My Turn

A previous ITEr has suggested that I share something about life in the ITE outside the workshop: “where we live, where we eat, where we walk . . . the stuff of life in the ITE.” This raises an interesting point about this year’s ITE: how focused on work we are.

Unlike what I understand to be true of past ITEs, since we actually began working, we four hardly see each other outside of the workshop. We don’t eat together; we don’t drink together; we don’t hang out together; we don’t walk around together; we don’t socialize together, except on our planned excursions. Some combination of us (but not all at once) will occasionally go to the hardware or grocery store together, especially if we need to drive there.

There is comradery and good humor in the shop when we’re working together. Most of us stop and look at what our colleagues are doing. We ask and answer questions. We share pointers. We share tools. We make jokes. We work.

Sometimes I think I talk to everyone more than anyone else, because I walk around periodically to take photos and I ask (at the least) about whatever I’m photographing. I’m not sure I would ever have a conversation with Sean if not for this function.

As far as I know, Siegfried is the only one who does anything but work. Sean comes in early, takes a long lunch, comes back, and works late. Sometimes Sean goes out to buy supplies. Jean-François comes in early but not so early, takes a long lunch, comes back, and works late. Sometimes Jean-François runs errands. I come in later (early for me, sometimes after working in my room on the computer for a couple of hours), work through lunch, and leave at 6:30 or 7 or 7:30 or 7:45 to eat and call home, and then I work on photos and the blog until 11 or 12 or 1 or later. I see Jean-François in passing when we go next door at night to go online (we don’t have wifi in our rooms). Siegfried takes the time to walk or bike around town, to eat out, to look around, to meet people. Tonight, he made himself go out despite his fatigue, and he happened upon a rock concert, where he had a good time.

Working double duty takes its toll. I’m exhausted every night, and I fear it shows in my blog posts. I feel like I don’t have the extra energy to socialize. Then again, tonight I went out for dinner and a beer with Jane and her honey (my first evening out), and I’m still up and going, though it’s now 3:15—not an unusual hour for me to be up at home, but not a time I’ve managed to see here until now.

For my part, another reason I don’t socialize with the boys is that I’m tired of planning our group’s social activities. I have ended up planning all of our visits, contacting all of our hosts, finding compatible dates, recontacting our hosts, getting directions, driving us—this is not a role I enjoy, but these are trips I want to make, so I’ve stepped up to make them happen. I have spent many hours doing so, and just the trip to D.C. alone was worth the effort, but—can you tell?—I’ve reached my limit. I wish that the Wood Turning Center would take on some of this task, but the one time I asked for help, the scheduling ended up back in my lap.

I want to turn. To turn nearly as much as I’d like, I spend what otherwise might be free time keeping up with photos and the blog. And I feel pressure to turn. I’m sure Siegfried does also. The current of Sean’s and Jean-François’s drive to produce is sweeping us all along. I feel the pressure to keep up despite what I know about my own need for balance, despite what I tell myself about taking in this experience, despite what Albert has told us about not needing to produce but needing only to experience.

There is exchange happening, for me, in the shop. In my turning, I find myself responding to what others are doing or to conversations I’ve had with them (I will try to relay some of these conversations in future posts; I’ve had a few good ones). What I see and hear sparks ideas, and I’m trying them. It’s not imitation, though I’m borrowing some techniques; it’s inspiration: I’m inhaling everything around me and letting my body translate what my blood absorbs into my own expression. According to Albert, this is a form of collaboration, and it feels like it, though I haven’t yet actively worked on any pieces with anyone else. Siegfried and Jean-François have both spoken with me separately about collaborating. Jean-François and I have a specific project in mind. Siegfried and I are still sussing out the possibilities.

Time to go to the shop, dear readers. This is how it is at the moment, here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the 2007 International Turning Exchange. I’m not complaining (much!); I have tried to simply describe what is so. This may all change today. Peter Harrison, our furniture maker, arrives this afternoon to spend two weeks with us. And tomorrow evening, we take a little break to visit the Rhoas in Collegeville, PA. For now, this has been a valuable reminder that there can be life outside of the workshop here in the ITE. I just have to step outside.

