Here is a picture of a couple of goblets I just finished. The vessel
part of the goblet is Spanish Alder, the diamond shapes are Maple and
Bloodwood, and the stem is Lacewood.

Had a devil of a time with the vessel parts. That Alder is pretty soft
so it is difficult to get a clean cut, and also it flexes a lot.
Hollowing was a challenge. Had to do it very slowly and very light
cuts. Just touching a scraper to the inside caused a lot of vibration
and you could see the vessel deforming.

Finishing was a challenge too because I wanted to retain as much of the
original color of the Alder as I could. Most finishes I tried on scraps
darkened it too much, or yellowed it. Finally used the water based
Varathane Diamond Polyurethane for starters. It didn't darken the wood
as much as the others, and didn't yellow it at all. But it was very
difficult to get a good coat with no brush marks. After two or three
coats of that, I sanded it smooth and went over it with an oil based
wipe-on poly. The Varathane apparently sealed the wood since the oil
based poly didn't change the color any more. I just hope it sticks.

Now I can finally give them to my daughter in law. I made them for a
b-day present, but with all the problems I had I'm a little late. Her
b-day was two weeks ago. Crap!

Wayne