Magnolia Pods

[AngryRhino]

I work in a place where there is a lake out back, with copious amounts of magnolia trees around it. There are pods all over the ground, some brown, some red. The brown ones are dry, like a pine cone almost, and the red ones still have moisture in them.

After seeing people making pine cone blanks, I thought -- Hey, I wonder if anyone could use these to make magnolia blanks!

As I don't have the supplies to do this myself, I was wondering if anyone wanted me to send them some, maybe in exchange for kicking a couple completed blanks back my way.

I don't have any pictures of them at the moment, but if you google image search "Magnolia pods" they pop right up. I think they've got some good potential for a person more artistically inclined than I.

 

[Gary Beasley]

I was thinking the same thing and as the neighbor has a magnolia I got a pod and cut it open. It fell into a pile of pieces, so the only way you will be able to make anything out of one is with pressure casting the way worthless wood is done. On top of that it will need drying to avoid future disasters. I haven't seen a well dried pod yet to know how well that will work.

 

[Akula]

I did some and they don't look anywhere as good as pinecone blanks imo

 

[AngryRhino]

Ahh well, it was worth asking about. Thought it might look good.

 

[Brooks803]

Curtis showed one a couple years ago:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/something-new-72694/

 

[healeydays]

I made them. I have found that I get the best results trimming them down to basically cubes and then cast them. Still not my favorite...

 

[wayneryan65]

Here is a blank I cast from a Magnolia Pod

 

[Scotty]

I have sliced them and cast them as pendant blanks.