Recalibrating: Lessons from the lathe

About a week ago I decided to experiment with turning different types of shapes on the lathe. Someone on YouTube had demonstrated making wooden abstract "flower" shapes, which I thought were very interesting. I thought it would be a great exercise to try to copy his technique so I could turn my own designs. 

I mounted a thick soft maple block onto my lathe, and after I had worked on it for a while, I decided to take it off the lathe to check my work in better lighting. 

This video shows you what happened next, and what I learned! 

And here is Part 2 of what it looks like on the lathe.