It's The Holiday Season...Free Shipping Too!

So...Small Business Saturday is November 30^th and Cyber Monday is December 2^nd …Why do I mention these two dates? I’m have a small business that has a store online, that's why! This holiday season, if you could, please support small business when shopping for gifts. If so inclined,  I would consider it an honor if you took the time to look at my pieces at my online store while shopping. 

To get ready for these upcoming dates, I've added quite a few new items to my store on goodsmiths.com. More bowls, cutting boards and earrings and a couple sculptures as well. Plus, I've added free shipping to all jewelry thru the end of the year! Also watch for a great promotion I will be starting next week that will benefit a great cause too.

Some pics of a few of added pieces are below, but to see it all click here

PS Goodsmiths.com is a great site that is supporting artists, makers and business owners by providing a great site that enables them to have an online store at an affordable price and keeps the mass produced stuff out, period. 

Upcoming Shows

I’ll be busy the next couple of weeks finishing up some last minute pieces for 2 upcoming shows. First, I’m very excited to exhibit at Art On The Prairie on Nov. 9th, 10-5pm and Nov. 10th from 10-4pm . This show takes place in Perry, IA inside some of the historic buildings downtown. My booth will be inside the historic Security Bank Building, 1102 Willis Ave. in the Clarion Room. Alongside my bowls, bottle stoppers, vases, cutting boards and earrings, I will be debuting some new bowls and sculptures at this show so don’t miss out!

Perry is just a short drive from the Des Moines metro and there will be lots to see and do. In addition to the artists and their wares, there will be music, wine tasting, food, poetry and more. Learn more by checking out http://www.artontheprairie.org/

The following weekend my dad and I will have a booth for the third year in a row at the Beaverdale Holiday Boutique on November 16^th from 8am to 3:30pm. It takes place inside the gym and school at Holy Trinity Church, 2926 Beaver Ave. in Des Moines. Along with our typical bowls, vases and other forms, my dad will have tons of ornaments, coffee scoops and more. See more at the show's facebook page

Valley Junction Farmer's Market and Goodsmiths

Had a good time last night sharing the Goodsmiths booth with Kathy Leonard, from Prairie View Studios and the staff at Goodsmiths. The market was very busy with the great weather we had. Thanks to everyone that stopped by and said hi! I hope to be able to do this a couple more times this summer as well. Until then, check my Goodsmiths Store and enjoy a couple of booth shots from last night! (please excuse the cute kid in the first pic and the ISU thing in the background of the second pic, Rock Chalk!)

Valley Junction Farmer's Market - Let's Try That Again

We got rained out on the 30th, but I will give it another go at the Goodsmiths.com booth at the Valley Junction Farmer's Market on Thursday June 13th. Hope to see you there!

Also if you look to the right (and below), you'll see the new button to get to my Goodsmiths store. Father's day is right around the corner...

New Listings in Online Store & An Upcoming Show

I've added quite a few new items to my online store on Goodsmiths.com  (also some pics below) I'm getting more items in the store in anticipation of joining the Goodsmiths' staff and another artist at the Valley Junction Farmer's Market on May 30th from 4-8pm.

I was invited by Goodsmiths as part of their promotion of a new app, Swipe by Goodsmiths that links your sales at art and craft shows with your Goodsmith shop! I'm told the Android verion is coming soon. More info is available here. Can't wait to join them at the farmer's market and try out Swipe! Hope to see you all there!




Spalted Maple Bowl

 

Spalted Hackberry Bowl



Burr Oak Decorative Bowl



Natural Edge Butternut Bowl



Market Day Is Near

The day is finally near! This Saturday, the 18th, Market Day takes place inside the Kirkwood Hotel and Gramercy Tap from 8am-1pm. My booth will be along the north wall inside of Gramercy between Marrisa Kephart of The Moon and Honey and Sara Briddell of The Sara Initiative . I look forward to meeting and learning from all of the other vendors, but I hope to be so busy at my booth that I'll have to do that as we break down after the show!

