I found an unidentified root in the road (it is light colored, but turns
yellow brown about a day after being cut; anything jump to mind?) and
decided to make my first vase. It is about 4" diameter and 8" high. I ran
into three problems.

1) I could only manage to hollow out about 5.5". And even then I left a
little uvula in the middle that I couldn't get out noway. I don't think I
can go deeper than 5.5", but how do you get the center part out?

2) I had to leave most of it rough inside because I couldn't manipulate a
tool in there, and certainly couldn't get sandpaper in. Any tricks here?

3) I nearly lost it because the bottom became extremely uneven when it
dried. I did the best I could to get it back on the chuck square, but it
wobbled and I had to take more off the outside to get it round than
anticipated. I almost ran out of material. How does one handle that
properly? I am not sure a chuck (if I had one) would have helped, because
the top probably wasn't square either.

On the whole it turned out nicely though.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~toller/vase.jpg