The instant gallery at the July meeting of the CAW had an item which captured my interest. There were many fine looking turnings and turnings with a good deal of imagination. But one turning in particular was an unexpected delight for me, Christine's natural edge bowl. Some folks would call it a wane edge bowl and save the "natural" designation for those bowls which had bark. I think of the bark edge bowl being all about the bark. The rustic look of a bark edge bowl tends to overpower any other feeling when experiencing a bark edge bowl. The rough texture of bark and the usually dark color contrast between bark and sapwood makes the bark the star of the visual and tactile experience.

Christine's bowl, as a natural edge bowl, gives the benefit of the shape and sinuous curves that a natural edge bowl exhibits without the bark stealing the show. Christine wanted the bark on the rim but the bark would not stay attached and so the bark had to go. That unfortunate demise of the bark is a blessing. Instead the patterns we see expressed in the bowl are the show. Everything about that bowl was in balance. The pattern from the sapwood/heartwood gave concentric order to the bowl. This wood had a wide sapwood ring which emphasized the order and predictability of the shape and form. Layered on top of that was the "drawing outside the lines" of the ambrosia patterns. I particularly like the way the ambrosia patterns crossed the canvas of the sapwood/heartwood. The graceful sinuous silhouette of her bowl was well executed which is difficult to do on a larger bowl with thin walls.

The scale of Christine's bowl was also an impact. Her bowl was "human" sized, family sized. The simple size of her bowl had the impact of more than one person. I find, for the most part, that small bowls are of a personal nature. Even smaller bowls can achieve a fantasy aspect of looking into a smaller world. Very large bowls seldom work as there is a very large surface for something to go wrong. A very large bowl needs a large space and has a community or corporate feel. Christine's bowl was of a size which made me feel that a family or small group of friends would use it.

The impact of the patterns makes the thinness of the bowl disappear. Or maybe it's the thinness of the bowl which gets out of the way of the patterns and silhouette of the bowl. Christine indicated that she was working for a thin even wall thickness of 5/16". She carried that thickness from the rim throughout the bowl. I often work the other way on a bowl, making the rim thick and the body of the bowl thin. My goal being to give the appearance of a thick robust piece of wood. A bowl when filled with salad will still display the wood of the rim. I am looking for the surprise when the bowl is picked up because it is light. By making the rim of her bowl thin the impact of the rim is reduced so that the primary attributes of the bowl become the silhouette and the ambrosia/sapwood/heartwood patterns.

Christine salvaged this wood from the Fairfax county transfer station on West OX road. She scouted the edge of the wood pile, which is destined to become mulch, for something interesting. When she saw the ambrosia end of this large log she knew she wanted to make a natural edge ambrosia bowl.

The finish on this bowl was achieved by sanding to 400 grit and then hand sanding with Abralon up to 4000 grit. There is a quality to a surface which has been sanded to a very high grit that is soft yet clear. When you buff a piece you are flailing the wood fibers with abrasives which has the effect of blurring the wood surface. When you cut the surface of the wood the wood surface seams to become more clear. The buffed surface tends to be much more glossy as the wood fibers and the finish are beaten to uniformity. Christine used two coats of min-wax wipe on poly. In the end, the surface and the finish added to the clarity of the completed bowl.

By-the-way, Christine almost threw away the finished bowl because she thought it was ugly. I think with Christine's skill and perhaps a little luck she has created a beautiful bowl which inspires me to try and copy her.