From Branch to Bowl

From Branch to Bowl

While reading the book, choosing which medium in which to work has been one of the biggest challenges.  Each page offered a new, interesting medium, making each section more difficult to choose between jewelry, clay, and glass.

I became fascinated with the woodwork. Ultimately, wood became the most accessible to me.  Looking at pieces by George Nakashima and Wharton Esherick, helped focus my interest in the concepts of Zen, the simple natural form and the implicit beauty of wood. Artists like Rude Osolnik and Mark Linquist helped shape my ideas to create a turned form.

Once I decided, I realized in needed training, I went to my expert.  I talked to my Dad.

My father insisted that before we began, I should watch one of his many wood working DVDs. After he woke me up several times, at the drowsy end of a wood turning DVD, I had a plan. 

A piece of green wood with varying grain and unpredictable qualities would be the choice. A forking branch would have rugged beauty with grain changes as the branches attached to the trunk.

The perfect piece of a forked branch lived in a wild plum tree on my Parent’s property. 

Process:

To turn the branch, a centering disc needed to be attached to the branch and that branch mounted to the lathe.   

Working with green wood, offered challenges in lathe turning. The bark came off quickly, revealing the beautiful swirling grain on the sides.  The branch left a lovely irregular shape to the lip of the bowl reminiscent of David Ellsworth’s Bowl.

In order to hollow out the interior, I used dull chisels.  It was difficult. I thought we should cheat and use the drill press to carve out the majority of the interior.

However, if we are born poets and become craftsman, I am on my way to craftsman and my father is already there.  He refused to let me continue with the drill press insisting that we needed sharper or more specialized tools for hollowing out the interior.

Offering one chisel has spinning wheel, he explained to process to hollow the interior of the bowl. 

When the walls were hollowed to an appropriate thickness, the bowl felt shaped and complete, I applied a Tung oil finish. 

The bowl is warm and jammy in color: the heart of the plum.

Lessons learned:

Always wear goggles: flying tree bark is scary.  Finding the proper tools and mounts can be challenging.

Proper glue, proper mounts had to be explored and redone until the bowl held together on the lathe.

Capturing the delicacy of thin bowl walls juxtaposed next to the rough raw edges was particularly challenging.

The exterior surface was much easier to shape than the interior surface. 

Conclusion: Wood turning is a craft that given the proper equipment could be accessible to all skill levels.  It’s natural, beautiful, and functional.

Post Script: I have already chosen my need lathe project.  I am lucky to have a very encouraging and loving teacher.