Want to see more of the beautiful things

that will be available at Market Day?

Just click here: Market Day Vendor Preview 

Market Day Preview Video

A couple weeks ago Kathy Lankin stopped by my shop and did a little filming. The video shows me turning a small walnut bowl (really fast!) along with a couple other very talented artists that will also be vendors at Market Day on the 18th.  So check out the video and make sure to stop by Market Day  at the Kirkwood Hotel...Enjoy!

Natural Edge Cutting Boards

More prep work for the upcoming Market Day event on the 18th has me finishing up some really nice looking natural edge cutting boards. Wood species include ambrosia maple, butternut, cherry, hard maple and more. I'll have lots of different sizes and prices of boards there....along with bowls, vases, jewelry, bottle stoppers, cheese knives and much more...see you there!

Woodturning Demo With Trent Bosch

This past Saturday the Des Moines Woodturners group had Trent Bosch give a all day demo. I've enjoyed Trent's work before and wondered how he accomplished some of it. The demo started at 9am and with only two short breaks other than 30 mins for lunch, the day went to quickly. Trent is a great teacher, explains things in great detail in ways anyone can understand and enjoys doing so as well.

He turned his "Vessel of Illusion" first. I always wondered how he got the vessel inside another vessel...and it really is quite simple to do although there will be quite a bit of trial and error I'm sure. He first turns a hollow form with 2 top edges.

 He then carves and sands the "petals" using air tools.

Then he turns a very thin insert out of a contrasting wood and drops it into boiling water until it drops to the bottom of the pan. He then quickly bends the insert and gets it into the hollow form. Gets the insert where he wants it, blows a balloon up inside the vessel to hold the insert in place and form itself to the interior of the hollow form. After it all drys, he glues it in place with epoxy.

Then he turned and showed us how he carves a platter, again with air tools.  

Finally he turned a large bowl I didn't get any pics of that he used to show several ways he embellishes his work (carving, painting, adding patina, etc.) All in all a great day to spend with my dad and other fellow woodturners. I would highly recommend attending a demo or class with Trent. He also of course makes lots of tools  in his machine shop (I dont' own any, but did handle them at the demo and they are top notch!)and sells videos as well. If you wnat to learn more about Trent, check out his website.

Back At The Lathe Again

I haven't been turning much lately due to cold weather and other things that have got in the way. Spring is finally here and last night I had a little time so I turned a little cherry twig pot. It reminded me of how much I missed urning and I will be doing much more in the near future.

You'll be seeing me post more in the coming days, weeks and months...at least that's the plan. I've got a couple shows coming up and lots of projects to start and complete.

Walnut Bowl

I have one last set of horse show awards to finish up this week for the Maffitt Lake Equestrian Center and Hott Horse Shows. They well be for their last big horse shows of the year that start on Sept. 19th. Last night I finished up one of the awards a large walnut bowl. It's about 12" in diameter and 5" tall. Before I rubbed on my home brew of danish oil, I once again used a reverse image of the horse show logo and transfer pen on the wood burner to get the logo onto the bowl. Works like a charm every time. I now have to finish up 8 picture frames and a small brush box and deliver them early next week.



You Win Some and You Loose Some

Back around the Fourth of July I rough turned both sides of a walnut log. I wanted a bit deeper bowl so I left the pith in one bowl blank and cut it out entirely of the other. Both rough outs showed some great promise with the grain and variation in the heart and sap wood alignment and color. I packed them into paper sacks with some of the shavings from the rough turning session.

I took them out 3 days later and saw a few hairline cracks. No problem, I filled them with coffee grounds and CA glue and repacked them into fresh wooden curlies. (Sorry no boring picks of this step) Fast forward to this week...The rough out with the pith is split beyond use.

You can see the dark stains where I tried the CA glue and coffe grounds way back in the begining. I won't put it on the burn pile yet until I finish turn the other rough out and see what the grain looks like finished. If it looks great I will figure out another use for the split bowl. If not, well fall backyard fire season isn't that far away!

