Wooden Bowls

I've been passively seeking a wood turner to make some bowls for me over the past few years; I envisioned adding micro-mosaics to simple wooden bowls. I say passively because the timing needed to be right, and the collaboration needed to have the right "attitude". When I met Dale Yoder earlier this year, the conversation easily opened up to this idea that had been brewing.

Dale is a local farmer who turns bowls from salvaged wood; it is something he does in his spare time, with great joy. My husband, Scott, and I met with Dale and his wife, Tammy, a few months back at their farmhouse where we looked at several bowls and platters Dale was working on. We discussed what I needed (a shallow channel for micro-mosaics) and with not much else by way of direction, we decided to go forward with a collaboration. Dale used madrone and walnut to make me three small bowls, about 6" diameter.

 

I wanted the micro-mosaics to stand out, but also complement the wood grain, so I chose a pattern that represents raindrops. The concentric circles of color lap at the edges of the wood, ever widening and overlapping as ripples on water. Bowls represent potential, and the raindrops pattern to me is a form of consciousness; of our responsibility to each other, and the ways in which we can affect positive outcomes for others.