| |
|
David
Walsh |
|
|
bowlmaker |
|
|
| |
| formerly sold in 35 galleries spanning 20 states...
|
|
|
| WALSH
BOWLS are now sold exclusively at eBay® |
|
who I am and what I do
 I am a full-time bowl turner and a Juried Member of the Pennsylvania Guild
of Craftsman. In total, I have sold thousands of works which are included in collections in all 50 states, Europe, the Far East, and the Middle East. In addition, my work has sold in 35 galleries across 20 states, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. I was also commissioned by National Public Television to do a limited edition of 50 bowls, and a film was made of the process. I was awarded two Judges Choice Awards and a Judges Citation Award for my contributions to NPR's annual fundraisers.
In November, 2002, I began listing my work on eBay®, and, by January,
2003, I had cancelled all my gallery contracts and scheduled shows. Now,
my work is available only on eBay®, both as individual auctions and
in my eBay®
store.
At this time, if you want an original WALSH
BOWL, you'll find it only at eBay®.
|
 BOWLS Generally, bowls have a beautiful rounded rim that cuts back under itself and then returns to resume its sweep to the bottom. This provides a pleasing shadow around the inside of the rim and is a design feature only a handmade bowl can have. The thumb hooks nicely into the undercut for lifting and gives the bowl an obvious handmade, sculptural look.
 M BOWLS Sometimes during the final turning process, certain bowls show a combination of outstanding figure, shape, or other unusual qualities. I spend extra time with these bowls in the sanding process and mark them on the bottom with an M -- meaning museum quality.
 WALL HUNG BOWLS Some of the larger, shallow bowls are equally at home on a table or as a wall hanging. The foot is fully formed and has a recessed groove turned into the base which accepts the head of a screw or nail for hanging. The bowl can be rotated to the desired orientation. The mount is solid and secure, and these hanging platters look spectacular. Many who have bought these large, hanging bowls have remarked that they have become among the most admired pieces of artwork in their collections.
 NATURAL EDGE BOWLS These are the biggest selling types of bowls at the Renwick Gallery - Smithsonian Institution. They are called Natural Edge Bowls because the outside of the tree, either with or without the bark, forms the rim of the bowl. Strikingly beautiful, these are often elliptical in shape. This seems odd because they are turned on a lathe, but it is due to the three dimensional geometry of the wood. These bowls have an especially handmade, sculptural look.
 IKEBANA VASES These vases have an insert made of very heavy epoxied cast metal and can support a good size flower arrangement. The vases have a "frog" (spiky nails) in them which holds water for fresh cut flowers, although dried flower arrangements look very nice. A glass votive and candle (not included) can also be used. All vases have the gallery finish. (The quoted weight now includes the vase.)
|
|
I work mostly with huge, old trees of character. All of these trees have reached the end of their growing lives and are brought down by storms or tree services due to their being hazards to people and property. I give them a second life.
 All
my bowls are cut out of logs, rough-turned to an approximate shape, and
dried for 6 months to several years to ensure a stable shape and a superb
finish. Without this drying process, bowls are susceptible to warping
and/or cracking, and a world class finish cannot be achieved.
 After the roughed out bowl is dry, it is mounted back on the lathe and turned to its final shape. I do 100% of the work myself -- from start to finish. I rarely measure, working mostly by eye and feel and ear. Each bowl is painstakingly sanded, processed through numerous ascending grits of sandpaper.
 Each finished piece is consecutively numbered, inscribed with the wood type, and then signed on the bottom with a burning pen. Several coats of my secret blended, hand-mixed finish are applied by hand and then buffed to a gleaming glass-smooth finish, similar to a Steinway piano's. The finish is hard, non-oily, and needs no maintenance. Dust will not stick to this finish like it does to an oil finish. Each piece feels wonderful to the touch and always produces a smile and a look of wonder to anybody who handles one.
|
| Back to top |
|
frequently asked questions
|
Q: I would like to see your personal collection. How do you choose the pieces you keep? I have seen handmade wooden bowls (most not nearly as attractive as yours) in galleries and art shows and they are quite expensive. How can you sell yours so cheaply?
A: I actually do not keep any of my own work. I decided that to be a successful bowlmaker I would have to have a reasonably large and dedicated group of buyers and collectors. I thought that if I was a buyer and knew a craftsperson was holding his best work, I would possibly look for other opportunities.
