Pascal Oudet (France) burr oak textured cone 8x10cm. Not signedI first met Ray in 2006 in Arc et Senans, France, a woodturning congress organized by AFTAB. He was well known for all the memory he had about the woodturning world stories. Once he had started, nothing could stop him.I then saw him again when I demonstrated at Loughborough AWGB seminar.When I received the piece, I loved the wrinkled look of the burl on the outside of the cone.I had no idea what Ray had in mind for the final piece he would do with this shape but I wanted to retain the original outside appearance, his turning and the wrinkled burl which I would have lost if I had returned it.So after thinking about it for a while I found a way to hold this piece on the lathe without touching the outside, and hollowed the inside to have thinner walls.Because the piece was oval from drying, I then worked a bit with rotating tools to refine the inside and follow the outside oval.Finally I sandblasted everything to emphasize the burl pattern.The Ray Key Collaboration Auctionn