So… I started the divorce process in April of 2013 and it’s still going on. VERY long story there, but the only part I’ll put in this post is that way back when, my attorney made this huge, poured concrete table for the office’s conference room. He did a really good job, but there was nothing on the table, except for a pile of post it notes and pens. I told him I’d make him a bowl that would look good and help consolidate the mess. Well, after the three year mark, he quit practicing law and I got a new attorney from the firm. After a year or so, the second attorney left the firm to concentrate on appeals, so I got a new attorney from the firm.
Wendy is the newest, and hopefully last, attorney that I should need to finally put a stake through the heart of this beast. She is an exceptionally nice person and a very good attorney. After a very long meeting with her, going over a whole list of motions that were filed and were to be filed, we were chatting and I mentioned that I still owed them a bowl for the table we were sitting at. She seemed really excited at the prospect, but since the divorce has caused me to (temporarily) lose my ability to make anything, it was understood that it would still be awhile before I could come through on my much earlier promise.
As I was cleaning out the house to get it ready to put on the market, the shop had to be packed up. As I was removing things, I found a huge piece of spalted maple that I had been saving for over 9 years. There were three reasons to hold on to a gorgeous chunk of wood that long. First, I didn’t have a lathe big enough to spin a piece of timber that big and heavy, so there was a logistical concern. I also didn’t want to cut it down and make something smaller, because the whole point of keeping a large blank was to make something LARGE! Second, it had been placed safely under a work table, then several other boxes of supplies and miscellaneous crap had been placed in front of it. Out of sight, out of mind. Lastly, since this was my last piece of large spalted maple, and since I already knew the coloration from the fungal zone lines was going to be exceptional, I kinda had this fear that I’d screw it up. If you don’t start, you may never win, but at least you can’t fail.
Well, as luck would have it, I was able to use the lathe of a very good friend to finally process this piece of timber. We decided on a traditional bowl shape, keeping it as large as possible and leaving it a little thicker than I normally would have done. Even with the thickness of the final project, this bowl is surprisingly light.
As I had expected, the coloration in the wood is absolutely gorgeous. I fully intend to keep my word and give it to my attorney, but I will admit it’ll be hard to set it on the table and walk away. Even harder to continue going there because of the divorce and having to keep walking away…