I forgot to include my favorite photo from yesterday. Jane, the shop supervisor, is our official problem solver, without whom we couldn’t spend nearly as much time working. In the course of solving our problems, she has to spend a lot of time on the phone: ordering supplies and equipment, securing a phone for us in the shop, finding a place to buy a used bike—you pose the problem, she’ll figure it out.

And can I add how grateful I am to have another woman around?

Jean-François continues on with his oak bowls. He has decided that what was to be the third bowl in his latest series is too different from the first two, so he’ll keep the pair together, but make two more to go with the third bowl. (Note: Despite how they appear in these photos, the third bowl is slightly smaller—and thinner-walled—than the first two.)

Sean has installed the legs on his walnut bowl and is finishing them up. This is the underside of the piece, but you can see bleaching that seeped through from his bleaching of the bowl itself.

This is another scrap Sean pulled from the pile to turn. I suppose it can be considered another collaboration with me, since I cut the arc you see in order to remove a piece to use as a jam chuck.

I had fun working on my cherry bowl today. I recut the surface along two of the axes before I liked what I had, then I carved a little on the top using spherical cutters in the Foredom. The top surface and the bowl are smooth; the exterior is covered with gouge marks—which were surprisingly hard to create consistently. A sharp gouge just wants to cut cleanly. I had to be sure to stay off of the bevel to leave cut marks. I’m not sure how I feel about this bowl. It’s completely unlike anything I have ever made before (which is one of the opportunities of the ITE, after all), and at one point I had titled it “Ugly on Four Axes.” It has grown on me, however, and I think I may like it. These pictures don’t do it justice.

Siegfried wasn’t in the shop a lot today. I’m concerned about his continuing lack of energy. His heart rate isn’t back to normal either. What would you do in a foreign country with a condition that is no longer considered “emergent” but isn’t nearly “cured”? Could you afford to do anything about it? Can he afford not to?

This morning, Sean laid out and drilled a series of holes in his “running man” sculpture using Forstner bits on the drill press.

Later, Sean did more carving on the triangular walnut bowl. In addition to texturing the surface more, he has carved out recesses for the legs around the holes in two of the corners. You can see two legs lying behind the bowl, one highly carved, one not—at least, not yet.

He also worked on his fourth oak bowl, carving the exterior and then adding silver or blue-gray paint.

Below is proof that Jean-François does sand, despite all the carving and texturing he does.

He has nearly finished (except for the foot) the first of this series of colored and carved oak bowls. In the lower photos, he is working on the second of this series. Again, he is using the Arbortech reciprocating carver to cut the grooves, which he then will touch up with a Foredom.

In contrast to the first bowl, Jean-François has used white acrylic paint to fill the grooves and open grain of the second bowl. I believe he has not finished rubbing out the interior in the final photo.

Siegfried was back in the shop today, but working at half speed. He continued working on inside-out-turned shapes, experimenting with an unorthodox means of shaping the pieces, on a belt sander. He is hoping that a good meal and some sleep will further restore his energy for tomorrow.

I got to turn a lot today. I finished the turning of my pear vessel, pictured below. It has a round bottom that cups nicely in the palm. I have begun carving the mouth, as you can see, a departure from my previous work. I will finish the carving after I pick up some new Dremel bits tomorrow.

I also started a multiaxis cherry bowl, using four different centers on the bottom and keeping the same center on the top. I’m just playing really. My first go at it was unimpressive, but I went back and changed the curve and I’m beginning to like what’s emerging. I’ll work with it more tomorrow.

Siegfried was absent from the shop this morning, and we soon learned from a phone call that he was at the hospital undergoing tests. He has not been feeling well the past few days, and he noticed that his heart was racing and wouldn’t slow down. (His pulse, which is normally around 60, was stuck at around 100–110 beats per minute.) The hospital did not find a reason for his racing heart, but they gave him something to slow it down. He came back from the hospital, but did not stay at the shop. We hope he will be back turning with us tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some of the shapes he turned yesterday using the inside-out technique. He is thinking of doing more and assembling them into a piece.

