Category Archives: quotes and excerpts

Cherry Chicken

Posted on June 13, 2024 by Dave Fisher

It reminds me of that old joke- you know, a guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office and says, hey doc, my brother’s crazy! He thinks he’s a chicken. Then the doc says, why don’t you turn him in? Then the … Continue reading →

Posted in bird bowls, books, cherry, holding, layout, quotes and excerpts, tools, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

May Leaves

Posted on May 19, 2024 by Dave Fisher

The Trees are coming into leaf Like something almost being said; — Philip Larkin, The Trees (1967) Over the last few weeks, the view from my workshop window has been transformed by the annual miracle occurring on every twig. Leaf … Continue reading →

Posted in cherry, nature, quotes and excerpts, trees, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Revelations in Snow

Posted on February 18, 2024 by Dave Fisher

Out of the bosom of the Air,        Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken Over the woodlands brown and bare,        Over the harvest-fields forsaken,              Silent, and soft, and slow              Descends the snow.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Snow-flakes” (1863) Yesterday … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, quotes and excerpts, trees, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Barefoot Shrink Pot

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Dave Fisher

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet. Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (1923) Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the magical surface of a tree when the bark peels off cleanly in … Continue reading →

Posted in finding wood, Lettering, photography, quotes and excerpts, shrink box, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

Amy Lowell’s Green Bowl

Posted on August 16, 2023 by Dave Fisher

Ever since encountering Amy Lowell‘s Imagist poem The Green Bowl, published in her first poetry collection in 1912, I had wondered about it. Was it inspired by an actual bowl? If so, does it still exist? Who was Roger, the … Continue reading →

Posted in bowls, historical reference, nature, paint, patterns, Persons, quotes and excerpts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Bright Bowl

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Dave Fisher

Saw a king fisher on a tree over the water. Does not its arrival mark some new movement in its finny prey? He the bright buoy that betrays it! Henry David Thoreau, Journal Entry, April 11, 1856 As I was … Continue reading →

Posted in bird bowls, bowls, nature, paint, quotes and excerpts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

My New Old Arkansas Stone

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Dave Fisher

A whetstone is no carving instrument, And yet it maketh sharp the carving tool; And if you see my efforts wrongly spent, Eschew that course and learn out of my school; For thus the wise may profit by the fool, … Continue reading →

Posted in Lettering, quotes and excerpts, sharpening, tools, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Thanksgiving Time

Posted on November 24, 2022 by Dave Fisher

One thing about late Autumn, it displays the stubborn simplicities of the earth. Man may contrive himself into all kinds of human complications, but this earth which bore him and will be his home until the end of his days … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, quotes and excerpts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Duckling Revisited

Posted on September 26, 2022 by Dave Fisher

The ducklings liked the new island so much that they decided to live there. All day long they follow the swan boats and eat peanuts. Robert McCloskey, Make Way for Ducklings (1941) As I finished this latest little duck bowl, … Continue reading →

Posted in ale bowls, bird bowls, cherry, quotes and excerpts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Merging Shrink Pots

Posted on June 21, 2022 by Dave Fisher

The five-year-old said he loves his dad’s hugs and fly fishing together, so I came up with this pair of merging shrink pots carved with a line from Norman Maclean’s novella A River Runs Through It. The larger pot is … Continue reading →

Posted in Lettering, quotes and excerpts, shrink box, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 15 Comments