"Head Games" refers to a few of the symbols which man has relied upon to bring him "good luck". I have displayed eight of these images around this unusual vessel. They are: a frog, a four-leaf clover, an elephant, a wishbone, a horseshoe, an acorn, a dolphin, and a turtle. In addition, I have displayed the numeral eight. The 8 has long been considered the luckiest of numbers, especially by the Chinese culture.

I specifically avoided using a rabbit’s foot; the image of their feet being severed for the production of key chains was too upsetting. Thankfully, that industry has all but vanished. I considered titling the piece, "Let the Bunnies Scamper", but because of the mental image, my wife Tere vetoed.

The construction of this vessel is a new technique for me. Each layer is a separate stave-constructed ribbon. All of the ribbon-ring curves were created on the lathe, originally as "turned" cylinders (3 cylinders per wavy ring), which I then cut apart into quarter sections and one-eighth sections. I then re-connected the curves to create the "wavy" ribbon style rings. The individual ribbons are stacked with tiny 1/16" epoxied dowels (8 per seam).

The number 8 is incorporated throughout:

8" in diameter
18" tall
48 pieces of wood in most layers
8 concave curves and 8 convex curves in each ribbon
8 "lucky" symbols and eight 8’s embedded in the pierced web
888 individual pieces of wood