Sean, the inveterate recycler, has taken two of the largest fragments of my broken mulberry bowl (see the post “Monday, June 18” if you don’t remember what I’m referring to) and turned them to create a new piece. Below, you see two views of the larger fragment on the lathe. Sean kept shifting the center—four or five times in all, I think—to make different cuts. 

After turning the two fragments using multiple centers, he screwed them together temporarily to check their fit and balance. He liked what he saw once he aligned the grain in the two fragments, so he glued them up and clamped them in the lathe. He will carve them next.

Remember the sculpture I called “the mascot”? It is done, except perhaps for another coat of finish. Here it is in a cupboard with Sean’s third oak bowl. This one has a dyed green interior.

In the righthand photo below is the beginning of a new freeform sculpture. Sean has much carving to do on it, but you can see the grooves and shapes made already by turning the scraps. He sees in it a running man, but the name has been used too many times already, so he will come up with another title.

This is the current state of two of the oak ring pieces still to be assembled into a sculpture. In the background to the right, you can see Sean’s fourth oak bowl, the last of the series.

Jean-François turned a new oak bowl. Having completed the turning (except for the foot), he is cutting grooves into the exterior using an Arbortech reciprocating carver, following lines that he drew freehand. You can see that he has already colored the interior using his favorite vinegar-and-steel-wool technique.

Albert LeCoff came by the shop this morning with Phil Hauser, treasurer of the Wood Turning Center and himself a turner and a collector. Here, he admires the bowl Sean turned of a walnut scrap.

Besides following up on group plans with phone calls and email, I finally got to turn some today. I turned most of a hollow vessel of wet pear (which is lovely to turn). I plan to finish turning it tomorrow and to carve the mouth. Maybe I’ll get a photo tomorrow.

It is pouring rain outside as I wrap up this post. Tomorrow, we can expect thunderstorms, a treat for an Arizonan.

For those of you (including us!) who have been wondering what a dancer might contribute to the ITE, here is an answer. Below is a video produced by Vincent Romaniello, last year’s photojournalist, of an event that was part of the opening of Siegfried’s exhibition at the Wood Turning Center last year. The dancer in the video is Lesya Popil, the same dancer who will be joining us for a week in July and who, we hope, will be performing at the allTURNatives opening. If the embedded video does not appear below, click here to view the video on YouTube.

Okay, I’m beginning to try to catch up. I didn’t feel well enough to turn today, but I did make it into the shop, and here is what I found.

Sean was carving on a new bowl, from a walnut scrap, which will eventually have three legs; if you look closely, you can see holes for the legs in two of the corners.

Above are some of the pieces Sean has finished; others are close to being finished. Below, a new piece is still on the lathe.

Jean-François has been busy. The lefthand bowl below is of cherry. It was turned and carved with an Arbortech and touched up using a Foredom. The color comes from Jean-François’s favorite coloring technique: rubbing with steel wool and white vinegar. The steel and vinegar react with the tannin in the wood to darken the wood. The actual color produced depends on the wood, its moisture content, oxidation of the steel wool, and more.

The righthand photo is of two bowls of maple, colored using the same technique.

Here, Jean-François is completing the interior of a third maple bowl.

Siegfried is experimenting with some inside-out turning. In the photo below, you can see lying on the bed of the lathe some prototypes he made before starting the box elder.

Above, you see the box elder after Siegfried has cut it on the bandsaw and placed the pieces face to face. Above right is a Cryptomeria bowl that Siegfried turned yesterday and brushed aggressively to highlight the grain.

dear readers, but I haven’t been feeling well since we returned from D.C. I hope to be back on my feet and back on the computer tomorrow, and I’ll try to catch up with more about our D.C. visit and see what the boys are up to in the shop. Stay tuned . . .

So, what did we do in D.C.? We saw some of the best turned wood art in the world. And not only did we get to see it, we got to touch it, hold it, turn it over, turn it around, stroke it, scrutinize it, learn about it, photograph it, savor it. And we got to see how many artists began and the evolution of their styles.

We also got to meet some people who really love wood art. Seeing them with their treasures, hearing their stories—stories they have about each piece—was inspiring and affirming. Their collections aren’t inventoried acquisitions; they’re a passion. More appreciative adoptive parents for your creations would be hard to find.

