After the relative stillness of winter, everything seems to be in motion now. The spring rains have encouraged the creek to dance to the white-throated sparrow’s tune. Emerging leaves are being introduced to wind. Even when the air is still, they appear to be in flow.
Cherry Bowl 2026. D. Fisher
As wood carvers, one of the ways we can create a sense of movement is through texture and the direction of the strokes. On the exterior of this latest bowl, I played around with a new pattern of gouge cuts.
The sinuous boundary continues down and across the foot as it flows between opposite corners. Sort of a yin and yang relationship. The recess inside the foot is carved and milk-painted.
Here’s a notebook sketch as a visual summary of how I went about it:
Sinuous texture pattern. 2026 D. Fisher
Another viewpoint, from the side…
…and from above.
This bowl is available for purchase. It is 10 3/4″ long, 7 1/4″ wide, and just a smidge under 3″ high. Black cherry. SOLD
I’ll finish this post with some more spring leaves on the move.
Tulip Tree Leaf in April. D. Fisher 2026
Young quaking aspen leaves — and a white-throated sparrow nearby.
Last summer, I published a post that featured shrink pot references from the book Woodworking in Estonia by Ants Viires. Thanks to a comment on that post by William Torlot, I learned of Meelis Kihulane’s and his connection with Ants Viires. William also mentioned Meelis’ woodworking school in Estonia that is carrying on the important woodworking skills and traditions that are documented in Ants’ book.
After investigating further and some email correspondence with William, I learned that Meelis had published a book called Vakad, karbid, sõelad: Painutatud kerega esemete valmistamine. That translates to something like “Containers, Boxes, and Sieves: making items from bent wood”. I ordered a copy from the Estonian National Museum. Here’s a link to their website with more information about the book. UPDATE: It seems that the Estonian National Museum may not be shipping to the US at the moment. William has suggests this other retailer that will ship to the US.
I held my phone over the pages to translate Estonian to English. A bit cumbersome, but effective and certainly worth the trouble. Meelis expertly explains concepts and techniques through his writing and clear photographs. And, beyond that, the book comes with a flash drive loaded with video files corresponding to each procedure.
The book is full of examples, old and new, of finely crafted pieces showing wonderful creativity within the tradition.
Meelis conveys a deep understanding of trees, roots, and other natural materials. Even if one has no intention of making a sieve, there is much to learn, absorb, and apply.
William mentioned that he and Meelis have considered the possibility of hosting a gathering in Estonia in the next year or two to celebrate Ants Viires’ and the woodworking traditions that continue to thrive in Meelis’ school. They would like to start an email list for those who would be interested in staying informed about any developments. If you’re interested in hearing more, email William at william.t@mail.de to get on the list.
Three shrink pots 2026. Cherry/oak, maple/oak, maple. D.Fisher
These three shrink pots and a bowl were all made from trees/branches that fell in the woods around the house.
1: 6″ high x 3 3/8″. Cherry with subtly faceted surface. The rabbeted lid is from a chunk of oak burl with the weathered natural surface of the burl on top. The texture is wonderful and reminds me of the surface of turbulent water. I had been holding onto it for years and thought it made a great complement to the character in this piece of cherry tree. There’s something about it that reminds me a little of Lyle Lovett.
2: 5 3/8″ high x 2 1/2″. Maple with a little spalting. A rabbeted lid turned from a burly bit of found oak. The pin knot inspired me to carve a ring of chip-carving around it. Might be a nice size for holding salt or loose tea.
3. 5 1/4″ high x 3″ x 6 1/2″. I mentioned this piece in a previous post . The side branch led me to the design. I left the natural surface below the bark and shaped the rim and did a bit of chip carving to suggest a “Shrinkmunk”.
And a bowl:
Cherry Bowl 2026. 11″ x 6″ x 3 3/4″. D. Fisher
I roughed out this cherry bowl in January and wrote a post about it, including a little video of some drawknife work as I prepared the blank. It’s all finished now.
I’ve carved this leaf motif in various forms on several bowls over the years. This time, I painted the leaves with milk paint then rubbed it back slightly to highlight the high points of the carving. The contrast between the the paint and the surrounding wood will be enhanced as the color of the cherry deepens over the coming months and years.
11″ long, 6″ wide, 3 3/4″ high. A lot of carving in a small package.
