I have been wanting to decorate a bowl for ages and had dreamt up many bizarre contractions to ensure holes were drilled perpendicular to the piece. the simplest solution was to plonk the bench drill on top of the lathe bed. Plugs were made with a tapered plug cutter and whacked in place while the sides of the bowl were still quite thick. A couple of them suffered tear out (last picture 10 o'clock) on the inside as I was truing them down and I was worried about reducing the thickness of the side still further to remove it but overall I am quite pleased with the result.
I like the idea Andy, good clean infill's to the piece how did you finish it was it with a mop as it looks like there is fluff stuck to the inside plugs. Still need a little care on the inside with the bevel rubbing and bruising the wood a little damp cloth rubbed over that area and when dry another sanding before adding the finish will help eliminate some of those.
Thanks Derek, yes a mop was used but that is not fluff on the inside of the plugs but tear out as I reduced them down in size. To be hinest it was abit of a test piece to see if the process works. Workshop time is a bit sparse during the school holidays and that bowl took be about 5 weeks from start to finish.