Here is a just sample of what we saw. At the Kochmans’:

At the Breslers’:

At the Masons’:

This may be my last blog post for a few days. Jean-François, Siegfried, and I leave for Washington, D.C., tomorrow and will be gone through Sunday. We will be visiting with several collectors of wood art: the Kochmans, the Breslers (who are generously putting us up for two nights), and the Masons, and also visiting the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery. Sean will be staying behind, because he cannot bear to be away from the shop for two and a half days. I will post as I can but have no idea what to expect in the way of connectivity—or free time.

I spent all morning working on the blog and following up on our ITE travel plans. Here is what I found when I made it into the shop.

Siegfried was finishing the box elder vessel. As you can see, he has cut to the final wall thickness and is sanding the exterior. You can see the nearly finished vessel next to the nearly finished silver maple vessel he made earlier—“nearly finished” because he still has to turn their bottoms, which will be round.

Sean was carving the vessel from yesterday. Curiously, he has decided that the foot is in the wrong place, so he cut it off and is gluing it in a different spot. He has it clamped between centers, because there are no clamps here small enough. He has carved a cover for the drive center so that it won’t damage the bowl. In the lefthand photo, you can see both his carving of the bowl and the stump of the original foot.

Jean-François was working on a idea he has wanted to explore for a long time. He mounted a chainsawn chunk on a makeshift faceplate on the lathe and hollowed a bowl without turning any of the exterior. He then used the bandsaw to roughly shape the exterior, reverse mounted the vessel on a jam chuck, and proceeded to shape it further using an Arbortech with the lathe off.

Note the strap in the righthand photo above. This is a loop that runs down to Jean-François’s foot. His foot pressure on the strap keeps the piece from rotating under the tool. When he wants it to move a little, he lifts his foot.

Here is the bowl in an interim state. After shaping it further, Jean-François decided to burn the surface.

The color of the scorching seemed to go more brown than black as it cooled. Jean-François will no doubt do more to this bowl before he is done with it.

Work stopped for a while for our first weekly meeting with Albert and Tina. We set up an impromptu table in the shop, and Siegfried ordered pizza. As a starting point for discussion, Albert had us each choose one item from someone else’s bench, and then we started talking.

Siegfried chose my first Cryptomeria bowl, because he is interested in talking with me about Japanese influences in my work and what have been described as Japanese attributes of his work. I chose Jean-François’s face grain ailanthus bowl, because I am intrigued by the spontaneity with which he works. Jean-François chose Sean’s unturned bowl, because he is interested in the idea of making vessels through means other than turning. Sean chose Siegfried’s silver maple vessel, because he likes its simplicity and the way the grain works with and against the shape. Tina chose a dozuki saw from Jean-François’s bench, because she wanted to know how he used it in his pieces (he cuts off the stub left when using a spur drive). Tina or Albert chose the ball peen hammer from Sean’s bench, also curious about how it was used (to hammer in small nails). And Albert chose my favorite object of all. (Wait for it. Scroll down.)

The odd yellow thing at the bottom of the last photo is what Albert chose. I’d have been curious about it too, if I had seen it. It’s a yellow chunk of mulberry with writing on it. As a point of fact, the chunk came out of the large mulberry bowl I turned that didn’t make it (R.I.P.); it was the center core that I left in so that I could use the tail center for stability; I cut it out once I had removed the bulk of the mass from the bowl’s interior, and I put it in Sean’s scrap box. What makes the chunk a real curiosity is the writing. Sean found it among his scraps and thought it looked like a plumb bob. Naturally enough, he wrote on it, “Plumb Bob Round Pants.”

I could hardly stop laughing.

Am I the only woodturner out there who knows most of the words to the Sponge Bob Square Pants theme song? I don’t think so.

Hurray, my first comment! Thank you, Hilary, from last year’s ITE.

I invite all you readers to chime in as you see fit. You will have to register first, but then you can comment all you like—within reason. Remember, I can cut you off if you get out of hand. Just follow the instructions on the page marked “How to comment” (the page tabs are just below the masthead, at the top of the box containing the posts), and you’ll be on your merry way.

