Category Archives: patterns

New Bowl Horse Plans and Tutorial

Over twenty years ago, I designed and built my first bowl horse and it has been an important carving partner for me ever since. I use it for every bowl, but also for shrink pots, spoon blanks, and all sorts … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, carving, events, holding, patterns, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 20 Comments

Bowl from a Plank

Sourcing, storing, and/or processing green logs can be a challenge for some people based on location and other circumstances. There are ways around it. I’ve written a few posts that feature bowls carved from dry wood, or other creatively-sourced blanks. … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, finding wood, layout, patterns, Uncategorized, walnut | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

The Beginnings of a Rooftop Hen

There’s a hen bowl in that big chunk of butternut. I’ve made some of these bowls (call them hens, roosters, fowl…) using various log orientations, but the most common have been what I call rooftop bowls. The drawing below accompanied … Continue reading

Posted in bird bowls, layout, patterns, proportions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Chip Layout

I was finishing up a small walnut bowl and decided to define the narrow side-panel with a graduated row of chip cuts. I have a slide show and description of the cutting of these on a similar bowl in this … Continue reading

Posted in carving, layout, patterns, sketch, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Bowl from Dry Walnut

Wood is much easier to carve when it’s green, and you can get right to work with a large blank of fresh uncracked wood straight from the tree. Then you can let the bowl dry, stress and crack free, before … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, carving, holding, patterns, Uncategorized, walnut | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

New Walnut Bowl

This bowl started with a black walnut log about 13″ in diameter but only 13″ long. I split it into quarters and was able to get this bowl out of one of those sections. Bark up orientation, so the flow … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, carving, layout, patterns, proportions, sketch, Uncategorized, walnut | Tagged | 21 Comments

Winter Whittled Bird

On a “cold, cold, wet day” this past weekend, I sat warm and dry in the shop by the window and whittled a little bird from a pine branch. Winter birds bring a special joy. It’s magical to be in … Continue reading

Posted in bird bowls, carving, finding wood, nature, patterns, sketch, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 26 Comments

That Line on the Outside of the Bowl

Mullet, D.A., rattail, fade, French braid — there are many options for what to do with the hair on the back of your head. Likewise for the outside of a bowl. Maybe it’s because my own hair situation provides me … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, cherry, layout, patterns, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 33 Comments

Ten Spoons

In between other projects, I’ve been able to squeeze in some spoons. I have these ten finished and available. I’ll provide another shot of each one below. If you’re interested, send me an email at dandkfish@gmail.com. I’ll update the status … Continue reading

Posted in patterns, spoons, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Carving American Chestnut 4: Two Finished Bowls

Here are the two bowls I made from the American Chestnut I started with in a post in June. The one on the left is the one I highlighted through the series of posts, so I’ll start with a few … Continue reading

Posted in bowls, patterns, trees, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 12 Comments