canarywood bowl

It was almost too hot to work today, like, 90 degrees and muggy. But I wanted to finish up this canarywood piece, and that meant, 120grit, then 180, 240, and 320. Back and forth to my barn/shop/studio... Woodworkers have shops, artists have studios, I am (shrug) kind of in-between. I never call myself an "artist" though. Canarywood is very easy to work with- not too hard, not too soft, quite smoooooth, sometimes has a great figure if it has had any wormhole action (which this one had none....) Martha Stewart has one of my canarywood bowls in her kitchen. (a feather in my cap and a nice bowl in her kitchen)
I LOVE the Martha people. They all sound so enthusiastic and perky and friendly.
So a day of sanding, done. And the bowl, signed, dated, and a 1st coat of Behlen's Salad Bowl clear finish, done. Maybe i'll do a cocobolo piece next. I have a lot of wood blocks to choose from. And that is a good thing.

East Coast heat

it's a heat wave, no doubt about it. here on sept. 26th, '07, it is around 90 degrees. since it will only turn cooler, and the price of oil is skyhigh, all windows are open to let the heat in. it would be great to not turn up the thermostat until october.
i am working on a canarywood block, right now at 80 grit. it's rather plain, but nevertheless a sweet piece of wood. too hot today to finish it= 120, 180, 240, 320 grit. i make sculptural bowls. soon i will post some photos and links on this site, but since this is my first blog ever, and i don't even own a digital camera, i have some footwork to do.
i'd like to go over to my favorite local watershed... (it's been rather dry this summer) and check out some pools and see if there are any trout swimming around. that, and this time of year there are sometimes gangs of cedar waxwings chomping up on berries and insects, swooping across the stream, conducting flight maneuvers that pilots can only dream about.