Big Leaf Maple trees,
often found in the Northwest.

Truckload of logs ready to be turned.

Spinning wood on a lathe.

Wood turner Mike Phillips, beginning to work on a log.

Segmented turning by Curt Theobald.

A beautiful bowl starts out as a tree. Turners, or those who turn wood on a lathe to make turnings, like many woodworkers, know trees. Or more accurately, they know the potential wood under the bark of those trees. Many turners start out turning wood as a hobby, or they needed a turned part for a woodworking project. Most can describe in detail the exact moment when they turned their first bowl. Something clicks, and they soon become addicted to transforming what looks like logs of firewood into beautiful works of art. Hobbies eventually turn into professions, and those who are successful at it travel the world teaching and sharing their love of the craft to others eager to learn. 

Many of our turners obtain their wood from sources other than the lumberyard. Some have a network of family and friends that let them know when a tree has been cut in someone's back yard or a new construction site. Others have "secret" sources that let them know when an arboretum is getting rid of a particular specimen tree that has reached the end of its life. Turners, unlike furniture makers, have the unique opportunity to use newly cut logs or use the wood while it's still green or wet. In fact some will only work with the unstable green wood. This allows them to be in the market for fresh trees as opposed to the furniture maker, who can only really begin to work with dry, stable, cut wood boards.

Turning is not an instant craft. Like glass blowing, there are more steps involved than just the flashy part of spinning hot glass on a pipe or taking a chisel to a quickly spinning piece of wood with sawdust flying dramatically. Logs are rough cut, rough turned, allowed to dry, turned again, dried again, and this process is repeated as often deemed necessary by the artist. The final turning has its risks as well. More than one bowl that took six months to create has been lost by an unexpected fault in the grain or the artist's inexperience. The sound of wood hitting the floor may not be as dramatic as the sound of shattering glass, but the result is the same.

Most turners spend an equal or greater amount of time finishing their work, sanding it down to a flawlessly smooth to the touch surface. The final coat of oil, wax or polyurethane brings out the true beauty of the wood. Some favor the natural feel of oil-based finishes while others work tirelessly to obtain the high gloss "piano" finish using polyurethane or shellac.

The finished turnings are as unique as the artists who create them. There are a surprising number of variations in the finished work as in the wood they were created from. Some artists choose to showcase the unique qualities of the wood by turning parallel or perpendicular to the grain. Unique characteristics of the wood are often highlighted, such as voids, knots, spalting and burl. Some wood such as Manzanita burl actually has stones and rocks to contend with since this part of the burl grows underground. Some turners prefer a "natural" edge to their work, leaving the delicate bark or a jagged sapwood edge on the rim of their bowls. There are artists who specialize in purely functional, yet beautiful, salad friendly bowls, while others only create impossibly thin hollow vessels with one-inch diameter openings. Some specialize in taking many different woods, gluing them together in elaborate patterns and turning them into pueblo inspired pots, while others allow the wood to "move" after turning it green, creating wonderful organic vessels. Shallow or deep, functional or ornamental the one thing in common is that these turnings came from a tree and the skilled hands of someone who knew the potential of the wood within.

Two vessels turned from Pacific Madrone wood, an organic ornamental vessel by Bob Doop (left) which was turned green and allowed to move, and a beautiful salad bowl by Dale Larson (right).

Books about Wood Turning