LABOR DAY WIP

For Labor Day this year I thought I would share a work-in-progress of an idea that was much more labor than I expected. This idea came about in a rather curious way as I was looking at several teabowls upside down on a small cedar board that has been banging around the studio all the way back to Cleveland. I was looking at the bowl and wondering if I could make a lid like I have seen on Haida bentwood boxes and decided to give it a try. I am sure that right off it is clear I am no wood worker and using the tools at hand; a saw, wood file, wood chisel, an ancient ball peen hammer and sandpaper I decided to have at it. I have spared you a lot of the drudgery in terms of the slideshow but for a bowl that has very little time invested in it, the lid ended up being almost two hours of labor which included the three coat of polyeurathane to seal the wood. After the lid was completed, I made a group of knobs and settled in on two which were fired in a subsequent glaze firing. I choose the stupa style knob and attached it by using a metal pin that ran into the wood and ceramic knob with epoxy to hold it fast. As you may be able to tell, the lid is just a bit larger than the pot and is angled upward to give the lid some visual lift. Now I won't say this is the greatest feat of wood working ever but considering it was my very first attempt I am relieved that I did not cut myself, break the bowl or incur any unforseen calmity all in the pursuit of yet another out of the blue idea.