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Handmade Gifts for friends and your home
Turning is a kind of carving where the gouges, chisels, and scrapers are moved against wood spinning on the lathe. Maneuvering the tools has been called a kind of slow dance.
All of the work here is made by a small group of turners in Maine – Mark Baldwin of Borealis Press, Peter Keniston of Turner, and Temple Blackwood in Castine. There may be similarities between some pieces but no two pieces are just the same. New work is added regularly and some new turners may join in too. All work on this site is one of a kind. Unique pieces of wood, such as burls, are like snowflakes and people: there is not another identical one in the world.
We call many of these lidded bowls Butter Bowls because they’re such an elegant and practical way to keep butter out of the refrigerator – or in it if you prefer. The bowl in the photo here has been in constant use at our house since 2016. No two are exactly the same but they all work beautifully. They are so handy, in fact, that a Borealis Butter Bowl Cult has sprung up and may run a candidate for president or a school board near you.
Lauren Murray is one of the founding cult members. She writes:
“Domestic life began anew when my butter bowl arrived. I depend on her completely. My guests won’t leave.”
This walnut and maple bowl had a long trip from seeds to trees to planks, to the lathe. Once the blank was on the lathe all of these chips (plus what the broom missed and what went into the house in my hair and clothes) had to be carved away to make your bowl pretty and useful.
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