Outside of San Francisco’s ferry building I often find more artisanal creations of interest than within. Yesterday, my only day in town on this visit, I ran across some beautiful woodworked items ranging from vases to bowls to cutting boards to wine bottle stoppers.
I enjoy taking a bottle of wine to a dinner at friends’ homes but I often find that the wine I bring along doesn’t get drunk because the host already has a pairing vision for the meal and has the wine choice organized. These wine bottle stoppers are all so beautiful and stay in tune with the wine-themed gift idea. They’re all in the $25 price range and notwo are alike. They’re made from different woods, each carved and stained differently.
Artist Brad Adams says this about his wood turnings:
The majority of my pieces are created from local trees that have succumbed to wind, disease, or urban expansion. I derive a great amount of pleasure from making things of beauty out of material that was destined for the landfill or the fireplace.
I find working with wood analogous to working with people. Each piece of wood is unique, and quite frequently has a mind of it’s own. It’s sometimes a challenge to find and expose the inner beauty, but it is an enjoyable and rewarding process.
Growing up on a farm in Northern Illinois, raised by depression era parents, the idea of ever becoming an artist had never crossed my mind. Now, after careers in fisheries biology and computer networking, I find myself a full time artist. I took up woodturning in 1999 and it has since become my passion and my addiction. I am the Secretary of the Bay Area Woodturners Association and a member of American Association of Woodturners as well as the World of Woodturners.
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