Three New Maple Bowls

Three New Maple Bowls Front

Three New Maple Bowls Front

I recently finished three new bowls, all turned from Maple.  But each bowl is very different from the other and I think this highlights the diversity of possibility inherent with Maple.

Three New Maple Bowls Rear

Three New Maple Bowls Rear

The first bowl is an Ambrosia Maple from Kentucky.  The wood has light ambrosia features but they are clearly present.  If one looks quite closely, there are even reddish, pinkish, and purplish colorations in some places, very unusual for Maple which is normally quite plain and without color of any type.  The texture is quite fine and this piece turned out excellent in my opinion.  That is a good thing as it is intended as a Christmas gift for an in-law relation.

KY Ambrosia Maple Interior

KY Ambrosia Maple Interior

KY Ambrosia Maple Exterior

KY Ambrosia Maple Exterior

The other Ambrosia Maple bowl is quite different.  There is a great deal going on with this particular bowl.  It is heavily ambrosia but it also has several unique added features including insect bore holes that one can see light through now that the sidewalls are sufficiently thin turned.  The piece also has some checking.  I know some wood turners toss bowls with checks but I think it speaks to the natural and unpredictable nature of wood as a natural material.  Predictable and same as every-other-piece thermo-formed plastic you can get at Walmart; wood is nature and nature isn’t always “perfect” and never predicable.

Ambrosia Maple Interior

Ambrosia Maple Interior

Ambrosia Maple Exterior

Ambrosia Maple Exterior

The third bowl is far and away my favorite and although my original intent was to give it away as a gift, I am really struggling with a deep desire to keep this piece.  It is an intensely and beautifully quilted example of Maple.  The figure is incredible.  As you move the bowl in the light the figure literally moves and dances.  The stripes seem to change color from light to dark.  It becomes three-dimensional, perfect example of chatoyancy.  I don’t that I have ever made a bowl that impressed me more than this one.  I have additional pieces of quilted Maple that I can make into bowls that I may choose to keep for myself so I am almost thinking that I can stand to give this one away.  Time will tell.

Quilted Maple Interior

Quilted Maple Interior

Quilted Maple Exterior

Quilted Maple Exterior

I have a curly Maple blank that I will be turning in the next few days.  I may add it here once completed.

I truly think that these three bowls go a long way to showing how diverse Maple can be and toward showing my it is rapidly becoming my absolute favorite wood even though I have piles and piles of exotic and colorful imports, this standard domestic stand-by has stolen my heart.

UPDATE:

Curly Maple Interior

Curly Maple Interior

I have finished a fourth Maple bowl in the batch of 26 bowls total that I have made for the holidays of 2015.  This Maple bowl, dish really, was sold as “curly Maple.”  Now, if you look really closely under the right light and move the piece back and forth then you can just make out the curly and stripe but it simply is nowhere near as pronounced as the quilted example above.  Obviously, you can’t move it about in a photo.  The color is odd for Maple.  The rear shows the more typical pale coloration of Maple and what I believer is happening with this piece is that most of it is heartwood.  Normally, heartwood is the most desireable part of any timber, but in the case of Maple, and some other species as well, it is the sapwood that is most often used because it is a nice uniform pale color as opposed to this grayish color that is far less attractive.  But, the piece is unique and stands on its own merits.  It resembles Magnolia more than anything else I can think to compare it to.

Curly Maple Exterior

Curly Maple Exterior