Oak Doggy Bowl

A few months ago a friend asked me if I would donate a bowl for the Animal Rescue Leagues annual auction. I immediately said yes, but then realized I hadn't turned much this year do to other commitments and the hot, hot summer we've been having. (also why I haven't posted much)

I was able to find a good sized bowl that I finished earlier this spring made from oak. It's about 10" in diameter and 4" tall. The base was left a bit rough and then burned with a torch. I then oil the entire piece with several coats of my homebrew danish oil. Hopefully it will bring enough of a bid to buy a bag of puppy chow or a chew toy or two.

Ebonized Burr Oak

This one is about 7" in diameter and 6" tall. The center bowl is ebonized with vinegar and steel wool mix and the rest is finished with my home brew danish oil. This is a prototype for a possible big project that hopefully will begin later this fall...

Box Elder Slab Table

 Here is the finished product! Pretty labor intensive...It took hours of power sanding to get the chainsaw marks smooth. About 3 hours to get the bark off. More power sanding to get the sides smooth and then hours and hours of hand sanding to get the surfaces ready for oil.  Once the oil hit the wood I was pretty happy with the finish. There are red/pink streaks that are common with box elder and streak of flaming curl grain as well. The cracks with change over time and only add to the character of the table.

I'm glad to finally be done with this project, and I have lots of ideas (and wood) for similar projects coming up.

Preview - A Hunk of Box Elder

Almost a year ago, I found this BIG hunk of box elder in a pile at a park here in Des Moines. The shape caught my eye and I knew I could make something cool with it. But I didn't know what at the time....

A few weeks later I rediscovered these legs from an old wood stove that was once in my parents garage. Now I had a pretty good idea of what I could use the hunk of box elder for...and how to upcycle the legs.

Stay tuned, early next week I'll show you the finished project!

Turning Demo and Sale

I'll be spinning wood on the lathe once again in front of The Mansion Fine Furniture and Interior Design on beautiful Ingersoll Ave. in Des Moines.  I'll be there on May 20th from 10am-6pm and May 21st 10am-5pm.

I will have new pieces available as well. Stop by and see me do some woodturning and check out all the new stuff at the store!

See you there!

Welcomed Inspiration

I follow quite a few blogs via Google blogger and from time to time I read something that truely inspires me to get into the shop and create something. Sometimes it's a phrase or just a word, but most of the time its a picture of someone else's work that fills my head with my own ideas for a new piece.

Today however, it was an answer that Andy Coates, of Cobweb Crafts, and Woodturning Blog posted a response to a question he recieved from a fellow turner wondering "...where 'ideas' for what he calls 'arty' turnery come from..." See Andy's full response to the question here. I found the following excerpt from his response to be particular inspiring today...

"... whatever you do or think, don’t think you can’t. Because you can. It may mean that you have to discover new techniques and methods of doing things, it may mean that you get frustrated and dispirited, it may mean you toss the resulting down the bottom of the garden and swear a lot. But I’d bet that after a few days something clicks and you’ll want to try again....



...So go on…take a bowl blank and think out of the box and stun us all"

I hope everyone that see this uses Andy's advise however they can...I also invite you to take a look at Andy's main website to see his beautiful work and the new digs he and fellow artist John Wilson have their workshops and a shared gallery in.

Thanks again for your words Andy!

Side Table Out of Hickory

A few months ago, my MIL Sandy gave me a log of hickory from a tree that had come down close to her cabin in southern Iowa. She told me there's plenty more if this works for something. I put it in the shop and then lost it in the pile of other wood and shavings. While digging the lathe out to take it to the ArtStop demo, I found it again. This past week I turned it to a cylinder and applied some oil to it. It was a little short on its own, about 12", so I added some legs that are cold rolled steel rod painted black. Currently it resides in my living room, but if Sandy wants it, it's hers.

New Gallery links!

I've updated the gallery links for our site. The gallery now has seperate links for the different kinds of turnings I have done. You can still just click on the link on the left side of the page, or you can just click here. More photos will be addes in the next few days.