Two other things gradually became evident to me: 1) I was never sure what my best work was! That sounds funny, but it's true. (Now I know what my best work is -- it the piece I happen to be working on at the moment.) 2) By selling everything, there was nothing holding me back from moving on to do new work. One thing is clear... people really appreciate knowing that I don't hold anything back. I think that knowing all my work is available on eBay® is a real incentive to "look in" regularly.
You mentioned that my prices are cheap. When I first started, I was like any beginner, slow and fumbling. With thousands of hours of experience, one becomes quick and decisive. This is actually necessary due to the medium, wood, which is constantly moving. A bowl may not be left until the next day to complete a certain operation, or, in many cases, even until the next hour.
The two main venues for an artisan to sell his work are through galleries and arts and crafts shows. Galleries take a 100%-200% markup and need it as there are considerable expenses in running a brick and mortar store. For me, the difficulty with galleries was in the selection of which pieces to send and the lack of opportunity to converse with purchasers to receive feedback and answer questions. Arts and crafts shows are time consuming, weather dependent, and strenuous activities. I have to sell at retail prices to offset the considerable expenses.
I prefer to be "making" rather than selling. eBay® allows me to reach a wide audience and sell at prices which are reasonable for both the buyer and seller. In fact, a number of galleries buy my work on eBay® for resale in their establishments.
|
Q: I own several of your bowls. Can I get more information on each bowl and yourself for my collection?
A: The best thing to do here is to print out the listing description after you win an auction or buy from my store. This should give you as much information as you would get with any artwork you might purchase, and, in most cases, a lot more.
|
Q: Where do you get your wood?
A: I get most of my logs from local tree services and logging companies. I am very selective and take only the best available logs. For bark edge bowls, I harvest my own trees as the bark and cutting process require special care. When you hold one of my bowls, you are holding the finest and most beautiful hardwood that our American forests produce. I believe that our native woods represent the finest in the world.
|
Q: What woods do you use for your bowls?
A:
CHERRY: I use both black cherry and pin cherry. Black cherry is one of the world premier hardwoods. It is very fine grained, has a lovely undulating grain, and, if not stained, oxidizes to a rich chestnut brown color over a relatively short period of time. It is currently the hardwood in most demand in the country. It is a good choice for functional bowls, and just becomes more beautiful over time and with use. The crotch wood bowls and natural edge bowls are spectacular and make wonderful accent pieces around the home or office. Pin cherry or ame cherry,as the loggers call it, is a softer cherry which is not used much commercially as it is harder to dry and not as stable in furniture as black cherry. It can produce wonderful turnings from the crotches and oldedwood which develops as the tree matures.
WALNUT: I use both black walnut and english walnut. Black walnut has rich, chocolate brown heartwood and creamy white sapwood. The wood is stable, a soft hardwood, and finishes well. Its crotch wood is spectacular, and natural edge bowls made from it are as distinctive as it gets. It is one of the world's great cabinet -making woods. English walnut is a not an uncommon yard tree in the United States, and it provides a top quality furniture wood as well as a good nut. A closed pore wood, it is a grayish brown heartwood with a contrasting lighter sapwood.
MAPLE: I primarily use four species of maple: Silver Maple, Red Maple, Norway Maple, and Ashleaf Maple (known as Box Elder which is the name I use). Silver and red maples are soft maples, but still a hard wood. Except for crotches and burls, I use them only when affected by the ambrosia beetle or when mineral stained.
The ambrosia beetle causes darker figured patterns in the wood which run vertically in the tree. This ambrosia figuring often looks like friendly yet questioning little squiggling denizens from the deep end of the ocean. The tiny beetle tunnels appear to be little eyes taking in the strange sights of our world.
The natural edge rab bowlsare a great example of this figuring and occur in box elder as well. I love silver maple and box elder because in this area of Pennsylvania it more often than not has ambrosia figuring caused by the ambrosia and box elder beetle. The first time I did a bark edge bowl from one, I looked inside and thought, "It looks like a crab!" A nice young gal from California who collects my work paid me a visit with her parents (got to keep your eye on these old bowlmakers!). She looked at one and said, "That looks like a crab!" If you have any other natural edge bowls in your collection, you ought to think about one of these.
Norway maple is a hard maple which is primarily a domestic tree planted in yards and (my favorite) cemeteries. It usually has great crotch figure, spalt well, including a greenish black spalting not found in other maples I have used. It is also prone to burling.
