Artists

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I start my process by selecting eastern hard rock maple, sources from the New England states.  I then go through a process called segment turning.  I take a piece of lumber, cut it into strips, and then cut the strips into segments of a ring.  Once I have all of the segments cut, I glue and clamp them together.  When the glue is set, (about 24 hours), I run the pieces through a drum sander, making them perfectly flat and smooth.  Then I glue the rings together to make a rough bowl and set it aside to cure.  Once cured I put the bowl on a wood lathe and turn it into the final shape.

Then comes beading!  The beads are created using a specialized tool that allows me to "cut" the beads into the surface of the bowl.  After beading both the front and the back of the bowl, I move to my "indexing" station where I go through the process of burning a line across each individual bead to imitate the lines in a woven basket.  About 6,000 or more lines to complete the burning process.  

Once the bowl has a bead pattern, I use India ink to create the black beads and other details you see in the finished piece.

The who process takes between 50 to 60 hours for a finished bowl.