Bob has always wanted to carve elegant embellishments on yarn bowls. That’s why when he got a pneumatic power (dental) drill in January, I wondered where he was going to find the time to develop this new skill along with his 40 hr. week turning habit...

I finally got in a few practice sessions carving the words knit, crochet, yarn, etc., on wood samples and was ready to start something simple. Bob was a bit concerned when I asked for three segmented pine yarn bowls to carve words big on bowl in order to practice accurate curves, straight lines and removal. After carving, I filled the grooves with our sparkle inlay making three very blingy yarn bowls. He thinks they’re a bit tacky, I think they’re fun and festive –what do you think?

Now I’m hooked. Yesterday, Bob roughed out a XXL Cherry Yarn Bowl that’s begging for a nice carved relief border around the rim. I’ll certainly need get to work on carving technique in the next few weeks while the bowl cures.

Power carving is fun and relaxing when I have this 500,000 RPM tool in my hand. However, I was recently paralyzed with fear when my hygienist used a similar drill to clean my teeth on my last dental visit. I was suddenly struck by the trust I was putting in my dentist, with this high powered tool

​One blank I had to discard because it was too soft to safely turn. The other I mounted up and took a chance that it wouldn’t disintegrate. What emerged was a fascinating bowl with a blend of decay interspersed with sound wood. In some spots it was very spongy with colorful decay. Other spots completely rotted through; indicating hours of work to come.

I stabilized the piece with wood hardener, which petrified the decay, making it stable enough to work through the sanding and finishing stages. The blue inlay is where the wood was rotted through; the golden tones are various stages of decay while the rust areas are sound wood, unaffected by decay bacteria.

After twenty sanding and finishing cycles, I was rewarded with a finish like glass, interesting spalting and grains enhanced by pools and veins of our proprietary inlay. This bowl was so much fun to work with, I'm saving it to my personal collection as inspiration for future wood Wabi-Sabi.
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