Salad bowl Sunday

Salad bowls are something I only make when I have access to suitably large pieces of green wood. Unlike some of the bowls you will find in stores, these are made from one solid piece of wood. Hauling and handling the raw material is no easy matter, and not something I am really geared up to do on a regular basis. So I don't always have salad bowls for sale, and when I do they usually sell quickly from my gallery during the summer and fall. So they don't usually make it to the website.

This year I actually have some salad bowls ready early. So, for all my on-line customers I am going to make them available on this blog. It's easier to post them here than on the website. So for the next few weeks watch out for 'Salad bowl Sunday'!

Here is this week's offering:



It is turned from maple and finished with walnut oil, a kitchen-safe oil which is non-toxic and easy to maintain with further applications of oil or beeswax as needed. The rim pattern has been handcarved with a gouge.

The internal dimensions of this bowl are 12.5" diameter by 4.8" deep. Externally it is 13.7" by 5.7".

SOLD

Technorati tags: salad bowl, salad, kitchen, woodturning

Winter woodturning update

Yesterday was a beautiful day today here in Seafoam. The sun shone all day and the temperature soared to just above freezing. It made me wonder where the winter had gone and what I had been doing all winter.

Apart from making stock for the summer and fall seasons, winter is a time for getting odd jobs done and trying out new ideas. One job was to reorganize the lumber pile that has been sitting in the middle of the workshop since last fall. I extracted all the maple that can be used for inlaid weedpots and bits'n'bobs bowls, and cut it all up into square blocks ready for use. I also rearranged the pile so that the lumber I am most likely to need is at the top of the pile:)

Last month I took a woodcarving course at Carvers in Pictou. There were four of us and we made spirit faces. I choose to use a fairly dry piece of spalted black cherry which added a few extra challenges to the task.

My carving is the third from the left. It still has a few details to work on, but at least it looks like a face. The color or the wood, the spalting and the knots disguise some of the features, but I like it. I think it adds an air of mystery to it, perhaps suggesting that the wood spirit doesn't really want to be seen. Standing behind my carving is Keith Matheson the owner of Carvers and our instructor. I plan on doing more carving this year, so what Keith taught me will be very useful, especially how to sharpen carving tools, a quite different technique to what I use for turning tools.

One of my other experiments this winter has been with woodblock prints. I want to explore the possibilities of creating the blocks on a lathe and using multiple blocks to create abstract prints. Here is one block being turned:

So far I don't have any results worth sharing, but I am intrigued by the process and am confident I will have some prints for sale this summer. I am fascinated by the limitations that a lathe places on the art, but I am equally convinced that I can make some work worth showing.

Yesterday I turned a natural edge bowl out of yellow birch. A nice little piece with some interesting inclusions.

Today I need to finish sanding this bowl and turn the base. Then it will be left to dry for a month or so before it can be oiled and buffed. I have some more green wood in the shop that I want to work on and make a few more green bowls. There are also some big pieces in the yard waiting to be cut up and roughed out for salad bowls.

Carnival of the Creators

Welcome to the very first edition of the Carnival of the Creators, a weekly round-up of blog posts with a creative theme. Each week the carnival is hosted at a different blog and will feature blog posts by or about people who create things - artists, writers, craftspeople......

Lets start by visiting another blog carnival, Storyblogging Carnival XXXVIII, hosted this week at Tales by Sheya. Storyblogging consists of storytelling in blog format. It may be as simple as posting short stories on a blog, serialising a book, or as intricate as blogging as a fictional persona.

Next, the carnival stops at two jewelry maker's blogs. Cyndi Lavin of Mazel Tov! Jewelry gives instructions for making a freeform neckpiece on a sterling silver armature. Meanwhile, over on Indigoskye Bead Fashions, Wendy Van Camp explains the beauty and benefits of Argentium Sterling Silver.

Luann Udell gets down to business and talks about the artist's fear of having their designs copied. Her answer is to Get Ahead and Stay There.

On an equally business-like theme, Edward Winkleman blogs about the current state of collecting art. He discusses one collector who thinks that collecting is an art in it's own right. Edward believes that collectors need to spend more time getting to know artists, and that they should find new ways to open a dialog with artists. He suggests that starting a blog is one option.

For those who like to dress well, this article about the crafting of bespoke shirts is an interesting read. It is by Thomas Mahon, bespoke Savile Row tailor who writes in his blog, English Cut.

It is always interesting to read about how people find their paths in life. Xanthe has posted an article about her experiences with art as a child. Laughed at by her peers, her teacher had some words of encouragement and now Xanthe declares "I Am an Artist". She now makes books and says she has her own special way of looking at things. Elsewhere, Leslie Shelor tells us how her grandmother's spinning wheel and three rabbits helped her start her business, Greenberry House.

It's always nice to see someone using their art in aid of a good cause, especially an environmental one, so over on Acres Wild I talk about Sarah Harmer's song, Escarpment Blues.

And that is a fitting place to end, because next weeks Carnival of the Creators will be hosted at Acres Wild. If you have written or read a blog post you would like to see included, you can do so with this nomination form. I also desperately need volunteers to host forthcoming editions of the carnival on their blog. It's a great way to get links, new readers and make new friends.

Technorati tags: art, craft, blogs, carnival, Carnival of the Creators, environment, jewelry, Sarah Harmer, bespoke, artist.

All about Derek

Many of the visitors to my studio or craft-show booth want to know what I did before I started woodturning. Now my blog readers can learn a little about me by taking a look at the lens I made about myself at Squidoo.com:

Squidoo : Derek Andrews, woodturner

Show Time

My first craft show of the season was two weeks ago in New Glasgow. It was a very good show and I was really pleased with sales. There was a good selection of artists and craftspeople at the show, but very few have websites, the exceptions being Jamie Brown, watercolor artist, and Victor Whitewood who makes some quite unique chainmail jewelry.

Later that week I attended the Pictou County Trade Show organised by PRDC as part of Small Business Week. The theme of my display was 'How can a woodturner help your business?'

I showed products that can be used as gifts for customers, employees and conference speakers, or put in a goody bag for promotional purposes. I also showed some of my one-of-a-kind art which might be displayed in reception areas and board rooms, or given as a corporate gift.

Next weekend I am off to the Agridome in Truro, Nova Scotia, for a show put on by the local Zonta Club. I see from their website that my near neighbours Harold and Valarie Langille of Yardbirds will be there. They make some absolutely wonderful steel and glass scupltures for your lawn, garden or pool. Take a look at their Peacock design.

Finally I would just like to give a mention to another artist/blogger, Hannah Shapero, who has just opened a show of her work in the "Bakery on the Common" coffee-house art gallery in Natick, Massachusetts. The show runs until the end of December.


Technorati tags: woodturning, nova scotia, truro, Natick, craft show.