Salad set
I accepted this commission a while back, back when I thought it would be easy to find clear, dry, 3″-thick walnut to make the bowls. Turns out finding the material was a huge challenge. I did eventually find it, but it took a looong time. In the process, the folks for whom the bowls were destined had a baby, so of course I decided to throw in a baby bowl. How could I not?
The first job is to turn all the bowls to about the same shape, and to cut the tenon. I don’t have a lot of shots of the shaping process, but I used a template to ensure that the bowls would have similar curves and detailing, since they were meant to nest. Along the way, I discovered a new way to produce a template from an existing curve. I think the AAW journal is going to publish it sometime in the next few issues. I’ll let you know when it comes out.
Poof! Finished bowls! I did the carving before I finished the feet, so that I could hold the bowls in the lathe while carving. My lathe (the ever lovely Powermatic 3520) has a really solid indexing lock, which lets me completely immobilize the bowls. I’ve been using that feature a lot lately. I used a #7 gouge for the carving on these. It’s just a lot of little strokes, carefully randomized so I didn’t end up with anything that looked like a grid. The baby bowl detail was carved with a knife (see below).
The baby bowl is based on the porringer design but with just one handle. It’s the first one I’ve made like this, but I really like it and will probably make more. It occurred to me after sending this off that a small child would probably have a wonderful time smacking the handle and catapulting his or her food across the room.
The carving on this bowl was done with a knife (a straight slojd made by Del Stubbs. His knives are superb!). The pattern is a series of little coves on alternating sides, which produces a nice zigzag. The bowl I made just after this, which I’ll be posting photos of shortly, is decorated with this same pattern but done with a small gouge instead of a knife. Quite a different effect.