This is the first box that I’ve turned in what seems like a really long time. It was an order from a collector in the US who asked me to make a box for him that got me to pick up my tools and get into the shop. I have been turning, just not creating. And for artists, the act of creation is vital as without it you find yourself losing motivation and joy in your work and your life as this is such an integral part of it. This is where I found myself. Circumstances have been so limiting lately for so many of us and mine have made it very difficult to devote the time and focus to see my way out of the emotional darkness that can overtake us all. I just wasn’t feeling it, which made it worse.
So, thanks to this email out of the blue from down South, I have found the desire to be once again making, with new ideas and the excitement to get back in my studio. This simple beaded box is African Blackwood, which you will know is my favourite for boxes, lined with a lovely warm golden Thuya burl and decorated with a surface embellishment of texturing and a subtle red tint on the textured areas.
Baxter’s Harbour on the Bay of Fundy has a rough, rocky beach but this tranquil place frequently rewards with beautiful sunsets such as this one. Fortunately for us, it’s only 10 minutes’ drive from home. Enjoy your weekend, friends.
I wanted to add this project with the photographs to my site, as it was a commission from a few years back that for some reason never made it here! The details are all in the gallery below, click to view each in full screen and the information is posted on each. The wood is birdseye and curly maple.
This gallery shows a custom dining set commissioned and completed for a client in Nova Scotia. The wood is curly and birdseye maple.
This box is distinguished by a newly developed technique producing a spiral texture on the lid and a beautifully even finely woven appearance on the sides with a translucent red ink wash. Made of African Blackwood for the exterior, a smooth bead on top and bottom of the body and lid contain the textured areas. The interior is lined with the wonderfully redolent and warm coloured thuya burl. Full size images on the gallery here.
This piece is available for purchase. Contact me if interested. African Blackwood, textured exterior with a translucent red ink wash. Height: 2 1/2″ (65mm), Diameter 2 3/8″ (60mm)
See what happens when you leave two teardrops on their own together! 😉
After nearly 40 years of making the teardrop box, which has become one of my signature pieces, I decided to start turning them in various sizes, as they look so nice in a grouping this way. Often, if people have not seen the actual work, but just photographs of them, they don’t realize that these are boxes as the join is almost invisible. For this reason I wanted to show one of them open as you see above. The baby one is only just over 1″ in diameter, just big enough to fit a ring snugly inside. The bigger ones range in size between 2.5″ and 3″ in diameter. These are made in African Blackwood each from a single piece.
Craft Nova Scotia has created a series of interviews with the Makers featured in “Life’s Work – Conversations with Makers”, produced and directed by Breakwater Studios. This interview is #2 in the series, broadcast March 1, 2021 and features Crystal Garrett talking to myself about the effect the documentary had on me and the direction my creative life has taken since the film came out. The film is 37 minutes in length and can be played full screen. I hope you enjoy it. – Steven
In a time when I was travelling and giving classes and demonstrations around the world, I worked on blackwood boxes to show techniques to my students. There was never enough time to complete a box and so the partly finished pieces would join others in my workshop when I returned from my tours. This year there has been no travelling and no teaching and I decided to work on these originally ‘demo’ boxes, to give them a life and purpose beyond the original. I incorporated new texturing, including a light red ink wash and appropriate inlays and really have enjoyed the creative process in doing this. The colour addition to the texturing gives a warm feeling and added perception of depth to the decorated surface.
A new spinning top made for a collector in the UK. This one is African blackwood, thuya root burl (from that huge burl from this post) and tagua nut finial. Further details are in the photos below. Clicking on the images below will open the photo gallery of my Turned Art where you can see them in full screen mode.
Spinning top detail – African blackwood, thuya root burl
When you see a beautiful box like the one pictured above, have you ever wondered what the piece of raw wood it was made from first looked like when it arrived in my studio?
The trees that produce these burls are quite small and grow exclusively in the Atlas mountains of Morrocco in almost inaccessible regions. The wood has also been called Thyine (and is mentioned as such in the Bible in Revelation 18:12). It is also known as Citron burl. These burls have to be transported down the mountainsides to the lowlands by donkeys or mules as there are no access roads. They grow, not on the trunk of the tree as we often see in the woods around us, but on the root systems, very much like a potato, underground. Many of the root burls have been hidden there for very long periods of time as the trees disappeared up to 100 years ago and the roots remained buried. As a result of the dry climate and the resinous qualities of the burl, they remain perfectly preserved, to be discovered and excavated many years later. Because the tree has been gone for so long, it can be challenging to know where the roots and the burls might be.
127 lb Thuya Root Burl arrives in Canning all the way from Morocco.
Where to make that first cut?
I’ve been eyeing this burl up for a long time, hoping it wouldn’t sell, so finally I took courage and brought it home! Next comes the scary bit – where do I make that first cut? It’s important to maximise the wood that will be available to work with and it’s not possible to see the intensity of the figuring until the first cut has been made. There also was a hole on the side that penetrated the burl quite deeply and it was impossible to predict the direction and depth of this flaw.
After seeing my original post on social media about this purchase my neighbour, film-maker Kimberly Smith, was extremely curious and offered to record the moment of the first cut to reveal the beauty in the video you see below. Many thanks to Kim!
And here is the burl open for us to see the beauty inside!
Thuya root burl open in my workshop
And a closeup of the cut surface of this burl.
From here the hard work begins, to fashion the box you see above from smaller pieces cut out of this block. I also use this wood as accents, inlay and to line the interior of some of my boxes. Because this wood is so rare and precious, I prefer to use it for these, as it pains me to lose so much in the shavings and sawdust that result from a finished box.
Subscribe to posts
Please check your spam folder for the confirmation email.
