June Newsletter

Summer-ready

Walnut spoons with charred handles on a maple wood platter

It's been another busy month that I spent wrapping up work on an order of tableware for Chef Nicholas Leiss to use in his Oscine Dinners celebrating the bounty of the Hudson Valley. Our collaboration has challenged me to grow my production skills and to try new techniques. He'll send me a photo of something that inspires him and ask if I can make a similar item. This year, one of the items that he asked me to make was a set of walnut dessert spoons with charred handles. I have heard of spoon carvers roasting their spoons, but I had never tried it. With only the handle to be burned, I didn't want to put them in the oven. And because I don't have a propane torch, like some woodturners use, I developed a method where I use a heat gun and aluminum foil to focus the heat solely on the handle. It took some testing, but it worked out nicely in the end.

Making the walnut dessert spoons

Since finishing this project, I’m hitting the reset button by digging into my unfinished projects bin. I found two spoons that just needed some final touches and a coat of oil and a half-done bowl in Chinese chestnut.

Bark-handled black birch spoon, Chinese chestnut bowl and spoon

Summer is a good time for me to work on some unrelated projects and to dabble in other media. I recently took a paper making workshop with Bat Flower Press and really enjoyed exploring a new craft. I bought a basic kit and plan to try it at home. I also want to get back to making botanical blueprints while I have the summer sunshine and ample leaves to work with.

Paper making workshop with dried flowers, my piece is on the left

The most significant thing for me this past month was getting my new lathe set up. To date, I had been using a mini-lathe that I bought used from someone in my local woodturning group. When I got started in woodturning, I took workshops at the local state college. The wood shop there was massive with professional machines of all types. There were massive planers, jointers and bandsaws. The lathes were full-sized industrial machines and it took me a while to learn the basics of how to set them up to start a project.

The college wood shop where I first learned woodturning

I was heavily reliant on the teaching assistant and was very aware of the limited time that I would have to work during each class. I wanted to keep practicing but a home setup seemed daunting. Where and how could I do this at home? The next workshop class I took was at an arts center and the wood shop there was tiny in comparison. The machines that I needed at the college were present, but on a much smaller scale. Instead of the full-sized lathes, I worked on a mini-lathe. It was eye-opening for me because I was able to make many of the same things as before and I realized that starting with the smaller scaled machines was the way I could set myself up at home.

Now I have a full-sized lathe at home, but I deeply appreciate the mini-lathe that I started on. I was able to make so many things on it. It had some limiting factors, but overall, it's a great machine, and I'm not letting go of it.

My new full-sized lathe, a Powermatic PM 3520C