I love this bowl. It was from a tree that fell over on a super steep hillside in Beverly Hills. Oscar and I did some hard work and clever rigging to get that tree off that hillside!
I’ve worked with black acacia before. I made a desk out of it once. The color is amazing!
I call it ugly-bottomed because I made a mistake when I was parting it off the lathe. I’ll explain-
The piece of wood is attached to the lathe via the jaws. They open and close to grab the wood. There ends up being some wood inside the jaws that later in the process you have to cut off… while the wood is spinning. That wood- the wood in the jaws- gets discarded.
So there’s a point where the wood is spinning at about 500 RPM, and you’re essentially holding it in your hand.
I thought I would try a new technique and I made a sort of cradle out of brown paper. When the piece was 99.9% cut free it started wobbling like crazy.
It was out of control. As you can see, damage was done. The foot (the bottom rim on which the bowl sits) was chipped and there were several gouges in the bottom.
So that’s where it’s at.
This one is about 5.25″ across the top. It sits about 1.25″ tall. ….or short!
Nick's Bowls 