Sean made this from an oak cutoff. The exterior was simply cut with a bandsaw; then Sean carved it. He hollowed the interior on the drill press, cutting hole after hole (I think he said sixteen or eighteen) with a Forstner bit. The interior burning is deliberate, done with a torch.

Sean has three more of these blocks to play with. He elected to hollow a second on the lathe, as shown below. He says Jean-François also wants to make a bowl like this.

I wonder what Sean is working on here.

I love that Sean makes use of scrap wood. I also like to use wood that most other turners wouldn’t look at twice. Nice scrap he’s got here, eh?

Jean-François decided to replace the broken ailanthus bowl, so he has turned another for his trio. Here, he has finished the exterior and is just turning the interior to the final wall thickness.

He still cannot leave the ailanthus, though. He turned another bowl, this one face grain in orientation. He tried texturing the exterior with a wire brush again, but he didn’t like how it looks with the grain running sideways, so he used the Arbortech over the brushing.

This left a thicket of fibers, so he used a torch to remove them. He then rubbed water all over the bowl to prevent cracking from the heat. He used water that was white with acrylic paint from finishing the exterior of the trio of bowls, so the rubbing left the exterior various shades of gray.

Siegfried’s day wasn’t a great one for photographs. He spent all day on sanding the interior of his box elder vessel. A lot of time went into constructing and refining what he calls a “linette” (I made the spelling up), an apparatus for supporting the drill while he sands the inside bottom of a deep vessel. It allows him to swing the drill back and forth while preventing it from walking. Once he got the linette made to his satisfaction, it was a matter of very patiently sanding and sanding and sanding again to get the bottom as smooth as a baby’s bottom—his standard for finish sanding. He did finally achieve it; just touch the inside, and you’ll see. Or take my word for it.

I began my turning day by hollowing the sugi (Cryptomeria) bowl. I was quickly presented with a design opportunity. (For those not in the know, this is what woodturners say when things don’t go as planned—i.e., when things break. Perhaps other professions use the same term . . . ?) Yes, I got a catch that pulled the bowl from the chuck, and when it hit the wall, the natural edge became a little less natural. (Or maybe differently natural.) I finished the bowl and went with the flow and similarly enhanced the rest of the edge. It’s pictured below. Can you tell which is the original break?

Jean-François thought there should be a document of me actually working, so he took these photos. Now that my turning is documented, he says I don’t have to turn anymore. He is always looking out for me.

I brought the sugi bowls back to my room with me last night. The smell of Japan was with me all night.

Today, Siegfried began a larger vessel of the same shape as the silver maple vessel, this one of box elder. He was shooting ribbons to the ceiling turning the very wet wood.

When he began deep hollowing of the vessel, he tried out the hollowing tool with the Stewart armbrace and Jean-François’s attachment. He says he enjoyed the experience, though he found himself switching back and forth between the tool and a heavy gouge. Yesterday, he tried out my Exocet tool. He regards trying new tools as one more of the opportunities afforded us by the ITE. So do I.

Sean gets tired of working on long, complicated projects, so today he decided to make a “fast” bowl from a cutoff. Here, he is already carving the foot. The photos below show the finished piece. Yes, the color is artificial.

I have begun thinking of Sean’s sculpture as our mascot. Here it is in its latest form.

Jean-François has finished his three ailanthus bowls. Here they are. He cannot quite hide the break in the first bowl, so he doesn’t yet know what to do with it.

Jean-François and Sean are collaborating on the oak sculpture for which Sean turned the pieces. Both are carving and texturing the pieces that will be joined for the final work. Here, Jean-François is using a Foredom to work (or not) on the disc that will be the base of the sculpture.

My large mulberry bowl exploded today. I had just turned up the speed, looked at the dial and thought, “That’s probably too fast,” and it blew up on me. The glue joint at the waste block gave way. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Sean took the largest pieces to use in one of his freeform sculptures. No, no photos of the explosion or its aftermath.

After picking up the pieces, I picked up a log of Cryptomeria japonica instead. Now, as it happens (thanks to Gus and the cosmos), I’ve gotten wood from three important species of Japanese trees here: this one, paulownia (kiri), and Japanese cypress (hinoki). This is also known as Japanese cedar, sugi in Japanese, and it is the national tree of Japan. Its earlywood and latewood differ greatly in density, so it is a perfect wood on which to use Jean-François’s texturing technique. Look at the texture I achieved using a wire brush in a drill. I applied the brush both with the piece turning and turning it manually. Jean-François showed me the trick of reversing the drill as needed to brush with the grain; for all you novices to this technique like me, this greatly reduces the fuzz inevitably raised by brushing.

