3 bowls

As some of you know, I am a bowl turner. It's a good excuse to buy wood working tools. Plus turning bowls is so easy. Even I can do it. I turn about six bowls a year. Is that all? Yup. I don't want to flood the market :-)

This bowl is turned from Missourian Cherry. I made this bowl for Claire's first host family in Belgium. The wood was air dried by a small, specialty sawmill for five years until their inventory had to be auctioned off. Then it aged to perfection while sitting in a pile of lumber in my garage for four years. The bowl measures 4" X 11" and features a thin, singe-blackened rim.

I made this bowl from the trunk of a silver maple tree that stood proudly in our front yard until the hot, dry summer of 2006 took its fatal toll. This bowl is 3.5" X 10" and the wood shows signs of a weather stressed life and disease. I turned this bowl for Claire's second host family in Belgium.

Under the weight of branches full of last summer's apples, my parents' 30-year old apple tree blew down during a storm. Seven months later, when I began turning this bowl from the tree trunk, the wood was still so green that water dripped from the open fibers. The bowl was turned in three different phases spaced over five weeks to prevent the wood from cracking. I filled old age pocks and a split with turquoise inlace, and finished it with three coats of walnut oil. The bowl is about 4" X 10.5". I finished the bowl just in time to send it to my mom for her birthday. Considering the grain and moisture content and how out of round it already is, this bowl will continue to warp until it is shaped like a gravy boat.