You might recognize this book box from my most recent post. When I started roughing this book form from a green log, I had no final design in mind at all. But that wonderful “blemish” that was revealed on the cover inspired me to go with this little homage to Whitman. The available space and the title itself led to the design of these letter forms on the front cover.
Not so grass-like on the spine.
I thought a lot about the back cover and decided to go with a representation of Whitman himself, based on a steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer that served as the frontispiece of the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman at 35 years old:
“Walt Whitman by Samuel Hollyer, engraving of a daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison (original lost), 1854.” The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 31 March 2026. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
I decided to focus on Whitman’s face. Like the lettering and chip-carved border on the rest of the box, a knife is all that’s needed.
Well, I also used a stamp for some pounced texture on the background.
The lid is a sliding dovetail. Carved and painted with milk paint to suggest pages.
“Open sesame!”
This little book box is 5.25″ x 3.5″ x 2″, but they can be much larger. I’ve got a couple others roughed out in cherry and aspen (above). I’m going to hold on to this one, at least for a little while. I want to have an example of at least one of these to take to my shrink pot class in June. But, I’ve finished a few other shrink pots, and a bowl, too, that I plan to post for sale early next week.
Book boxes, (shrink-style and otherwise) have a long and broad tradition. The design can go in so many different directions. I’ve mentioned it before, but here’s a link to an exhibition at The MET. I’ve written posts with other examples that I’ve made. Those can be found easily by searching “book box” or something on my blog home page.
Above is a wonderful example made by Jögge Sundqvist from his book Karvsnitt. And, in case you missed it, Jögge has started a blog.
To make a shrink pot, regardless of form, you’ve got to bore at least one hole through end-grain. I typically use an antique T-handle auger for that task. In this old post, I show how I sharpen it and use it. Problem is, auger bits weren’t primarily designed for boring into end grain, so finding one that is up to the task can be frustrating.
With my shrink pot classes coming up this year at Pete’s, I decided to finally purchase some Wood Owl Tri-Cut Ultra Smooth auger bits. I had heard a lot of good things about them, and now I’ve been impressed as well. I have no connection to Wood Owl, I just think it’s a good option if you don’t have a tool/bit that is working well for you already. They come with a 7/16″ hex shank, but I found I was able to secure it well in the two-jaw chuck of my bit brace. Taylor Toolworks makes an adaptor specifically for the 7/16″ hex shank that would be more ideal, I suppose.
The largest diameter available in these bits is 1 1/2″, which is plenty large enough as a starter hole for a shrink pot. In fact, for some pots that may be too large.
Above, I’ve sketched some lines on the end grain surface of a maple log. It’s still green, but not super fresh. This will be for a shrink book, a shrink pot in the form of a book. It’s a relatively small one, so the 1 1/4″ bit will be ideal for drilling a series of three holes to begin the excavation of the interior.
I want to bore from both ends, so I cut the piece to rough length, then split and shave the exterior to rough dimension.
Ready for boring.
Above is a short video clip of the bit in action with a hand brace. The bits also come in longer lengths. The lead screw is excellent and the three cutting edges sheer the end grain well. Still, if you had several holes to bore, especially with the larger 1 1/2″ bit, your elbow will feel the stress eventually.
I experimented with an idea suggested by my friend Roberto to use the bit in a T-handle arrangement. It uses a T-handle socket driver with a deep 7/16″ socket. Wood handles could be added. But I never got that far, because there’s too much play in the joints, so it is difficult to direct the bit during the critical beginning stage. You could weld things together, I suppose. UPDATE: I did some more digging around and found a T-Handle wrench with an integral 7/16″ deep socket that looks promising. Looks like if one were to turn a couple wooden handles, it would be ideal. This one looks promising as well, but it seems that it’s only available in Australia or New Zealand. Also, see Roberto’s input in the comments.
Of course you can always use a 1/2″ electric/cordless drill.
Shrinkmunk 2026, D. Fisher
I’ve been playing around with many shrinkpot ideas, so there will be lots more to share in time. With all of the critters running around excited for spring, it’s a good time to show this one. Further down that same maple limb, there was a side branch poking out that I decided to leave. I removed the bark and allowed the natural surface character of the tree to remain. I shaped the top and added just a few cuts to suggest, maybe, a chipmunk. A shrink pet? Shrinkmunk?
