Free Shape Bowl #214

Free Shape Bowl #214

Piece #214 – Tropical Almond – 10″ dia x 3″ – Sold

This natural edge and shape bowl is made from tropical almond.214sml

Tropical almond is a large deciduous stately tree, originally from India, growing up to 90 feet tall with horizontal whorls of branches offering clusters of foot long; obviate leaves that turn pink-red to red – yellow before falling. It has large (2 – 3 inches) nutty fruits that taste very much like commercially grown almonds.kauai_1988_131k

This bowl was finished with 5 coats of clear shellac.

Sold this piece on June 4th at Lenoir City Arts and Crafts Festival.

Wormy Oak Bowl #103

Piece #103 – Wormy Oak – 10.5″ dia x 4″ – SOLD

This oak bowl is made from an Oak tree that was removed because of a worm infestation. Evidence is seen in the bottom of this piece. I also left part of the bark visible on the outside of this bowl. It all works together to make this a very interesting conversation piece. It would look great on your coffee table up at the cabin.

Pet Cremation Urn #205

Pet Cremation Urn #205

Piece #205 – Guanacaste and Maple – 5″ dia x 13″ – SOLD

This beautiful Urn is made from the Guanacaste Tree. I made it so that half is the heart wood (dark) and half is the sap wood (light). This wood is really rare. I don’t think I have ever seen anything else made from this wood. It could be because it is pretty caustic. It really aggravates my allergies; makes me cough. I have to wear a face mask, open all the doors and make sure my dust collection system collects every particle. Nasty stuff.

Look at the tiny worm holes in the sap wood. However, there are none in the heart wood.worms205

205topThe top is spalted maple.







Cherry Bowl #203

Piece #203 – Cherry – 7″ dia x 5″ – Sold

This cherry bowl has a natural undercut rim. I was coming home from Walmart and noticed that someone had cut down a tree in their yard and the wood was piled up beside the road. I stopped and threw a couple of the biggest pieces in the back of my truck. This was a great find. I love cherry. This bowl is a real specimen piece.

Square Bowl #195

Square Bowl #195

Piece #195 – Camphor – 8.5″ dia by 5″ – Sold

This natural bark edge bowl has a square wing created one third way up from the bottom.

side195

Camphor smells like Vick’s Vapor Rub when it is being cut. The whole house fills up with the aroma when I turn this wood. I usually keep the doors open until it is complete.

top195

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Pet Cremation Urn #199

Piece #199 – Spalted Maple – 5.5″ dia by 7.5″ – Sold

This is the second in a series of Urns that I’m working on. The first one turned out so nice that my beloved dog, Keku, resides within. (click here to see it)

It was my wife’s idea to make the Urn for Keku. Keku passed away three years ago and her ashes had been in the tin container she came home in. Ohh that makes me feel like a bad master. Now she has this beautiful Urn that has the place of honor in our glass display cabinet.

For some reason I feel better now that Keku has a beautiful new resting place. I always felt bad that she was in that tin can and I could have made her a special place. She deserves to be in a work of art that portrayed the beauty and love that she brought into my life.

Salad Bowl #202

Salad Bowl #202

Piece # 202 – Spalted Oak – 14″ dia x 4.5″ – Sold

Sometimes what you end up with is not what you wanted. You would not know to look at this beautiful bowl that it is not what I had in mind when I started this piece. I thought the wood for this bowl was dry enough when I started, but that’s the mystery of wood. sidebowl202

My initial design was a much deeper bowl with a smaller bottom and two beads around the top rim. My problem was that I did not leave enough thickness around the top rim when I rough cut the bowl. I set the bowl aside to dry further. When I came back to it a month later the top had warped substantially. So much so that when I put it back on the lathe to true it back up there was not enough material along the top to leave in the beads. I had to remove the top two inches of the bowl.

smlbowl202

Man was I ticked-off. If my temper had gotten the best of me the bowl would have ended up a splintered heap on my scrap pile. However, patience prevailed and I have this beautiful salad bowl that someone will one day cherish. There’s a lesson here somewhere – I think.

Acorn Round Box #186

Piece #186 – Oak, Walnut, Maple, Acorn – 4″ dia by 4.5″ – Sold

This composite box is the result of whim on a late weeknight. I had nothing to do so I went out to the shop to putz around. I found this small piece of oak with beautiful bark. It was too small to use by itself so I glued up some other scraps. When it was finished it needed a little something else so I added the acorn on the lid. Bam!

Pedestal Bowl #187

Pedestal Bowl #187

Piece #187 – Spalted Oak – 9″ dia by 4″ – SOLD

This piece was a failure that turned into a magnificent piece of eye candy. The bowl is a piece of spalted oak that I made using my secret beer spalting process. I don’t know what the base is made from. I picked it up out of a box of scraps at Amazon Exotic Hardwoods in Orlando Florida.seg oak bowl top

As I was cutting the tenon off of this bowl my tool dipped and the resulting catch tore the bowl off of the tenon. The result was a bowl with a hole in the bottom. “Another piece of firewood”, I thought at first. But I sat it aside and started a new bowl. Several weeks later I picked it up and had an epiphany. “Why not add a pedestal?” Here it is.

Lidded Jewelry Box #188

Lidded Jewelry Box #188

Piece # 188 – Spalted Maple – 9″ dia. by 5″ – SOLD

The fungus lines in this piece of spalted maple are quite striking. I have several pieces made from this log. (#176, #179, #185) E mail me if you want them all and I will give you a 20% discount.

spltd maple jewl box topspltd maple jewl box insideThis round jewelery box is made from an old maple log that had been on the ground a long time. Lying in the weather much longer would have made the wood too punky to turn.