Salad bowl design.

[Glenn Lefley]

I’m looking for help! I need to make two salad bowl sets for Christmas. I have a couple of large dried blocks of gorgeous curly maple about 13-14 inch by 5-6 inch thick and about 20 blanks of 7 inch by 2.5 inch. All dry to 8-10% . Need a pleasing design. I’m thinking of a standard one for large bowl, but need a really nice design for the single serving size ones. Maybe a lip on them as really nice curly maple? I don’t know. Please show me some designs, sketches, pics etc. And any help on doing 20 the same size and shape bowls that will stack nice.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Go to the photo gallery section of this site. There are some beautiful bowls there, but try to make yours your own. You’ll find that most satisfying!

 

[Bill Boehme]

I prefer a simple parabolic or elliptical shape ... no corners and no lip because those things can make it difficult to get some common salad ingredients out of the bowl (small pieces of lettuce, soft avacado, Caesar dressing, parmesan cheese). Corners and coves also make cleaning harder.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

And dare I say, don't go for paper thin bowls, either. These are working pieces and have to hold up to use, stacking, drops to the floor, etc. For any "work" bowl I make, I cut it on the hefty side rather than the featherweight side. I wouldn't have a problem leaving the serving size bowls 1/4" thick, or more. Build a pleasing design, but a durable design.

Steve.

 

[robo hippy]

I generally go for a shape like Bill describes, simple curve. Some times I put a little ogee by the foot. I just prefer simple shapes, and they are easier to turn and sand out.

robo hippy

 

[Randy Anderson]

I'll pile on for shape for functional bowls - nice curve, round off inside edge for when folks pick it up by the edge they don't feel sharp transition to inside curve from lip. A bit thicker so it has some feeling of durability when it gets used - doesn't feel light and fragile. I always put a foot on my bowls about 1/3 or less of diameter of bowl, about 1/8 inch tall so it sits up off the table. Slight recess in foot so I can sign it and it has a small "rim" to sit on table that I think helps it sit flatter. For me the biggest challenge you have is to make 20 the same. I have tried before and I really struggle to make multiple identical pieces. They might be close but if set side by side they are all slightly different. Same diameter and height likely but not exact. My point is you might not want to fight the exactness of them all being perfectly the same. They are hand made, each one being slightly different is OK to me.

 

[Chris Lawrence]

If you want to make a bunch identical after the first one make a cardboard cutout to match the outside shape. Use the cutout on all the rest of the bowls to finetune the outside.

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I turned sets for my son's families from Mulberry logs I had at that time, all similar and about the same size, they use them, and have gotten a dark golden color over the years.

They are about 7 or maybe 8 inches across, a couple pictures from some of them at that time, with the yellow color of Mulberry.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I’m looking for help! I need to make two salad bowl sets for Christmas. I have a couple of large dried blocks of gorgeous curly maple about 13-14 inch by 5-6 inch thick and about 20 blanks of 7 inch by 2.5 inch. All dry to 8-10% . Need a pleasing design. I’m thinking of a standard one for large bowl, but need a really nice design for the single serving size ones. Maybe a lip on them as really nice curly maple? I don’t know. Please show me some designs, sketches, pics etc. And any help on doing 20 the same size and shape bowls that will stack nice.

Note you have no way to tell what the moisture content in the core of those blanks is especially the 5-6" thick maple so it is best to get started as soon as possible because when you open them up to a bowl shape it is only then that uniformly dry is possible.

 

[Kevin Weir]

Whatever design you choose Glenn, my advice is passed on from the late Dale Nish. The one time I saw him demonstrate, he stressed that no bowl should have a flat bottom. A nice gentle curve at the bottom tends to be more aesthetically pleasing from both a visual and tactile perspective. As for replicating the same design, small, subtle differences in size and shape help communicate that the bowls were made by a person and not by a machine.