More miniature woodturning

Another session at the lathe and I have a few things to share, two bowls and a small drinking cup about 8mm tall. This one gave me some trouble when I dropped it behind the lathe station into a pile of shavings and spent half an hour on my hands and knees searching for it. Time I think to put a back board on the lathe station me thinks.

After completing the tiny tumbler I placed it beside my first mini turning and made a funny squeeking noise.....

I was so pleased with the first turning, I was overjoyed with the second only about a week later. The walls are so thin! Less than a millimetre. Much like the cake stand which didn't survive the final stages of polishing.

I seem to have reached the limits of the commercial tools I have, with the 6mm spindle gouge unable to reach the bottom of this container. Taking a cheap (and useless) wood carving tool from the craft stash I hit the grinder and shaped it firstly to fit in such a tiny vessel and secondly gave it the profile of a scraper to help me thin down the walls of the cup and flatten off the bottom. I can see me making many more tools to complete these pieces, there are some available online but they are very expensive and the scraper is about the simplest tool there is to make, even if mine does look home made it did the job. Next task, hollowing tools.

To finish, this is a group of my fave tiny turnings so far....

We shall see where this road takes me from here......any suggestions?

Todays images brought to you by Nikon+macro filter rather than Samsung galaxy phone.