school of thought

"Critics say that woodturners are wasteful, leaving the bulk of their wood on the floor as shavings or chips. For this piece I started out with a block weighing 900g (2 lb) and finished with a piece weighing 6g, meaning that I turned and carved away 99.3% of the original mass. This has to be the ultimate in wastefulness!" Malcolm Zander

for thirty years malcolm zander was a biochemistry professor at algonquin college in canada. in 2000, shortly after retiring, new zealand born zander started turning wood. two years later he was winning awards and a mere seven years later he is at the top of his game. his bowls and vases range from earthy, rough-edged and organic to precisely cut, lacey, delicate, intricate vessels. make sure to spend some time looking at his most recent work, where you will find some real gems. looks like the biochemistry world's loss is the artworld's gain.

via k style

silly string

israeli designer yaron elyasi processes recycled plastic, creating bowls, furniture and lighting with a decidedly different aesthetic. elyasi's bowls are made by fusing bottle caps, shampoo bottles and industrial plastic waste, creating a plastic string that has a fiber-like appearance. the string is heated and dribbled onto a form in a freestyle manner and the results are different for every piece. could it be that elyasi has developed the adult version of silly string?

toby's finds are the coolest, don't you agree?

women's work

"I have acquired a habit of thought that conceives of each form as having a biography, revealing stories that are as varied as each view." Michelle Holzapfel

achieving acclaim and success as a wood turner is no small feat for a woman. michelle holzapfel spent two decades honing her skills in this traditionally male-dominated medium before the art world took her seriously. with a quiet determination, this self-taught artist expresses the every-day life of women today. the bowl above simulates draped cloth and gives us a hint at holzapfel's skill. but it is her carved wood vessels that scream TALENT AT WORK. they are elaborate and exquisite storytellers. see the artist at work and hear her speak about her philosophy in this video clip

leaving his mark

"I draw on functional forms because I want permanence and longevity for my personal history. Just as we know much about our cultural past from the pottery created thousands of years ago, I want my pots to tell those who may discover them in five thousand years what was important to one person living in the twenty first century." Tim Christensen-Kirby

tim christensen-kirby uses the sgraffito method to draw pictures on his porcelain vessels. each vessel is made with layers of contrasting clay colors. as he carefully carves a drawing the top layer slowly peels away, revealing the layer beneath. although he gets excited by the notion that the kiln process could easily turn a piece back to dust again, his work is clearly about permanence and leaving his mark on the world at large.

collaboration, cohabitation, cooperation

"An early addition to my wood pieces was the incorporation of my wife, Kaaren Wiken's finely detailed embroideries. Her colorful works of fiber art brings another level of meaning to my works, a collaborative effort that has taken us in directions we never would have imagined separately." Tom Rauschke

husband and wife team tom rauschke and kaaren wiken have been collaborating for more than 30 years. he turns and hand carves wood, inlaying kaaren's detailed embroidery into the intricate vessels. sky bowl, pictured above, took the pair several years to complete. kaaren's continuous embroidered landscape scene, inlaid all the way around the black walnut bowl, depicts one entire day from sunrise to sunset. this elaborate and subtly colored embellishment is truly a labor of love. collaboration, cohabitation and cooperation at its finest.

o-bedient

“The shoes are getting me places, taking me places.” Joanne Bedient

a shopping trip with her daughter that garnered a pair of vintage, tomato-red pumps worthy of miranda (the 1950's miranda, not the sex-in-the-city miranda) sparked a new attitude and a new subject for joanne bedient's art. she handbuilds the raku-fired shoes, creating textures that resemble the fabric, buttons and buckles found on the real thing. bedient makes bodacious bottles too. check them out here.

new year's revolution

"We are the true revolutionaries in this society because we value the work of our hands; we value tradition and history. We understand very deeply that the handmade object is what connects us to the people who buy from us. The object is imbued with our souls." Judy Stone

drawing inspiration from the garden that surrounds her studio, california artist judy stone fabricates fractured vessels by cutting and rejoining metal with woven copper wire, rivets and tubing. she taught herself enameling, the process of fusing glass to metal, in the late sixties while working on a fulbright scholarship in germany. more than three decades later, stone continues to teach enameling worldwide and remains a fierce advocate for the revival of her beloved craft. now that's a revolution worth joining this year!

