Commissions 1

Commissions offer a different challenge to my everyday work. I love to have different commissions. Sometimes I am given commissions to turn bowls from wood that someone’s home and that is always a pleasure as it has so much personal meaning to the people involved. Wood always has a history but if that history is linked to the people who are able to keep the wood and possibly even pass it down through the generations that is so special. It is also through being given commissions to turn something from people’s own wood that I have come across some of the most beautiful wood I have had the pleasure to work with.

I was given a commission to turn something from a Cherry Burr. This has got to be one of the most beautiful pieces of wood I have ever come across. The burr had been sitting in someone’s garage for years. Cherry doesn’t tend to last very well and I was suspicious of how much I could get out of this, especially when I saw it. There was a lot of woodworm in much of it and some was rotten too. But I did manage to turn a beautiful bowl from what was left.

A Walnut tree was growing too close to the house and the people in question had no choice but to fell the tree. They kept three pieces of the trunk waiting to find a wood turner whose work they liked. They gave me a commission to turn salad bowls from the Walnut. This was my first experience with Walnut and this was Black or American Walnut which is beautiful. The bark was solidly fixed to the wood too – it had obviously been felled at the correct time of year. Sadly the sections had been sawn up quite small and there was severe cracking from the ends as these hadn’t been sealed. So quite a bit was lost before getting to wood with no cracks. I did manage to save a few cracked slices and sanded them as stands for saucepans, plant pots or whatever. As well as large salad bowls I had extra smaller pieces of wood that I turned into small bowls for them. These they gave as Christmas presents to various members to their family.