The shape of things...

Every few months we take some time to look around and see interesting shapes and they way we can use them in our work. From art pottery to 17th century punch bowls. This sounds like a lot of divergent shapes. This art pottery was very interesting in it's form. Now, in order to simplify it for our purposes, the handle became solid and the deep ribbing wouldn't translate very well into wood, but here is one of the inspiration pieces: . In this punch bowl it was the outline that was so appealing: Finally, here is a lidded bowl from ages ago. It's amazing to look through the ages as more things change the more things stay the same. This vessel is from the 2nd or 3rd century all are courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. It is an incredible museum and if you ever have the chance to go there - do. . This is the final lidded box. It is larger than a shaving bowl and is more of an object d'art. There is a well inside but the diameter is 8 inches across. The cross current grain of the mahogany reminds us of the waves in the ocean whether it might be a rip current or waves crashing in to the beach. If you would like to take this home or see more of our work, please visit our Etsy Shop, Lovgren & Daughter.

Write Away! Wooden Pens turned on a lathe.

One of the items that we make is wooden pens. They are great fun to make. From the beginning when they are blocks of wood, to their turning and the trials and tribulations of working with wood. They crack and pop and sometimes the blanks (hunks of wood)dry and distort especially those made of fruit woods like pistachio and apple. It is a whole new ball game. . This is a blank of laminated woods which gives us stripes in the end product. These on still on the mandrel (metal rod) fresh from the lathe. . Here these are the pieces drying on paper plates, we use a nail to support them vertically. Best way to dry round things. If you have noticed, I write on the plates where the pieces are in the finishing process. It really helped when we were working on a large order for the Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin. . Here is the striped pen as a result of the blank from the first picture. We also make fountain pens but that's a topic for another day. To see more, visit our Etsy Shop: Lovgren & Daughter. Nice to visit with you today!

Waves of Grain

We have new decorative bowl made of Mahogany. We are still putting the final coats of finish on it now. . We took some of the musical instrument grade mahogany and laminated it together. Laminating is actually when you glue boards together to make a thickness that suits your needs. In this case, we alternated the grain patterns so that you can see them flow cross currently as your eye travels up the bowl. . This bowl started out as a shave bowl, it was rather large for a shave bowl but in cutting it down we would have lost the gentle form that compliments the grain. . We hope you like it as much as we do. It will be available in our Etsy shop: Lovgren & Daughter in a few days.

Branching Out

SO we've got some really interesting pieces of wood that are too small for the projects we work on. But there is still a lot of great wood out there. One of our trees a stately Maple was severely damaged during Hurricane Sandy and there are branches galore. We also have the annual pruning of the Apple trees: And some trimming of the Japanese Maples which give us this beautiful leaves in the fall. So we've been thinking about adding wooden buttons and glass coasters to the products we currently make. Stayed tuned for the updates as the new projects take shape. Saw dust awaits! Kristin

Hello to the rest of the world!

Привет! Через статистика есть немало русских зрителей. Это слишком круто! Добро пожаловать, и я надеюсь, что вы оставить записку, чтобы поздороваться. Если Google Translate делает ошибки, прости меня.

Salut! Grâce à des statistiques il ya un bon peu de téléspectateurs français. C'est trop cool! Bienvenue et j'espère que vous laissez une note pour dire bonjour. Si google translate fait des erreurs, pardonnez-moi.

Hallo! Durch die Statistik Es gibt durchaus ein paar deutsche Zuschauer. Das ist zu cool! Willkommen und ich hoffe, Sie lassen eine Notiz Hallo zu sagen. Wenn Google Translate macht Fehler, vergib mir.

Hej! Genom statistiken finns en hel del svenska tittare. Det är för cool! Välkommen och jag hoppas du lämnar ett meddelande att säga hej. Om Google Translate gör fel, förlåt mig.

Cześć! Poprzez statystyki są sporo polskich widzów. To jest zbyt cool! Witamy i mam nadzieję zostawić notatkę się przywitać. Jeśli Google Translate popełnia błędy, wybacz mi.

Hi!  Through the stats there are quite a few American viewers.  That is too cool!  Welcome and I hope you leave a note to say hello.  If google translate makes errors, forgive me. 

From Rough to Round

Now that we have an approximate shape that is circular we can mount it on the lathe for the rounding out parts.

This is the blank mounted on the lathe.  You can see here one of the vertical cuts to remove the corner went a little too deep.  It's okay.  There is enough wood to make minor adjustments while it is on the lathe.

