Crawford Coral Bowl is a box elder wood hollow form. I start with a hollow form shape. Then I carve and pierce the wood and finish with bleaching. At this point it no longer looks or feels like wood. The really neat thing about this piece is when someone everyone asks, “What is this made out of?” All of the wood qualities no longer exist. The size is 5.5 inch diameter by 3 inches tall.
Box Elder wood is a good material for creating my sea urchin creatures. After making the hollow form shape several days will be spent at the workbench carving the details with a variety of tools. When complete the item will appear as it came from the sea.
My goal with this series is to change the appearance of wood so that it no longer looks like wood. The inspiration for Crawford Coral Bowl is Mother Nature. During a beach vacation everyone searches the shore hoping to find a starfish, sand dollar or a sea urchin.
If you like this item you may want to take a look at Beach Erosion Bowl
Gift Ideas
Looking for a unique gift? May I suggest a few places to look. Several galleries represent my work and they are listed under About. If you do not find what you are looking for in my web store there are additional items in my Etsy Store.
Studio
I make all of my items in my studio Montvale, NJ USA. My primary machine is a wood lathe. With this tool I form the shape. When I am happy with the form it goes t the work bench where I will use a variety of processes to complete the piece. These techniques may include carving and piercing, painting and bleaching and pyrography which is branding the wood with a red hot wire tip.