Carved Wooden Bowls

Teaching carving is fun because it is intuitive and full of surprises. The rules are simple and easy to follow, and everyone usually leaves with a bowl of their own design and style. It requires only a gouge or chisel, a mallet and some stable way to hold the work. There is a simplicity, a rhythm and a pace that I find in carving wood that is unlike most other woodworking practices. It i precise but a precision, not like that of accurately crafted dovetail joints, it is about the mark and the cut. Similar to drawing or handwriting, each person carving wood has their own mark, their own unique way to create a line or render a shape. You can hear each person work from across the room, the sound of how their chisel impacts and slices the wood reveals one’s style through a mark. The precision is seen with the eye and felt with the hand.

I learned carving at an early age, but it was not until my children were born that I started enjoying the carving process as my art. My twins grew up in my workshop. While I was at work on the table saw, they were across the room, next to the worktable and not too close to the woodstove, in their playpen. They often preferred to play with blocks of wood instead of toys. Most parents would cringe at the thought of exposing toddlers to such an industrial experience at such a young age, but neither of my children have allergies and they are both exceptional at working with their hands. My son and daughter each started carving wood when they were five. My son made a pine-wood bowl that he ate his cereal from for the next 4 years. My daughter crafted a small round cedar bowl that she made for her Japanese grandmother.

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Before his iPod (his little machine) took over my son’s mind, he carved several other bowls in walnut, cherry and butternut. Generally, he is a speed demon, doing everything fast, but when he carves wood, he slows down. He does not seem to mind cutting away the high spots. The ‘high spots’ are the bumps you feel when you run your hand over the form of the bowl. A well-shaped bowl has a fair surface that reads as smooth to the hand as it does to the eye. When I see him laying down a pattern of consistent, organized cut ‘marks,” sanding to perfection or even re-doing something that he could see or feel, is my delight. I am ecstatic when he puts down his ‘little machine” long enough to, feel his work, touch the contours and edit the imperfections in his own work.

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