My intermittent spoon carving has resulted in six more spoons available for purchase. These were carved from branch crooks. All surfaces are straight from the cutting edge and all have been treated with pure linseed/flaxseed oil and kiln-cured. Ready to serve. The yard stick provides some scale. They range in length from roughly 8″ to 12″. These are all cooking/serving spoons rather than eating spoons. I’ve got more photos below from various points-of-view.
If you are interested, please email me at dandkfish@gmail.com. Let me know if you’d prefer to send a check or receive a PayPal invoice. Prices include shipping. Thank you.
#1 Cherry ladle SOLD
#2 Maple with milk paint SOLD
#3 Sycamore SOLD
#4 Cherry SOLD
#5 Apple with milk paint SOLD
#6 Apple SOLD
That’s a 12″ ruler to the left.Carved spoon handles
The amount of crank was determined by the natural bend in each crook. The tightest bend in this batch was from the beautiful cherry crook below, the left side (inside) to be specific. The finished ladle (#1 in this batch) is the photo beside it. It’s always a shame to shave away those beautiful lichens from the surface of the bark.
Cherry crookCherry ladle
I’ll finish this post with one more photo: the ladle taking shape.
Last March, I was teaching a bowl-from-a-plank class at Pete Galbert’s. After the students finished their longer bowls, we made what I call an “ice cream bowl.” It was a good opportunity to reinforce the skills and techniques we had worked on with the big bowl, and quick progress was made on these little gems. There are some photos from that class at this post.
I call it an ice cream bowl because it’s a nice size to hold and eat from, and a wood bowl (especially with a wood spoon) is well-suited for ice cream. It insulates from your hand and avoids the “clink, clink, clink” of a metal spoon against ceramic. But feel free to call yours a candy bowl, nut bowl, dip bowl, cereal bowl, loose change bowl…
There are many positives to the process of making these. All it takes is a 7″ long section of a 2″ x 6″ plank, and that’s if you want handles like the one in the photos here. You can make things even more simple by starting with a 6″ length, as we did in class, and make a bowl without handles where each of the four sides is the same. I carved the bowl in these photos from basswood, but at this size any species would be manageable, so there’s no need to shy away from a dry cherry plank. Of course, you can always split a blank from a green log and dig in, too.
Since these can be carved relatively quickly, they provide ideal opportunity for experimenting with various textures, decorative motifs, paint, species of wood, and so on. Make a whole set, one for each guest or family member… or with each guest or family member.
I’ve put together a series of over 25 photographs and illustrations detailing layout, tips, and suggestions, along with a page outlining the general carving procedure. The hollow itself is a rounded/inflated square. I’ll show you a versatile, practical, and quick method for laying it out directly onto the wood. It can easily be scaled up if you wish.
I’ve added the Ice Cream Bowl materials to my Make a Bowl from a Plank package. So, if you’ve already purchased, just log back in, scroll down, and you will see the new addition of the Ice Cream Bowl file. Thanks.
The Make a Bowl from a Plank package now features three designs that can all be made with the same readily accessible materials and tools. All three designs share some common language in terms of general layout and execution, while allowing for a wide range of creative choices and variation. Happy carving!
Bowl from a PlankShort and Stout Bowls from a Plank
Maple and Cherry Shrink Pot with Leaf Pattern. 8.5″ x 3.2″. 2026 D. Fisher
This leaf pattern is a design that I’ve been experimenting with on bits of scrap for a long time, tweaking this and that. This four-sided shrink pot, made from a red maple log, was a good canvas for it, and the hard wood holds the detail nicely. The maple also lacks any prominent grain that might otherwise compete visually with the pattern itself.
Maple shrink pot 2026 leaf pattern carving in progress.
The pattern is made up of a series of thumbnail cuts, where one makes a vertical stab cut then a back cut at an angle to the root of it to remove a chip. Simple idea, but one that offers a wide range of design possibilities by playing with three main variables: the sweep of the gouge, the distance of the back cut, and the arrangement of all the cuts. After the gouge work, I ran a central vein up each leaf with a v-tool.
The photo above is from this post I wrote about thumbnail cuts a few years ago.
