Category Archives: finding wood

Six Spoons

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 … Continue reading

Posted in finding wood, spoons, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Another Reason to Like Black Cherry

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 … Continue reading

Posted in books, bowls, cherry, finding wood, green woodworking, holding, trees, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Finishing Bird Bowls Just in Time

Thirty years of classroom teaching has taught me the importance of preparation. As I’ve readied for next week’s inaugural bird bowl class at Peter Galbert’s, one of my fun tasks has been getting bird bowl examples finished. There’s a few … Continue reading

Posted in bird bowls, classes, finding wood, paint, patterns, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

A Pair of Walnut Bowls (From a Plank)

I carved these two walnut bowls from a radially-split piece of fresh black walnut, but the design is well suited to be carved from any 2″ thick plank of wood. Compared to my usual Bowl from a Plank, I guess … Continue reading

Posted in finding wood, layout, patterns, plans, sketch, Uncategorized, walnut | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Getting Colorful at Pete’s

I returned home a week ago from the most recent Bowl Exploration class at Peter Galbert Workshops. This was the third time I’ve taught this class and each iteration has seen a change or two. This time around, we carved … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, classes, finding wood, paint, patterns, teaching, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Ambrosia Maple Bowl — Butterflies Included

I should take my own advice. I tell people to be careful to look for the tiniest checks in the end grain of a log because they will open up as the bowl dries. If a log section has been … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, figure, finding wood, patterns, trees, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Venus-and-the-Moon Bowl

A friend alerted me to an old fruit-bearing pear tree that had fallen in a windstorm, just a couple minutes down the road. When I went to check it out, I wasn’t optimistic about its prospects. Most of the tree … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, figure, finding wood, sketch, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

Twist and Shout

Yesterday, I was splitting a small straight cherry log for a potential bowl. I was planning on using the upper half above this chunk. As the log split apart, my plans changed. Just about every tree grows with at least … Continue reading

Posted in finding wood, green woodworking, trees, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Branch Crook Choices

Another post about processing crooks. For the others, check the category menu (to the right) under “finding wood.” This time I want to show a couple decisions I made when finding a spoon in a piece of the crazy magnolia … Continue reading

Posted in finding wood, green woodworking, Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

Sinuous Serotina Bowl

It was sunny and 70 degrees today. We’re still in winter, but this weather reminds me more of the late summer days when I first roughed out this bowl from a black cherry tree (Prunus serotina) limb. It was a … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, cherry, finding wood, green woodworking, holding, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments