Beauty Marks

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Sometimes you get lucky.

Another good fail

Got to do some turning yesterday, and produced three roughly successful bowls.  This one, however, was not one of them.  Obviously, the wall thickness got away from me.  I laughed out loud when I noticed the light coming though.  

A few lessons learned here.  I am chasing a certain curve to the bowl, which this one does well.  It rises from the base of the bowl with the curve tightening toward the rim.  That was the good part.  But there were a few mistakes here.  The inner curve of the bowl should leave a bit of material at the rim (say 1/2") and then thin toward the middle and then add a little more back at the base.  This makes a bowl that is easy to pick up and feels good in the hand.  There is something to grab onto. Obviously, in this case I let the middle thickness get too thin--past 1/4" and things go bad.  Second lesson, the decorative incised lines were my undoing here, and as I look at the outside I realize that I really don't like the bottom two lines.  The top line helps accentuate the form, but the bottom two seem egregious.  Finally, the bead at the rim is too big and seems too close to the recess below it.  It fees crowded up there.  I may cut this one in half so I can really see the profile.  

The trees teach patience

While axing off the waste from the bottom of a promising bowl, I made the mistake of levering with the axe more than I should have.

I was rushing.

To be truthful, I had rushed the whole bowl.  I had stolen an hour from a busy day, and there would be hell to pay if it did not get back to the chores.  As Thoreau put it, I had crept away from the family, "to spend borrowed or stolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour." As a result, i did not remove as much as I normally do from the base core, so there was a lot to axe off at the end.  

I suppose I could have glued the base back on.  Few if any would have noticed.  But I decided to leave it alone, to smooth up the jagged edges and put it into circulation in my own house-- an ode to patience.  

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience.  Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."

--Hal Borland

Holiday Craft

I have not posted much of my recent work here, but with the holidays upon us losts of bowls and spoons are finding new homes.  Thought I had better capture photos of these.  The two bowls are the biggest I have turned to date.  Over ten inches in diameter.  Did them this summer, but finished painting and oiling only this morning.  Also, a serving spoon from spalted apple.

Arrr, Pirate the one-eyed cat, in my camera bag.

Greenwood Fest in June, and spoon carving/bowl turning fun in August

I am pleased as punch with how many events are shaping up for green woodworkers this summer.  If you have not heard, the folks at Plymouth CRAFT are putting on a "Greenwood Fest" the weeknd of June 10th.  They have secured the venue: the lovely Pinewood's Camp.  They are also in the process of securing instructors.  David Fisher has already committed to being one, which in and of itself is a reason to go.  But if that was not enough, I have gotten a lot of teasing emails from Peter and Dave about who else might be coming.  I have been sworn to secrecy, but suffice to say, when this registration opens, you need to sign up.  Don't miss this if at all possible.  Follow CRAFT's newsletter or Facebook page to stay on top of things.

Also, on a much, much smaller scale, in early August I am hosting a small gathering of Northeastern carvers.  The folks coming are largely those that I have met through the wonderful gatherings at Oliver's.  I am just trying to share the love with a great bunch of people.  We will carve spoons, turn some bowls on my lathe, and generally enjoy summer in New Hampshire.  That weekend is also the New Hampshire Craftsmen's Fair, so we might take a trip over to Sunapee and take in that scene.  Should be a blast.

My new sketchbook, and spoon design.

I am sure all of us have had the experience of starting a much anticipated adventure, only to find that you have forgotten something crucial to getting the most out of that experience.  Like going to the Grand Canyon and forgetting to bring your camera?  Well, my most recent experience with this was arriving at Lie Nielsen for a class with Jogge Sundquist and realizing that I had forgotten to bring a sketchbook.  Thankfully my friend Dave gave me a few pages torn from his and I muddled by, but it was not the same.  I really missed having a sketchbook.
And what made this really annoying is that I had a lot of sketchbooks at home, in all shapes and sizes. I just can't seem to find one that really meets my needs, so I just keep buying more.  Sometimes the pages won't lie flat and I end up breaking the spine.  Sometimes the tooth of the paper is too fine and won't easily accept both pen and ink.  Most times the book disintegrates in my bag, the pages separating from the cardboard cover.  And where to put your pencil, ruler, eraser, etc...?  Shouldn't sketchbooks accommodate accessories?
So, I finally decided to make my own.

I chose to make a wrap-around cover out of full grain leather, secured with just a simple strap.  This offers great protection to the pages while the book bangs around in my bag.

Since I made it myself I could mix and match what paper went into the signatures, so I would never want for a particular type.  Drawing paper? Check.  Watercolor paper? Got that.  I even added vellum and brown packing paper just for kicks.  Because the signatures are stitched directly to the leather cover, the pages lie pretty flat, and if they don't I can mash them down with glee, knowing there is no spine to break.

I also added a pocket on the back inside of the cover for pencils, rulers and my drawing compass.

The compass been my new favorite tool in laying out new spoon designs (though I am enjoying using Don's SDK template.)  A while back I posted my thoughts on the book By Hand and Eye by Walker and Tolpin.  They describe how pre-industrial design was done largely by proportions as opposed to measurements, and this got me thinking about what basic measurements go into spoon design.  I have decided that bowl width is the "unit" of my spoons, so that all other elements are proportions of that.  The results of this sort of thinking look like this:

I lay out a key on the side, stepping out fractions of the diameter of the spoon bowl.  Once done, they become my "palate" for spoon design.  I still sketch the basic form, but the various circles help keep things symmetrical and in proportion.  Once done I trace onto plastic and make a template.

On a related note, Dave Fisher just posted a great bit on the importance of "Reference Sketching."

One more thing: the journal project was a great one to do with my daughters, who both wanted their own when they saw mine.  It is a relatively easy and safe project to do with kids.  While I had to cut out the leather and punch the holes in the leather for the signatures, the girls dyed the leather, punched the holes in the signatures and stitched the signatures in.  Saddle needles are not sharp, so not much risk there.  Now they are the envy of all of their friends.  Hannah chose brown, and Mazie chose the oxblood with added concho for bling.

Here is the vid that got me started:

Spoon gathering at Oliver's place, Columbus Day Weekend 2015

This past weekend I went back to Oliver's place for another spoon gathering.  It still amazes me that Oliver is so generous with his time and space.  To invite a bunch of spoon nerds he met on the internet into his home is really extraordinary, especially given that we all come with lots of knives and axes.  Thanks to Oliver and his family for hosting.

I wish I had taken more photos of his place. His barn is so cool that they rent it out for weddings.  An amazing space.  We made a mess of it.

Photo by Paula Jacobson

Of course, the people there were really why I came.  A chance to meet Alex Yerks, Don Nalezyty, Derek Sanderson, Pat Alan Diette, and Paula Jacobson was not to be missed.  I have been amazed by their work for a while so it was great to meet them and talk spoons.  I met some great new people, like Annie "Almond" Swift and Chuck Trella, and caught up with acquaintances from Oliver's last gathering.  Strangely, I took no photos of the people, save this one of Pat and Alex camping out.

The amount of craft on display was simply amazing.  We all brought examples of our own work and bits from our collections.  It was truly overwhelming.  That many examples of excellent design and execution sort of unrooted me.  So many directions to take, I don't quite know where to go now.

Photo by Paula Jacobson

Dan Music, photo by Jeff Kuchak

Craft was what I shot the most.  So many inspiring examples.

Jarrod Stone Dahl

Jan Harm ter Brugge

But again, meeting and carving with all of these great people was definitely the highlight of the trip. 

next three photos by Paula Jacobson

Oliver and I in heated discussion about boxes.  Looks like I am about to attack him with his own scorp.

Talking power strokes with Theresa and Stéphanie.
(Not sure what Alex and Luc are discussing.  Maybe big spoons?  Must be the Pabst.)

Anyway, it was a fantastic weekend, full of excellent food (Don's pizza dinner and porridge breakfast were highlights for me) and great conversation.   Oliver, Paula and I discussed spoon design for quiet a while, which sort of got me back on track.  Next time, I will spend less time carving and more time watching, learning and shooting photos.