

I’m a woodturner and when it came time to make bookmarks for various swaps, I fell back onto the materials in which I’m most comfortable working. So, I used my lathe to turn some interesting woods (in the photo, it’s Amboyna Burl) into a cabochon form, mounted them on metal bookmark blanks, and started creating these bookmarks. Unfortunately, I am particularly bad at documenting my work and this is one of the few pictures I have of one of my pieces.

I’m not a production turner, so although I enjoy this type of work I only make one or two a month. Typically they are swapped with other folks who make hand crafted bookmarks, either for the Yahoo Collecting Bookmarks group or the Swapbot trades.

Recently, I was introduced to a swap where we each had to make book thongs (a style of bookmark) for trading. This fit comfortably into my skill set, and so I turned some beads from an ivory substitute called Tagua Nut and from Ebony. Here’s the result after the beads are strung onto a leather cord and mounted.

Recently, I’ve explored a bit of pyrography (burning designs into the wood) on the cabochons, but of course I didn’t bother to photograph them before shipping them off. Did I mention I’m not a production turner?