Monday, April 16, 2018

Another picture story

Start with this, a silver maple tree over three feet in diameter in your backyard:


Saw it into chunks four inches thick:


Select the chunk with the best figure, I liked this one:


Then turn a bowl:

Silver maple bowl, 14" in diameter, almost 4" deep.

Piece of cake. You can too, ask me how. 


46 comments:

Calypso Facto said...

Nice work, Sixty!

The Dude said...

Thanks - I rather like the way that one turned out too.

deborah said...

Beautiful, as usual :) Which sculptor said he imagines the statue and carves away everything that is not the statue. That sounds tongue in cheek to me.

deborah said...

Just noticed, Sixty, you forgot the song. Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLMCO-JZqWs

windbag said...

Beautiful. You're a gifted artist.

The Dude said...

I had heard that story many times, usually attributed to Michaelangelo, so I did some quick research and found this "Quote Investigator has located no substantive evidence that Michelangelo or any other great sculptor made this remark. A comment of this type was published in 1858 in “The Methodist Quarterly Review” without any overt humor. The essay discussed poetry, and the author compared the methods of adroit sculptors and poets. Boldface has been added to excerpts:

It is the sculptor’s power, so often alluded to, of finding the perfect form and features of a goddess, in the shapeless block of marble; and his ability to chip off all extraneous matter, and let the divine excellence stand forth for itself. Thus, in every incident of business, in every accident of life, the poet sees something divine, and carefully scales off all that encumbers that divinity, and permits it to be revealed in all its transcendent loveliness."

That then mutated into "Chip away everything that doesn't look like David".

I prefer the approach taken by George Nakashima with regards to woodworking "Allow the history of the tree to be read in the finished piece". Nakashima was a national treasure.

The Dude said...

Thanks for posting the song, Deborah, you are correct, I did forget to include a song. But I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the trees in that clip are all west coast trees. DBQ would be right at home in that forest. Daniel Boone, however, apparently never made it further west than Missouri, which was not part of the U.S. then. The more things change, etc. He certainly knew the eastern woods, about that there can be no doubt.

The Dude said...

Thanks, WB - stop by and I will show you how to turn random trees into bowls. It's an interesting process.

deborah said...

Picky, picky, but that Fess Parker sure was strong!

Michelangelo popped into my head when I quoted, but it didn't seem right...too new age-y. But thanks for finding that. Reminds me of something I read about haiku once...will look it up...and Nakashima, also.

ricpic said...

Like A Mello Roll

The sawed off ends of tree trunks are startlingly white;
It's only wood but oh so good I'd like to take a bite.

The Dude said...

Deborah, as CL will attest, I am an arborealist - if the person making a movie or tv show gets the trees wrong my ability to suspend disbelief is over. Oh-vah! Like the series Justified, ostensibly set in Kentucky, yet filmed in California. Raylan discussing Harlan county issues under a pepper tree. Driveways in my old Kentucky home lined with Eucalyptus trees. Tree fail, big time.

And never forget, ricpic, maple syrup comes from maple trees. Delish!

Trooper York said...

I bet all of those guys in the Deep State wish that was their rice bowl.

The Dude said...

Sadly the rice bowls owned by the Deep State and Beltway Bandits are much larger and more durable.

Heck, I am so old I remember when the people who worked for the government were Americans.

AllenS said...

Good work.

The Dude said...

Thanks, AllenS - now about some of your boxelder...

AllenS said...

I've cut all of the big box elders down. The turkey vultures are back. Six on the barn roof, and one on the silo. Looking around, they seem disappointed that my rotting carcass isn't there.

The Dude said...

Boxelder is a prized turning wood - the color variations make the finished bowls very interesting. I have never even gotten a single piece of it here, although they grow right in my neighborhood.

There is a large Tree of Heaven (or, as it is known by people who are familiar with them, the tree from hell) growing in the back corner of my neighbor's yard. The other day there were about 10 vultures roosting in it. I took a shower, they left.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

I am not a fan of silver maples (messy trees that fail a lot) but that is a fine looking bowl.

chickelit said...

Picky, picky, but that Fess Parker sure was strong!

His vineyard still makes pretty decent wines.

Say, why wasn't Ed Ames in that Boone intro? i thought he was a regular.

The Dude said...

I am with you, ELB, they are not great trees by several measures. They grow too large, they grow too quickly and they are not nearly as robust as sugar maples. There were three huge silver maples in my yard when I bought this place and all of them had been topped, which as you may know, is a death sentence for a tree. The first one had to go to make room for my fence. The second I cut down because it was hollow and in danger of falling on my house. This was the third large on and it had limbs growing over my house and roots invading my septic system. Thank goodness I like working with that wood - and boy howdy, there were tons of it, that's for sure. No one was more shocked than I was when I discovered that it didn't have heart rot. Many of the limbs were rotten and falling off, but the trunk was sound through and through.

