Cherry Salad Bowl

The grounds crew at my work cut down a big cherry tree a few months ago and since I have asked in the past about taking some logs they left a few good size pieces for me to take. I finally got around to cutting up some bowl blanks last week and turned one of the larger ones into a new salad bowl for my family. It's about 13" in diameter and 7" deep. I put a small detail just below the lip but couldn't get it to look quite right so instead a burned in a dark line with a guitar string. It's a wavy line now because the bowl has warped quite a bit.  I still have the other half of this log to turn another similar bowl as a wedding gift for a coworker of my wife. I'll post some pics of that one as well when available.

Some Free Wood And A Commission

Last nightI picked up some oak logs from a friend of my sister in law. I had met Anne (I think there is an "e" at the end) and her husband Steve at the opening of the Wandering Gallery Auciton and she had mentioned a big oak in her front lawn would be coming down soon. She got in touch and I picked up some nice crotch pieces and a couple of straight logs that were just over 2ft long. (see pic 1)

It turns out that Anne's neighbor across the street, Kathy, had a large oak taken down the day before. Anne had mentioned to her that I turn logs into bowls, vases and such. Anne gave me Kathy's number and we finally got together last night. The wood from her tree has knots, knobs and burl all over it. (see pic 2) She mentioned when her family first moved into the house, 15 years ago, they had taken breaks from tearing out carpet resting on the front steps with her husband and kids, and watched squirrels climb all over the bumps on the tree. I will try and create something that includes the bumps as well as some simple form bowls. They will become Christmas gifts for her kids who are now in college. I'll take pics along the way to document the process as well. I'm looking forward to see how it will turn out.