turned cherry wood bowl

Artisan Wood Bowls Are My Specialty

For the most part I am a self-taught wood worker. Everyone stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before and I am most grateful for all the wonderful written materials that are available for people like myself to save having to reinvent the wheel.

I started woodworking at the tender age of four. My mother found she could keep me occupied by giving me a kitchen knife and letting me "twiddle" as I called it sitting on the kitchen stairs. I can never remember when I did not have a pocket knife and soon learned to sharpen it to a keen edge. Building model airplanes was a strong interest as I got older.

When I learned the Transcendental Meditation technique at age 37, I found my desire to create things in wood simply exploded. In a few short years I was making things on my own that I thought years of apprenticeship would be necessary to accomplish.

As I began to withdraw from the field of medical practice I found myself wanting to spend more and more time in the wood shop making hand turned wood bowls. My wife is always amazed at how wood seems to seek me out. She says that I am a "wood magnet." I have been collecting wood wherever I lived and I have lived in a lot of places in the United States. Of course, moving all that wood around the country was trying at times. With each move there seems to be more wood to move.

So my wood is like a collection. Each piece evokes a story and a place. I cut the trees myself, cure the wood and then finally make something with it. Therefore all my finished pieces come with a story about the wood or the person who gave it to me. Somehow I feel that this makes the object more interesting and I try to share these stories on this site.

About 95% of the work I do is on native American woods. Since I cannot vouch for the methods used to harvest tropical woods when I see them in the store, I feel better about knowing that the wood I use has been harvested in a sustainable manner. Usually it comes from trees which have been felled by storms or have died and must be removed. There are so many beautiful native woods, many of which are not commercial species, that I seldom get the urge to purchase exotics species for woodturning.

This web site is a portfolio of the work I do. All of my work is custom. Some of the pieces shown on the site are still for sale, while others have been sold long ago. I am happy to recreate works of similar design but matching the exact wood species or grain is not possible due to the tremendous variability in wood and its supply.

Any object may be purchased by phone and shipped to you. I accept payment by check only.

My work has been shown in Art Galleries in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have been asked to participate in Art Shows in Maryland for my hand turned wood bowls, including the Decoy and Wildfowl Festival in Havre de Grace, and the forty-fourth annual Art Festival also in Havre de Grace, where I received an honorable mention for my work last year.

Please feel free to contact me by email or phone: (802) 923-6781 to check on the availability of any items on the site or to order a custom made wooden item.

Edwards Smith

Edwards Smith