Does anyone need a table made out of silver maple slabs?

There is one pretty good sized silver maple in the back of my lot - it has twin trunks and a huge bark inclusion - it is going to split in twain one day and that'll be ugly. What are you gonna do, eh?

Ed Ames was in the first five seasons, so maybe that clip was from after he left. And how about Patricia Blair's hair - nothing says 18th century like that do, amirite?

deborah said...

And nothing says Sixties like nosecone brassieres :)

Chick, I'd temporarily forgotten about Mingo. Was surprised to see Rosie Griere show up!

The Dude said...

They never got the hair and clothing right in those days. Of course while watching Deadwood I thought they went too far in the opposite direction - I kind of wished they had mixed in some soap. Talk about gritty realism!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

You could fill that with nashed taters and gravy.

deborah said...

Never sawed Deadwood, but recently watched all of Longmire. Meh, after all was said and done. But Lou Diamond Philips did a great Mingo-esque sidekick in Henry Standing Bear.

deborah said...

April, that bowl has me jonesin' for a nice fresh salad. Sixty will have to carve the serving utensils next.

The Dude said...

He, like Spock, was authentic because he never used contractions. I did like the character of a Standing Bear, that is a great concept.

And I'll bet you can guess what my main gripe with Longmire was, too, right? It was set in Wyoming but filmed in New Mexico - the trees and landscapes were all wrong. But it was nice to see a stoic sheriff, so I endured my discomfort and pressed on.

Maybe I should do a post on Bosch - just today I realized that the actor who plays Harry Bosch was in Deadwood - usually I notice that sort of thing, but not in this case.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

serving utensils - yes.

The Dude said...

I used to make utensils, but I could never produce them fast enough to turn a profit. That product line withered away...

deborah said...

No wonder it made me long to go back out to New Mexico. My daughter and I drove out there a couple years ago. Loved the area.

chickelit said...

@deborah: Were you looking Walter White?

I like NM as well. In the 80s, I got to go down to LANL and bombard some crystals I had grown with neutrons.

deborah said...

One Thing For Sure

A yule log
It's not.

deborah said...

Wow, chick, that makes you almost as badass as Walter :)

chickelit said...

Didn’t Chip once post on how to make those chocolate Yule logs?

MamaM said...

I'm thinking that picture of The Saw warrants a dinner plate, oil can or shoe next to it so the full splendor of its awesome tree fellin' Yuuugeness can be recognized.

Beautiful bowl, Sixty, edging in on transcendent loveliness.

chickelit said...

Maybe I’m mixing it up with something Titus wrote in a comment.

chickelit said...

@MamaM: I think Sixty could pose just such a photo. Call it “Stihl Life With Shoes”

deborah said...

LOL chick. Chip very well may have, but it'd be the devil to find :(

chickelit said...

“Chick, I'd temporarily forgotten about Mingo. Was surprised to see Rosie Griere show up!”

You know I want to post that Ed Ames throwing the tomahawk on Johnny Carson clip. But then I’d be on-upped by Ed who remembers seeing it in real time.

deborah said...

LOLOL okay, double whammy again CHOCOLATE yule log.

deborah said...

Ed was in the studio audience!?

chickelit said...

No, he was watching it and remembered the show.

deborah said...

Ah...'night from east of the 100th meridian!

MamaM said...

Ok, Stihl Life with Shoes made me laugh. Another perfect turn from another skilled turner!!

As for That product line withered away Wilted would be the more fittin' word. And a good thing too from my POV. When one is in the biz of creating marvelous Bowls of Possibility, turned to invite wonder and awe, then it doesn't do to narrow down and obstruct the vision of potential use, value and worth with a pair of salad tongs.

When I see the bowls Sixty Grit turns, what come up for me is the kind of admiration and inspiration I experience in the face of beauty, excellence, artistry and craftsmanship. I have not, until this thread considered them as potential salad bowls though I suppose they have enough character to honor whatever they hold.

As for the yule logs, yes they were mentioned here before. July 7, 2014. Perhaps that memory when down the same hole as Sippican. http://comonocreerendios-lem.blogspot.com/2014/07/buche-de-fevrier.html
How they relate to this post is a wonder? Was Creative Possibilities With Logs the mental link? Or maybe it was the desire for a dessert to follow the salad jonesin' and the fresh suggestion that Sixty turns his considerable talent toward salad implements?

chickelit said...

@MamaM: The common thread in the comments is creativity. We feed off each other, in a good way.

Chip Ahoy said...

Bûche de février

It's supposed to be Noel, but I made it in February.

MamaM said...

We feed off each other, in a good way. FTW!

Devour and replete?

Poke me with the salad fork, I'm done!