nerikomi

"Nerikomi, the traditional Japanese technique of creating patterns with colored clay is the inspiration for my work. Colored clays are sliced and stacked repeatedly to form patterns and color/textures in the clay itself, resulting in a single block or loaf made up of thousands of overlapping layers. Cross-sectional slices are cut from the block and joined together to form the vessels. The many layers are thus revealed as fine undulating lines embedded in a surrounding color. The pattern becomes the substance and structure of the form itself rather than just a surface embellishment." Thomas Hoadley

ceramic artist thomas hoadley uses an ancient japanese pottery technique to create his exquisite bowls and platters, but the work is contemporary, refined and elegant. the process is time consuming and labor intensive - the results are worth it. a magical manipulation of materials.

great bowls of fire!

"Each Great Bowl O' Fire is hand cut from scrapped propane tanks. There's a poetry to this that just makes me giggle… using a torch to cut flame designs into a flammable gas tank in order to hold bonfires. That's kind of layered metaphor I enjoy most about working with reused or recycled materials." John T. Unger

committed to sustainable design, john unger works mostly with recycled materials. he handcuts every bowl, never repeating the same pattern. the bowls weigh in at 175 pounds each and are built to last for generations. but unger doesn't stop there. from scrap oxygen tanks he cuts tiki torches; from propane tanks, he fabricates patio grills and portable grills and from tin cans he makes lanterns. the names of his fire line product and the tone of his blog make me think he's quite a character: canterns, blaze o' glory, pot-de-feu grill and great bowls o' fire. his stuff sizzles!

nourishing alma

"Sculpture is made to be touched. These pieces were made with my hands and I want people to feel the weight and the shape of them. That's the point." Alma Allen

i have a never-ending hunger for vessels that feed my soul. when i discovered alma allen's work i knew immediately that his wood, stone, bone and shell carved vessels would feed that hunger. the texture of each bowl includes natural fissures that crack the silky smooth surface, inviting the viewer to touch, hold, feel. it is fitting that alma means nourishing. it also means soul. i've been fed, nourished, nurtured. soul-food indeed.

penny pinching

montana artist penny hall is under the magical spell of molded leather. she pinches, shapes and molds the leather until these elegant bowls emerge. i did a double take - thinking at first that they were turned wood vessels. aren't they woderful? she draws her inspiration from big sky country. it's easy to see that montana has cast its own magical spell on her - lucky for us.

sweet-heart

"I dream that others will catch a glimpse of what I have seen in the earth and the plants and the water when they experience what I make. That through my own striving, I can capture the heaviness of that stone, the struggle and balance of nature, and the rightness of that wiggling curve, and somehow place that into the mind of another human being." Scott Chatenever

toby goldsmith fed my penchant for all things organic when she sent along this link to ceramic artist scott chatenever's work. his vessels, like this heart shaped pod, definitely speak to me. don't ask what they are saying, it's a private conversation.

the band

"I glue rubber bands together in a spiral and form different lacy structures, stretching the elastic at certain points." Elodie Blanchard

elodie blanchard glues rubber bands together. lots of them. what do you get when you glue oodles of rubber bands together? basketlike bowls. they aren't fancy, but they are fun. she also makes lamps and vases with the bands. see her work at elasticco.com

fruitful

"The starting point for each piece of work is a single piece of metal. I either add or remove any elements. I simply have to work with what is there. I find my inspiration in the restrictive work process itself and the challenge to stretch its limitations." Ane Christensen

ane christensen's metal bowls are ming boggling. constructed from a single sheet of copper or steel, she creates them by following the strict set of self-imposed rules that have become her trademark. the two shredded bowls pictured here are fruit bowls - part of a negative space series that explores optical illusions...seems to be a theme this week.

