Crack attack

I had a bunch of Ash or Maple decide the summer was too warm and crack.  One piece was to the point of making funny sounds when I tapped on it, won't chucking that back on the lathe.  The others, well, they were in the fire pit.  My wife saw them and thought they'd make nice planters, so I thinned them a bit.  One I decided to try a surface treatment I'd been wanting to try for a while.  I really like it, especially with the coolness of the wood.  Even though I left it a little thick for fear of it flying apart, it looks great. Yeah, my meager wood carving skills show in the tear out, still it looks like time well spent, "research" as we call it in academia.