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Featured Piece -April 2010
Natural Edge Curly Maple Bowl (2010) Big Leaf Maple: Turned, bleached 6 inches high by 9 ½ inches wide Price: $2150.
Detail of Rippled Rim
This piece is a strong full form of a round bottomed bowl. Sports a rippled natural edge rim and very curly maple wood that has been repeatedly bleached and left a flat matte rather than having a polished surface. It's an less soothing effect than a polished surface, but in this case I chose the treatment deliberately as I wanted the edgier impact. Not for the masses maybe, but I stand by the more stark or even austere statement of the piece.
This piece will be in the AAW exhibit this summer "Acer Medley."
Following is the text that accompanies the piece in the show's catalog.
That exhibit is currently running in the
AAW Gallery in St. Paul until December 19th, 2010 for anyone in that
area that wants to see the piece.
Here's a link to the online catalog of that exhibit, the printed catalog is excellent and is available through the AAW Gallery.
Big leaf maple, found in the Pacific Northwest, is one of the largest
native deciduous trees getting as large as 8 ft in diameter. This bowl
takes advantage of one of the most quilted Big Leaf Maple Trees I have
had the good fortune to come across. The folds in the grain form strong
vertical patterns in the vessel, a wonderful contrast to the ripples
they form on the rim on of the piece. The large size of the maple allows
for a flatter and more balanced natural edge rim, providing strength of
form when viewed from all directions.
This piece was bleached to remove the distraction of the patterns of color in the wood, leaving a simple statement of form and texture. Also, the piece has extra meaning to me because it was from wood I gathered with a good friend. That friend, John Swanson, passed away last year. We reminisced about that outing in one of my visits with John in the hospital, and I wished he could have seen the finished piece. Price: $2150. Currently available through the AAW. As always, email comments regarding this piece (or any other piece on the site) are welcome. If you would like to be notified by email when this site's currently featured piece is updated, please email me.
All rights reserved İBill Luce, 2010 |