Box elder is also a soft maple. It has the same type of ambrosia figuring as the red and silver maples, but it is caused by the box elder beetle. The figuring is strikingly red in the almost white wood, and is more than dramatic due to the often intense color of the red. When cutting the wood, the chain saw will be pumping out a stream of white chips which will suddenly turn blood red. Pieces from the center of the tree and crotches where the color bands can be intense may have the splits and cracks characteristic of this part of the tree. The cracks are not defects and have been stabilized and add interest to the piece.
CURLY, TIGER, FIDDLEBACK FIGURE: All maples have curly wood in the stump and crotch area. Occasionally, a tree is entirely curly from the top to the bottom, and I have been told that this is caused by genetics. I have two large, curly maples in my log yard. Curly maple is often described as iger,iddleback,illow grain,and other terms depending on its appearance.
BEECH: Fresh cut beech is quite bland with white sapwood and tan heartwood. One of the harder native woods, it was used for the heels of ladies high heel shoes before manmade synthetics. Beech is particularly susceptible to spalting, and I use only spalted beech. It develops incredibly vivid and detailed ine lineand apwoodspalting.
AMERICAN ELM: This was once a prolific street tree throughout the U.S. until Dutch Elm Disease virtually wiped it out. There are thousands of Elm Streets with not an elm on them. Three 80 year old surviving elms near me had reached the end of their life span and were given to me after being cut down. I have very little of this wood left as it is hardly ever available. It has a rich brownish gray color similar to american chestnut with sharply defined growth rings and open pores.
OSAGE ORANGE: Osage Orange is one of the heaviest and hardest native woods. Where possible, it was used in hedgerows as it grows thickly and tightly together and forms a sort of fence. It finishes to a wonderful sheen. The wood is mostly unsuitable for commercial use as it is difficult to dry, brittle, very heavy, and often has checks and bark inclusion. Fortunately, it is these attributes, along with its distinctive color, that give items turned from it so much appeal. Cracks and checks are common in this wood, especially larger pieces, but do not detract from a properly finished piece, providing the wood is seasoned and the cracks stabilized.
AMERICAN CHESTNUT: Once one of America most common trees, there were an estimated 4 billion chestnuts from the northeast to Florida and west to the Mississippi. In 1904, a blight imported with the Japanese chestnut tree virtually wiped the tree out. Original trees commonly reached 110 feet in height and 5 feet in diameter. A few small, surviving trees live short lives before succumbing to the disease. The tree was used for telegraph poles, furniture, paneling, and musical instruments. American chestnut used today is usually salvaged from old buildings. Chestnut I use came from the rafters of an old barn near me.
SPALTING: When a log is left on the ground for a year or two, a dramatic change often takes place. A process called paltingoccurs. Spalting is the beginning of the process where a log rots and breaks down to return to the forest floor. Fungi begin to enter the wood and penetrate deeply into it. The lines of penetration can be in wide bands or pencil thin lines, and, although most often black, other colors are not uncommon. The beeches and maples have the most dramatic spalting I have seen while walnut and cherry spalt little. Some spalted wood with pencil line spalting has a startling resemblance to a map with the black lines resembling a coastline. Florida and Mexico are not uncommonly found. I have heard this wood called apwood. Another common resemblance of spalted wood are unsetand andscapeconfigurations, particularly when colors are involved. Spalting stops when the wood is cut and dried, but the lines and patterns are permanent.
BURLS: Any wood can contain a burl, but maples seem to be prone to them. Burls are a mass of dormant buds enclosed within the tree, and they are often rounded, gnarled and misshapen, and appear as a bulge on the trunk. The figure of the wood is unpredictable both in color and pattern. Bark inclusions are common, and the patterns can be breathtaking. Much of the burl stock is used in the furniture and automobile industries as veneer for striking accents and trim. Their occurrence may be genetics or possibly a result of damage to a tree -- I lean toward genetics. I have several large, burled trees in my log yard that are just now beginning to provide dry blanks for finished pieces. Burls are some of the most highly valued wood when available.
Back to top
|
|
| |
|
David Walsh is an eBay® PowerSeller with 100% positive feedback
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
David
Walsh |
|
|
bowlmaker |
View this member's Reviews & Guides.
View this member's My World page.
To create your own About Me page, click here.
|
)
