This is the third time I’ve carved these words from J.R.R. Tolkien on a bowl, but it has been several years. Each bowl has been different, and so has the lettering. I think working with green wood straight from the tree, especially, can be a form of wandering. We don’t know where the journey into a piece of tree will take us. We respond to discoveries made along the way. That’s the way it was with the bowl above that came from the lower half of the cherry log below.

I brought this chunk home because I was intrigued by the top half with the “handle” of a branch that had merged back into the trunk of the tree. I sawed the piece in half and set the top aside. I hadn’t planned anything for the bottom half, but staring at it there, I decided to explore it a bit. It was nearly two feet long and only six or seven inches wide, bending a little in both directions.

I shaved a flat on the bottom. You can tell by the growth ring pattern that the fibers curve up (or down, in this shot) from the bottom toward both ends.

I flipped it over and shaved the top surface, following the general flow of the fibers. I finished by working across the grain with a plane.

I shaved the top flat across from side to side. As the bowl dried after the green carving stage, the top moved into a gentle arch.

The layout of everything was just freehand sketching. Here you can just see a general safe zone mapped out for the foot. The final shape would be refined later. I’m working across the grain with an adze to remove the wood under the long handles.

It wasn’t until I wandered into the hollow that the whole idea for this bowl came together.

This is a shot of the hollow just after I’ve carved it in the green stage. There was a dark growth ring band at the sapwood/heartwood border on one side of the log. It brought to mind a hill and sky. And I thought about a journey across that landscape.

After a few weeks of drying followed by the final carving stages, I started sketching Tolkien’s well-known words. Here they are in the context of the whole stanza:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

— J. R. R. Tolkien, from “The Riddle of Strider”, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

In this (particularly) hard cherry, I removed much of the wood with a v-tool before going in with knife and some gouges.

Above is where I stopped with the v-tool. I have left the lines, and then some, for the next stage with the other tools. In terms of time in the letter carving (not including the designing/drawing time), it’s probably not even 20% along at this point. As with bowl carving, removing the bulk goes relatively quickly.

I’ll end with a few shots of the finished bowl below. Dimensions are 22 1/2″ long, 6″ across, and 3″ high. It is available for purchase. $1200 includes insured shipping to you. If you’re interested, please email me at dandkfish@gmail.com. SOLD