Behind the scenes: Join my personal adventure

Join my personal adventure, revealing gifts of nature with purposeful, artistic designs. People often ask me how long it takes to make a wooden bowl, platter, or any of my pieces. That is a complecated question, and one that I never feel that I can answer adiquatly. One answer I often give is “I don’t know and I don’t want to know.”

Not to come across as too philosophical, (see artists statement), but I am afraid if I really kept track of the time I put into a piece, I would either not want to part with it, or I would be discouraged from creating the next piece. The question remains, however, how does a fallen or storm damaged tree come to be placed on someone’s dining table or display shelf? Below is my attempt at answering that question as I add elements of my journey.

This will be a work in progress, starting with the rough steps, and expanding down to the more complex processes as I go along. It is not intended to be a ‘How To’, but an understanding of what creates value in the artistic pieces I share with you.

1. Discover the wood

These days my best method of discovery is when the wood finds me. A call from a friend, who has lost a tree in a storm; A conversation at a art show with someone who has something special to them, but they are unable to utilize it, or just seeing a downed tree and contacting the owner. (I call this a “Wood alert” because it is usually pretty special, and I usually have to completely rearrange my schedule for it.) I never really purchase wood because I have been blessed with my discovery thus far.

2. Harvesting the wood

Harvesting wood can be very complex or very simple. The simplest example is phone call and going to pick up something already cut. A more complex example, and the typical for me, starts with a phone call about a downed or partially downed tree.

  • evaluate what tools will be needed, and if I have the ability to safely harvest.

  • Look at the tree, stump, or wood to see what possibilities I can see from the outside. Does it have burl wood? Are there interesting curves, spalting, or other indicators of beauty within?

  • Cut with a chainsaw into shapes suitable for use in bowls, spindle shapes such as pepper mills, platters, or anything else that I see as being useful. This may involve cutting slabs 3 to 5” thick with a long bar and Alaskan sawmill, or cutting rounds that