A new project begins

I managed out for a couple of hours in the evening yesterday, and started a new project. The exact nature of the project will remain a secret for now…… At the moment I have a series of discs cut from well seasoned pine. Once the various parts are cut to size etc. they will be glued back together and turned to give a shape to the outside. If I remember tonight, I will take photos of the component parts before final assembly.
This will be a test of my skill, as pine can be extremely difficult to get a decent finish on. So far, what I have done is looking quite good at the moment. If this works out, I might try a segmented version using different timbers.
I’m enjoying making the most of the current decent weather, and hope to get out most evenings this week.
I also rough turned a couple of birch blanks & wrapped then in shavings inside a paper carrier bag. Hopefully this will allow the blanks to dry more quickly without cracking. A friendly tree surgeon has offered some seasoned eucalyptus, and I need to prune a poplar in the garden. This should help boost my supplies of different timbers.
I set aside some yew a while back, and sealed the ends with paint to try preventing cracks. It has been looking good over the winter months, but I noticed yesterday that it had started to check. Must be the heat in the shed. I will have a go at splitting it this week too, which will hopefully stop the splits getting any worse.
I saw a YouTube vid where someone heated up a pot of wax and dipped the raw timber in the wax to seal the ends. I may give this a try, rather than the paint, to see if it stops the cracking/splitting process any better than paint does.