Above is another example of creative gouge chips, a pineapple pattern on a serving board. More about that in this old post. Now back to the shrink pot:
I decided to do a sliding dovetail lid for this pot, with a little maple knob tenoned into the top.
It was a painstaking challenge to carve the dovetailed area at the top of the inner walls, but it worked out well. The inside of the pot has a gouged surface (unfinished) and is square like the outside of the pot, but with rounded inner corners. There is a taper to the piece overall; the top is 1/4″ smaller than the base. When the lid is almost closed, a pair of matching magnets in the top of the front wall engage to finish the job with a satisfying little pull and click.
This one is for sale. It is 8 1/2″ tall and 3 1/8″ square at the base. The leaf pattern is carved on all four sides. The price of $650 includes shipping. Email me at dandkfish@gmail.com if you’re interested. Thank you. SOLD
Time for me to get back to some bowls and spoons underway…
Between the holidays and other things, I was a little out of rhythm in the workshop for a while. But this past week, I made some progress on several projects, including the prep work for some cherry bowls. The cherry tree (Prunus serotina) had fallen a few years ago and had been undisturbed since. The bark was still intact. Anticipating the coming deep snow, I cut a couple lengths from it and was happy to find the heartwood in great shape, and green. The sapwood is toast, but the decay stopped dead in its tracks at the heartwood, right at that thin dark ring.
If this had been maple or a host of other species, there would have been no chance after that much time. Below is a page from one of my favorite books, Green Woodworking by Drew Langsner. I still refer to it often, and I’m reminded of it even more frequently. Below is a page that includes a helpful reference chart on decay resistance.
I was thinking of making a long bowl form this whole length, but when I split it, an impressive twist was revealed.
I cut it into shorter lengths to reduce the cumulative twist from end to end. So, shorter bowls.
As I hewed a flat surface, I tested those chips by flexing them to make sure the wood was still strong and sound with no unusual breakage indicative of significant decay. Good stuff it seems.
I finished flattening the surface with a drawknife at the bowl horse. Another chance to get to know this particular piece of tree.
Then I flipped it over and shaved away the punky sapwood before striking a compass arc on each end. Shave down to those lines, and my arch-top bowl blank is ready for layout.
I recorded a little video as I did that. At first it may seem like three minutes of random and rapid drawknife work, but there’s a method to the madness. I start by reaching back about 3/4 of the way along the blank and making a series of cuts to remove the excess wood above the line that is facing me. Once I’m to the line all along the arch, I flip the bowl end-for -end and do the same in that direction. Even though I can’t see the line on the opposite end now, I know that it is right where the surface meets the end. So, I can start the drawknife at the very far end and remove the wood from there to the line in front of me. I’m not in a race; the speed and momentum of the knife facilitates the cutting and helps to assure a straight flat path of the knife from line to line. And it’s just such a joy, along with the scent of these green black cherry shavings filling the shop.
As the snow whips around and piles up outside the window this morning, I’m glad that I have these cherry logs inside.
I hope this Eastern Towhee that I watched and snapped a few photos of yesterday has a spot sheltered enough from today’s storm. He must not have noticed the range map that says he’s supposed to be further south this time of year.
What wonderful camouflage. Those side patches are just about the color of dried oak leaves and, incidentally, black cherry wood.
This morning, I received an email from someone who noticed that images from my blog had been grabbed to create scam posts by a nefarious eBay seller. I happen to know where this bowl is sitting happily, and it is not at the “Unique_Handicrafts_Shop”. It makes me wonder if they actually ship anything to the buyer. I think not. But wait….there’s more:
This same scam seller has done the same with many other of my photos as well as photos from other makers. See more of the “Unique_Handicrafts_Shop” at this link.
When it comes to computer and online technology, my understanding is quite limited. It’s a wonder that I keep my website and blog together. So if anyone has some suggestions for ways I can at least make things more difficult for scammers, let me know. Put a tag or label on each photo? I see they’ve added their own. Or maybe it’s just the way things are. I assume that anyone familiar with my work would realize it’s a scam, but I hate to think of someone who is unfamiliar losing money over something like this.
I did finally find a way to issue a report to eBay informing them of the situation this morning, but I see the seller and the items are still active at this point. I doubt if I’ll hear anything back.
But before eBay shuts them down you’d better make an offer! I’m kidding. Do not do that.
David Fisher, Carving Explorations 