Because you asked, Daniel, and Velma:
Thank you, Daniel. I have taken the time to write you a pretty comprehensive statement about my Journey Bowl and related items that I make. I may use this dissertation as a printout, actually, to deliver to inquirers along with bowls I make. In the small world of the farmer's market I get to tell people each the story. But online, I don't get to meet the customer usually, so it's good to "have this little talk."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The tree species is Cunninghamia lanceolata AKA China Fir. The wood comes from the roots of trees logged off in Thailand for construction and furniture use.( See *Notes below.) I get this wood in shapes of dishes from a stash of "seconds and irregulars" from a local business. The business had a whole bunch of the "Shell shaped" dishes, which had not been shaped properly and had flaws and cracks. I was able to get the whole shipment, so these dishes are available only through me. What I do to recycle/rework/redesign them varies with the so-called flaw, or is put in my mind by the way the grain goes, or by colors, or by actual figures I see in the wood.
Other exotic woods come from similar sources and include acacia, mango, camphor wood, koa, avocado, bits of teak, and the reclaimed roots of China Fir.
People offer me burls and chunks of all kinds. A friend from Hawaii sent me a great collection of Hawaiian hardwood blanks. Right now I am using some koa and avocado woods for hand hewn pegs.
The usual paint is Daniel Smith traditional oil paint, so much of it is not guaranteed food safe at all. I sometimes use a gesso watercolor ground on a sanded surface to make a more absorbent base to paint on. I often use iron oxide transparent paint for the basic glaze (a non-toxic paint) , and use my oil colors to bring in different hues, darkening them with brown oxide and indianthrone blue, lightening them with mixed white. I let this dry well, Frequently I use waterproof chinese india ink to accent the incised lines. Then, once dry and ready, I spray a coat of clear shellac on it. Let dry. Light sand, and then another light coat of shellac. This is to isolate the oil paint from the outside finish. Then I light sand again to slightly skuff the surface of the shellac to receive the next coats of oil/beeswax mixture designed for salad bowls. Maintenance of my finishes is best done with orange oil, or beeswax mixes. For ornamental only bowls, ordinary paste wax works well.
You can see slide shows of some of the dishes on www.ooothere.com .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* NOTE: I have been asked by people, as I have conscientiously asked myself, whether using wood cast-offs that have been initially rescued, kiln dried, and shaped by the indigenous people in Thailand is a fair minded thing to do. Is it politically correct, and does it "qualify" as a hand-made by me item when I have finished such a piece. Of the wood source, Cunninghamia lanceolata, an offshoot of the fir/cypress type tree now grows happily through southern and west coast areas of the US, having happily taken root. The native variety are used as a renewable resource in Asia because they are fairly soft but very strong wood useful for construction and furniture. In times past the roots were left behind, burned or turned under for the planting of new forests. Indigenous mountainThai artisans learned that they could make use of the roots into shapes of beautiful contours and color. There are several families in the mountain country whose whole living is made growing and harvesting these trees. The industry is their living. They do not use "child labor" or abusive bosses. An order of root shapes from them to the US assures them of a year's work for a large extended family's guaranteed income. It's a win-win.
I am regularly in touch with the fellow who climbed up the mountain and found these families, befriended them, has worked with them on designs and wood preparation processes, and who has prepared them up for really strict regular inspection procedures to assure that they are not being taken advantage of or forced to do unethical or dangerous work. I know for a fact that this American businessman is like family to them now, and his trips always bring back stories of a healthy, hard-working, earnest people who love their work and love their families. The families earn a fair wage. The wood would otherwise be burned or wasted. And so I have no problem using this good wood. The roots are plugged into the same earth as the trees on my street. God made 'em.
~~~~~~~~~
My work takes over where the big market cannot. The roots are rescued from the ground. I rescue the bowls for the second time from the discard pile, and make something lovely out of them, honoring their past, and hopefully making them into something people will treasure in the future.
Mango wood crock carved, incised, and wood-burned at the rim. The surface was prepared with a gesso base and painted with glazes and impasto effect in traditional oil paint, then sealed and finished with oil/beeswax finish. A marshy landscape done when I lived on the banks of the South Puget Sound near Olympia WA.
SOLD