Eric at the lathe making the first passes.

Eric is at the lathe rounding and shaping.  Notice the tool rest this is where a turner rests their tools to ensure an even cut. 

This is the very roughed out bowl.  Now we can see the cool shapes and colors that will be part of the bowl.

From Block to Bowl

Or from square peg to round holder

I thought it would be nice to include you all in "the process".  Of course, wood starts out as a tree.  We're not going back that far.  We have an awesome source for turning blanks (fancy phrase for blocks of wood).  If you are in the market for blanks Gary at NC Woods is the best.  Great guy, great wood.  The website is http://www.ncwood.biz/.  They also have an ebay store.  I can recommend them without hesitation.  And no, I'm not shilling for them.

So, your blank starts out life as a block of wood.  In this case it is an Ambrosia Maple (Ambrosia explaination in previous posts) Maple, a nice tree.

Am = Ambrosia Green= lots of water

Curly = pattern in the grain possibly curly

The blank is marked with a circle to provide a guide for getting the edges off.  We then use the band saw to saw into the wood on the horizontal plane.  Cutting off the corners could be tricky.  The wood has the potential of cracking and splitting in unwanted places.  Thus resulting in sad faces.  Sure one could think that it would be nice to smoke meat on the grill with a nice maple, but well we fall in love with each piece as it takes shape. 

More tomorrow.  It is too much fun for one day :)  Thanks for checking in.  I would love to hear from you.

How to bring your Treasure Home

Some thing I haven't mentioned yet is how to bring home a Wooden Treasure. 

Etsy is where we  have our shop.  It's called Lovgren & Daughter.  This may not be breaking news.

Etsy's About Statement is: "Our mission is to empower people to change the way the global economy works. We see a world in which very-very small businesses have much-much more sway in shaping the economy, local living economies are thriving everywhere, and people value authorship and provenance as much as price and convenience. We are bringing heart to commerce and making the world more fair, more sustainable, and more fun."

Etsy provides a platform by which sellers can put their work, their art, the special pieces of yourself out into the web.  It is economical and a vibrant, supportive community of artists. 

In my personal experience, Etsians ROCK!  Fellow creaters can lift you up when your spirits are down, give advice, share another view, make suggestions when you are stuck creatively and share a cup of coffee. 

There are amazing artists and crafters.  One of my favorite woodworkers is: 

Jerry's Wood Works
He makes amazing beer tap handles.  This one is in purpleheart.  He does custom orders and you won't believe what he can do.

His shop is also on Etsy.  He also makes personalized drum sticks.

If you would like to find Lovgren & Daughter on Etsy follow this link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LovgrenandDaughter.  We also have a FB page if you would like to "Like" us.  We will be your friend.  Really.  Oh and we won't post 85 times a day.  It's annoying to receive them - I think so too.  Maybe once a week.  Just to say Hi :)

The Lathe and the Mandrels

This is the lathe.  After the piece of wood has been placed on the mandrel (metal stick between two points) is spins really fast.  During the spinning, one shapes the wood with various lethal looking tools.

Some are for making curves or spindels others are for gently shaping.  Kinda cool looking and extremely sharp edges.

 These are several mandrels after they have come off the lathe.  They have some shellac applied to seal the wood.  This is the stage before finish and assembly into their letter openers or pen hardware.

Wood From the Beginning

Woodworking:  The First Steps

How do you start in woodworking?  The easy answer is you start with wood.  Or you can start with loving trees.  I started with trees years ago when my bedroom window looked out on to a large sugar maple in the hinterlands of New York State.  It turned the most amazing colors in the fall and was an excellent place to climb for me and my friends.

I also love of the smell freshly cut wood.  Whether it is intended for building or burning; wood is still important. It smells like all things fresh and new.  It also holds the promise of newly crafted objects.  It was a staple of life in the country.  My Dad, Eric, was always building something, a new deck, rustic clapboards for the house, or hand cut dovetails for a drawer.  He cut trees to create firewood which kept our house warm and toasty in the winter.  All was good when you could smell the first wood fire of the Fall.  The house would be warm and cozy after running around all day in the chilly air and damp leaves.

I think I am one of the few people who can fall asleep to the “comforting” sound of a circular saw.   

Every project we do starts with the wood, the color, the grain, its quirks and secrets.  I will write more on the different types, applications, and species of trees in the following posts.  Glad to have you stop by!  Do you have a have a favorite tree?  Type of tree? Type of wood?  Let’s discuss!