Jean-François took these photos of Siegfried and me working on Sunday.

Oh, wait. We weren’t there. Siegfried went off to tour the city on his bicycle. I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was downright inspiring. Unfortunately, I left my camera at the shop in case anything exciting happened while I was gone (which is how Jean-François took these pictures), so I can’t share any of what I saw. I may go back just to take pictures, though. There are pieces I want to remember.

While we were gone, Sean and Jean-François spent the day working. Jean-François turned his third bowl of ailanthus.

Sean, who, as I said, likes to move back and forth between projects, was working on the first freeform sculpture when I returned from the museum. (He has begun gluing up a second and third.) In the second photo, you can also see a piece or two of those he will assemble together in the oak piece he started yesterday.

This looks like a hybrid animal from this side. The piece morphs each day.

Jean-François was hard at work most of the day on his first ailanthus vessel (he plans three). He tried different wire brushes for texture and ended up using a very aggressive brush he brought with him from France. He used an Arbortech blade to make the rim irregular, then proceeded to work on thinning the wall.

“Ooops” is apparently an international word. But no worries. After repairing the break with help from Sean, Jean-François pressed on with bowl number two.

Sean likes to have several projects going at once. He set aside the burl vessel to start a piece of burr oak. From the chunk of wood you see on the lathe, he turned a ring and a disc. He later cut the ring apart. He’ll carve the pieces and later put the pieces together in a sculpture.

Siegfried expanded his horizons by beginning to carve a bowl he turned from a piece of dry horse chestnut that he brought with him from Germany. He also continued work on the silver maple vessel. He has the exterior established and is working now on hollowing it—before it gets too out of round from drying, he hopes.

I hadn’t intended to turn today, but when I went to the shop I got pulled in. I started a second mulberry vessel from a large, checked quarter of a trunk. I love working the wood. It’s very yellow now, but the color will deepen to a dark russet. I know exactly what I want to do with the cracks in this piece. Once I established the basic outer shape, I glued it to a waste block mounted on a faceplate. Then I had to leave, because I had to let the glue dry.

These are some of the pieces I’ve started since arriving. The dark bowl is walnut, my Siegfried bowl. The second, lighter one is a round-bottom bowl of wet pear. I wirebrushed the exterior, but the texture is subtle. I plan to do some carving with the Foredom to add more texture. You can see the movement of the wood as it has dried. And the last, still mounted on the lathe is the second mulberry bowl.

Jean-François made an attachment for the hollowing tool to resist the torque from the curved tip, making the tool easier to control. Jean-François says he learned this trick from Alain Mailland. He later painted the handle black.

We took a break at lunch to plan our travel schedule. Siegfried bought pizza from Paolo’s to ease the process. It took a couple of hours of phone calls and emails, and we’re still trying to finalize plans. Among other places, we will be visiting Washington, D.C.; Wilmington, Delaware; and various spots in Pennsylvania. I’m hoping we can squeeze in a trip to NYC before the end too.

Sean continued to work on the burl vessel. Note the inner spherical vessel he is hollowing inside the larger bowl. He has wrapped the entire outer bowl with shrink wrap to keep it from coming apart as he turns.

Jean-François was still trying to get to turning a bowl. First, though, he had to turn a handle for his bowl gouge. By the end of the day, he had at least mounted and rounded a chunk of ailanthus for a real piece.

After tinkering most of the day with the vacuum chuck, the electric chainsaw, and the bandsaw, Siegfried prepped and started turning a glorious chunk of silver maple burl. Check out the inset. Siegfried usually works with less figured wood; he thinks that whatever vessel he turns from this, the wood itself will be the most beautiful aspect.

Sean took a break from turning to carve. He has assembled the framework of what will be a freeform sculpture from various scraps lying around the shop. Woodturners will recognize the corners removed on a bandsaw for turning.