rose bowl

"As a lampworker and artist, my interests currently are in two directions. One being technical lampwork, represented in my work by thin, classical, wine glasses and vessel styles influenced by the Venetian tradition. The other is a strong interest in large scale sculptural and architectural art." David Willis

david willis' joyful glass botanicals offer a riot of color and the graceful curves of the real thing. with titles like 'life has enough thorns' and 'looking at the world through rose lenses' you get the sense that this widely exhibited glass artist is thoroughly enjoying himself. look a little closer and you see the delicate details that reveal a master at work.

as the wood turns

"This bowl shows my recent fascination with extrusions. The first piece in this series sold quickly to a chemical engineer who kindly explained some principles of fluid dynamics to me. Armed with some knowledge of how the polymer clay is traveling down that cylinder, I’m anxious to experiment further." Cynthia Tinapple

well known polymer clay artist cynthia tinapple combines her talents with husband blair davis' to turn out elegant bowls waiting to become the centerpiece of any table. he turns the wood, she inlays the polymer clay. brilliant. the bowl pictured above won best of show last year at ohio's high road gallery fall show. see cynthia at work on a bowl here (scroll down the page a bit).

we are anxious to see more. maybe if we ask nicely? i've got a new word for you today that might help: tinlay: tinapple's delicious inlay. come on cynthia - may we please see more tinlay?

pretty please?

absolutely nothing

"War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again: War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.War. It's nothing but a heartbreaker. War. Friend only to the undertaker. War is the enemy of all mankind. War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing." B. Strong & N. Whitfield

remember that song? powerful stuff. i can't think of anything war is good for, but i like the idea of melting all of the plastic toy soldiers to make unique bowls - and a statement of sorts. this one from steve mosley and dominic wilcox. make art, not war.

sensual wood turnings

"These two bowls swirl around each other, touching and separating, sometimes whirling like dervishes and then slowing down. Eventually their dance ends and they rest in tender embrace." Sigfried Schreiber

siegfried schreiber's art offers a deeply gratifying experience, appealing to all of the senses. i find his vessels captivating. had a difficult time deciding which of his works to highlight here. maybe the kinetic vessel universe, with grooves and metal spheres that orbit at different speeds and in opposite directions? or meditative vessel? it hides a secret which can only be discovered by placing it on your lap and exploring it with both hands. but then the lazy bowl that cannot stand upright teases so playfully. hmmmm...decisions, decisions.

i settled on the lovers, because it reminds me of my parents. their love was a beautiful dance. "eventually their dance ends and they rest in tender embrace." yes, this.

plicated

"I began to experiment widely with technical and philosophical alternatives to folding paper as a model making activity. I wanted to make people ask 'why?' rather than 'how?', and to make objects that were aesthetically pleasing, not just clever." Paul Jackson

origami artist paul jackson's pleated bowl is folded paper sculpture at it's finest. before folding, he hand colors each sheet of paper with charcoal or dry pastels and seals the paper to create a surface with a matte lustre. i can still remember miss heimer's fourth grade lesson on how to fold a paper cup. it sparked a life long appreciation for origami and more than a decade of practice. i still make a mean jumping frog, but i don't think jackson has anything to worry about.

curious about plicated?

dusting destiny

"I derive an enormous amount of personal satisfaction from knowing that the wood in the piece I'm creating was most likely destined for the dump" Edric Nalani Florence

i would like to live in the hollow of a decayed tree (hey - i never said i was normal). my boyfriend has gotten used to the yipping and squealing every time we discover a fallen tree in our beloved hudson river valley. treehugger. that would be me. no, really, i've got the pictures to prove it.

i want to climb in, curl up and take a nap in edric nalani florence's english yew root hollow vessel. a self taught wood turner for 26 years, florence only uses wood he picks up from the ground. he pays homage to the dense woods of his southwestern pennsylvania roots by turning each decayed piece of wood into an elegant vessel.

oh edric, how about a lifesize vessel? pretty please?