Small Hollow Forms

Spent the day using up some pretty wood making these hollow forms. This is the form that put me through college so many years ago. It was the back bone of the weekend art show. The public loves them because they are introduced to beautiful wood, affordable, and a lovely form.

classics

Got a commission to remake this classic that I made in the mid 90's when I did a lot of urns. The difficulty of the new piece, is it will be 18" in diameter in a veneer Redwood burl. The lid is hand threaded to the base and is African Blackwood. Great project!

Coring veneer burl

This week I cut up the rest of my veneer burls that will make heirloom salad bowls. It is rare to find large burls without defects. If they have defects they will become natural edged or vase forms. I also used a peculiar way to core these burls. I would normally use the natural edge as the bottom of the bowl. However, these were cut unusual before I got them and had to make due with what I had. Here's the process.

Cracked bowls

Since I guarantee all my salad bowls for life I occasionally get to repair some of the bowls that develop cracks. These cracks are generally from bowls that were dropped and I will always give the owners the choice of replacing or repairing them. I replace very few bowls considering I have made on average 1200 a year since 1994. To my delight many people select to repair them. This gives me a chance to see how they wear and how and why they have cracked. Many of these bowls look better with all the wear. They show a patina of daily life. I have always used butterfly joints to secure the cracks. This would seem to be a natural way to fix these. However, lately I have been repairing them with a metal patch secured with rivets or nuts and bolts.

Burl wood

Roughing out maple burls today. These will become heirloom salad bowls. Here is a sample of a finished burl bowl. 20" x 7"

Oldest living trees

My good friend David Nittmann forwarded a great web site on the oldest living trees. Thanks David! Check it out. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/old-tree-gallery/

Lee Valley Tools

Wrapped up a great session up in Canada. I am always impressed with our neighbors to the north. Very friendly and helpful at every "turn"(this pun is for Martin".
There are fourteen Lee Valley stores across Canada. The stores offer first rate hardware, tools, gardening equipment and much more. For my workshops they we had 10 participants with 10 lathes. I would do a demonstration and the students would follow the example. Hopefully we all had fun. Special thanks to Tanya, Karen, Scott, David, Steve, and Bart who worked very hard to pull this off. Hope to meet again!