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Cuppable Cups

& Holdable Bowls

Begun at Windgate ITE 2018 at the Center for Art in Wood

My favorite thing about wood furniture comes from running my hands across it and imagining I can feel its maker’s experience. One of the most beautiful parts about learning a craft is being granted the power to read into the stories that objects carry. The hand lives on in the things that it has done.

We lead with our hands, into people, new objects, and places. I’ve always loved the idea of a handle of an object being the hand of it. A teapot can say “hello, please hold me this way.” And to “shake the hand(le)” of a building before entering is as a means of introduction to a space.

Our daily lives are full of mundane experiences in which our hands are so quietly involved that we can forget how dependent on them we really are.

This work is a woodturner’s meditation on the hand. It is based on my own hands, turned into accommodating gestures that hope to communicate an experience of making and turning, learning and listening, and holding and molding—from my hand to yours.

Made during the Windgate ITE residency, with many, many thanks to the Center for Art in Wood, NextFab & University of the Arts; Photo credit: John Carlano & Cristina Tamarez

Hover for some details.

Power Grabber (form study)There are ways to hold things, and cups, that make you feel confidence. — Power Grabber (form study)
There are ways to hold things, and cups, that make you feel confidence.

Hug MugWhen did you last hug a mug? — Hug Mug
When did you last hug a mug?

Stabilizer (form study)from a particularly good definition of "Bowl" which described it as "A simple device for stabilizing food." — Stabilizer (form study)
from a particularly good definition of "Bowl" which described it as "A simple device for stabilizing food."

Power GrabberInspired by the way a chalice projects an image of power to others, crossed with the body language necessary to grab a cup by its base, You drink with power, and never put it down. — Power Grabber
Inspired by the way a chalice projects an image of power to others, crossed with the body language necessary to grab a cup by its base, Drink with power. Never put it down.

Friendly Fingers (form study)Lonely? Grab a cup. Loneliness never felt so good. — Friendly Fingers (form study)
Lonely? Grab a cup. Loneliness never felt so good.

Friendly FingersLike holding a new hand for the first time. — Friendly Fingers
Like holding a new hand for the first time.

Small LatteAccording to how I hold a small latte while walking. I did not know at the time that walking with a small latte down city streets would become a thing of my past. — Small Latte
According to how I hold a small latte while walking.
I did not know at the time that walking with a small latte down city streets would become a thing of my past.

Small Latte (form study)"Grabbable Cactus"The very first small latte turned into a grabbable cactus. When I realized the flange was not working in my favor, I nixed it. Then I realized sharp corners were not working in my favor and nixed those. When… — Small Latte (form study)
"Grabbable Cactus"
The very first small latte turned into a grabbable cactus. When I realized the flange was not working in my favor, I nixed it. Then I realized sharp corners were not working in my favor and nixed those. When I finally decided to buckle down on a shape, I made the shape which was in the curve of my hand this whole time. Duh.

Offering OneMade in memory of Phil Brown, a kind and very talented turner who housed the Windgate ITE and gave us wood from his woodpile just before he passed away. This beautiful figured cherry was from that day, and has been offered to the center … — Offering One
Made in memory of Phil Brown, a kind and very talented turner who housed the Windgate ITE and gave us wood from his woodpile just before he passed away. This beautiful figured cherry was from that day, and has been offered to the center for Art in Wood, of which he was a huge part. Thank you Phil.

Hors D'oeuvresThe tiny wearable munchkins of the family. Kept between the fingers. — Hors D'oeuvres
The tiny wearable munchkins of the family. Kept between the fingers.

Offering TwoSmooth and irresistable, the negative of the tops are reciprocated on the bottoms--- enough for one, or two hands to offer. They don't show up in photographs (the most important things never do but we try anyway.) — Offering Two
Smooth and irresistable, the negative of the tops are reciprocated on the bottoms--- enough for one, or two hands to offer. They don't show up in photographs (the most important things never do but we try anyway.)

Revisited in porcelain at the Goggleworks Center for the Arts

Rock in Place

What is a rock displaced?

Rocks in place are history. When geologists look at striations in rock, like say, the layers that cut across the Grand Canyon, they read back in time far beyond the human. A mountain pushed up here, a glacier depositing stones there, a new deposit formed when the weather and sea level shifted…

The scales of time we aren’t familiar with and can’t innately understand (how long does 3.3 million years feel like?) are nullified when we remove a rock from one place and put it in another. It’s now a nice hand-held object.

New Sun

This is a homesick piece.

It's made out of Oregon Ash, which only grows in this little strip of the country, and an Oregon Sunstone, which is extremely distinctive to Oregon and is the state gemstone.

The split turned walls were turned at the same time from the same blank, left thick to show off the turned surface and give it a Chinese roofline.

There's a famous Chinese poem hidden inside the piece, which every Chinese-speaking kid learns in school, and which I know by heart despite being barely fluent. I think of it every time I'm homesick.

Split-Turned Frames

Made at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship

All four sides of each frame are turned at once, then split apart and reassembled. Come see the demo at the 2024 AAW International Symposium in Portland, or read about it in the April 2024 Issue of American Woodturner!

Split-Turned Box

Clover Frame

Good Luck!

Consumption

For the show “Materialize” at Da Vinci Art Alliance

Unfinished Business

Can only be opened once

Soaking overnight softens the hickory lashings enough to unbind them. Its contents become irreversibly changed. The right to do this belongs to only one man…

smaller world

For the show, “Nature/Nurture” at AAW Gallery of Wood art and AAW 2020 Symposium

Made in the quiet Philadelphia pandemic.

I work in the light of a desk lamp, at a desk wrapped in tools, in a warm soft room with windows on three sides, overlooking a woodshop around it, in the warehouse of the company I work for, tucked in the streets of my city.

From here I am casting out a very small light, to a city I've never been, and then an international event I've yet to attend, to join many other smaller worlds, that are embedded in objects, like miniature pictures of the feelings of someone who made them.

Secret basket page

If you’ve made it this far, welcome. I have made so many objects since deciding to make things in earnest. There’s no way all of it will ever get recorded and shared, so my apologies, internet archive. But I’ll admit it just wouldn’t be right to omit the basketry crossover work here.

I am doing less of it these days, but basketry has informed how I work and has granted me amazing opportunities to travel, meet people, and learn about how the world works. It’s made me love trees even more than before (I’m looking at you, hickory). Some of these things are collaborations. Some more meaningful ones may someday beget their own pages. I’m avoiding writing any more, but if you have questions about the work, just reach out and ask (or go to Instagram)!