That's a good trick. Here's a couple more eccentric options.

Turn a ball or square the end of your blank to fit in a round or square
recess in waste stock on a faceplate, then remount the waste stock
off-center on your faceplate, insert your blank into the recess, and bring
up the tailstock.

Remove jaws #2 and #4 from your 4 jaw chuck, then remove jaw #3, spin the
scroll 1 turn in, and reinsert jaw #3. You now have two jaws gripping off
center.

If working with flat stock, like for shallow bowls, sometimes it is
possible to turn multiple (overlapping) chucking grooves on the base of
your stock, either the same jaws or for two different size jaw sets.

I'm sure there are lots more options that other clever people will tell
us about, but these are ones I have had succes with.

-mike paulson, fort collins, co