I love sharing the stories behind my handcrafted wood pieces, especially these two—a maple burl bowl and a bowl turned from a tabletop.  They represent creativity in wood, functional art.

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This bowl began as a 20-pound hunk of maple burl, sourced from a large leaf maple tree native to the Pacific Northwest.  The entire tree is literally covered with lumps of burl, caused by irregular growth due to “stress” yielding highly figured grain.  I purchased the wood from Hearne Hardwoods in Oxford Pennsylvania for $5/pound. Over several weeks, I examined it from every angle to determine how best to bring out the natural beauty of the wood and to include as many of its unusual features as possible.  The initial turning was an exercise in “Shake, Rattle and Roll” (apologies to Bill Haley and the Comets). The piece started out unbalanced—typical of dense burl wood—but gradually stabilized as it took shape.  The final piece is a bowl with beautiful grain, great color, clefts, bark inclusions and spikes—a true wood sculpture.   Among the over 200 pieces I have turned, this is one of my favorites.

 

I displayed this maple burl bowl at the Fall Daylesford Abby Art & Craft show in Paoli Pennsylvania, where it drew a lot of attention.  One couple with two preadolescent children were particularly attracted to it, walked away, came back and said that they needed to look at the rest of the show before making a decision.  Normally, this is the kiss of death as “be backs” rarely return, literally “The Man who Never Returns” (apologies to the Kingston Trio).  In this case, it was not so, as they shortly returned and purchased it saying they knew exactly where it would go in their home. The following year, the husband returned alone and purchased a second burl bowl, a great affirmation of my work