Mineral Stained Poplar Salad Bowl

Good Evening Everyone,
Well, I finally got that mineral stained poplar bowl blank cut to shape and mounted on the lathe between centers. This bowl blank is very heavy because its full of water and also because its large. Heres a photo of it before I began to cut this:

This is the largest bowl Ive ever made. Its about 5" thick and 10" thick.
I began cutting it and it cut just perfectly. I managed to get it balanced and I began cutting it with my 3/4" bowl gouge just to rough it into shape and to get a lot of of wood removed.
This is the blank after about 10 minutes of cutting:

The wood is cutting so well--the wood working angels must be hanging around the wood shop. The wood is damp to the touch but there is no sap to speak of.

Here is the blank after about 30 minutes of cutting. You know some women like to hang around the mall, and some like to do lunch, but some of us like to hang around lumberyards and make things. You always want to be friends with that last group!!

Here you can see the wood shavings. It looks like some one shredded a giant block of mozarella cheese in the wood shop!  This is producing a ton of shavings. If anyone wants them let me know.

Here are the last two photos for the evening. You can see the foot on the bottom and the mineral staining is spectacular.  There is no tear out and the wood is cutting perfectly.

Ive covered the blank with a plastic trash bag and left it on the lathe to keep it from drying out. Tomorrow Ill finish trimming the foot and smooth the outside of the bowl. 

See you tomorrow,

VW