Bill Luce - Featured Piece June 2007

Bill Luce Woodturner

June 2007

Reunion (2007)

Douglas Fir with ribbed interiors, 5 ½ in. height by 5¼ in. length by 5 in. width, 5 in. height by 6 in. length by 5 ¾ in. width

The title reflects these two vessels reunited. They were created from a pair of majestic 135 ft. Douglas fir trees, joined at the base through life, and toppled during a severe windstorm. Even after death, the tree's spirit is together again as represented by the vessels formed from their flesh.

Me in the early stages of "rescuing" the trees to recycle the wood. The building is about 30 ft. to my right, and the very large rootball of the trees is to the right even further, on the far side of the crushed building. The chains on the trees are to keep the first tree from moving as I cut it. There are tremendous forces on the trees due to the way they currently free spanned about 60 feet supported only by the ends.

This piece (pair) is my entry in the AAW exhibit "Turning Green" which has the theme of woodturning that is environmentally friendly. This piece received the "Jury's Choice" award for the exhibit.

Here are some of the ways that this piece contributes to that theme:

The wood from these bowls is from a pair of Douglas fir trees joined during their life at their base, toppled during a severe windstorm, crushing a building. So the lives of the trees were already over.

All resources spent on recovering the wood were already required to access the destroyed building structure.

The wood used, Douglas fir, is not generally considered to be suitable for woodturning due to the extreme challenge of working with it.

The pieces were turned to completion while the wood was green and fresh.

The larger chainsaws I used during the removal were operated with a biodegradable vegetable based bar oil instead of the more common petroleum based oil As much as possible of the final shaping of the blocks once the wood was at my studio was done with an electric chainsaw also using a biodegradable bar oil

Through careful toolwork, sanding done on the pieces was minimal. Mostly wet sanding was utilized to minimize airborne dust. The interior of the vessels were textured by blasting with recycled crushed glass in a cabinet fitted with a reclaimer that virtually completely recycles and reuses the blasting material.

The shavings from the pieces were used for weed control in the garden, eventually becoming humus.

The final finish used on the pieces was minimal.

The price of this piece is $1400 (pair). This piece has been SOLD.