Starfish Wooden Bowl is the first piece of wood art in my Starfish series and also remains my favorite. It is a bowl that I turned with thin walls and then went about carving the starfish.
Inspiration From Mother Nature
Inspiration for Starfish Wooden Bowl is Mother Nature. I discovered a bunch of starfish on the beach. This was one of the lucky days while searching for beach treasures there was a reward. I gathered them up and took them home anticipating that I would be able to make something worthwhile. Little did I know that these guys would become inspiration for many wood art pieces. This piece is one of my early attempts at carving and remains my favorite piece. It is an important transition piece where I started to move beyond just turning. Here is another Starfish item.
Process
The process the make this item is to trace the starfish onto a thin wood bowl with the starfish tips slightly touching each other. Then I carve away all the negative space just leaving the starfish. I continue to carve, sand and refine each starfish. The final decoration step is Pyrography which is a wood branding technique. This creates a texture and fine line details. Remember those useless wood burners from the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts? Now there are professional tools allowing Makers to do illustration.
Studio
I design and produces all of my art in Montvale, New Jersey, USA. The primary tool that I use is the wood lathe. I am addicted to removing layers of wood and watching the block become the form I am pursuing. Once the shape exists I will spend many additional hours at the workbench refining the piece. It is a form of meditation where the hours melt away and the object takes on a life of its own.