Summer's Work Rebuilding the Bowl Inventory for the Art Along the Lake Studio Art Tour

The Hovland Arts Festival was a huge success. A lot of people visited and a lot of bowls sold. Fortunately I have a few more of these rare aspen burls, my favorite wood to turn. These are also very difficult bowls to turn. I typically take two days to prep and turn a medium sized aspen burl into a beautiful bowl with a complete bark edge. I take great care to stabilize each soft and decaying area and every open grain line during the turning. I use thin cyanoacrylate resin and very finely ground dark roasted coffee. This mixture works amazingly well to harden and stabilize the soft areas. It pays to be through here since these burls can fly apart during the hollowing. For safety, I always wrap the turned outside of the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and duct tape during hollowing. Once turned, the bowls require a few months drying to attain constant mass. The drying is done under controlled temperature and relative humidity (approx 65 deg F and 65% humidity). Each drying bowl is also monitored daily for cracking. Small cracks are easy to stop with a drop of thin CA glue and some fine aspen wood dust. The following images are of the most recently finished bowl. It is 7.5" in diameter and 7.5" high. I am showing this one because it has beautiful grain figuring and a great bark edge. It is easy to see why I love to turn aspen burl, I only wish they were not so rare.

Come to the Art Along the Lake Studio Art Tour (Sept 23 - Oct 2, 2022). My shop in Hovland (MN) is part of the tour and I will be selling bowls and demonstrating wood turning each day from 10 to 5. My bowls are best appreciated in person. I will have bowls made from aspen burl, maple wood and burl, cherry burl, honey locust wood, birch burl and root, and box elder wood with red flame.