Turning a Bowl (Encounter 3)

I chose to focus my encounter project on Mr. Jim Davidson and his craft of making beautiful wooden bowls. Mr. Davidson lives in Dale, IN and is the grandfather of a close friend of mine, which is how I came to see the bowls and was given the opportunity to interview him. He is a man of many years, born in Eau Claire, WI in 1928. His love of bowl making sparked about twenty six years ago when he bought his first lathe, spending little time doing spindle turning, weed pots, candle holders, ornaments and other small items. He then bought a better lathe which was sturdier and allowed him to do face plate work enabling him to make bowls. Along with the lathe he has high speed steel turning tools and for the most part relies on Bowl gouges and round and square nose scrapers but he has a wide assortment of specialty tools that are in the seldom used category as well as some of his own designs.

Mr. Davidson became even more interested in bowl making after a visit with an Amish gentleman in Ohio who had access to scrap oak granting him access to more elaborate bowl making. He bought a couple of books and experimented with the information they offered and went from there, learning through years of trial and error which taught him a great deal.

There are several steps involved in turning a bowl. First, he simply secures a piece of wood to the lathe using a chuck of some kind, turns the lathe on and starts to make shavings allowing the wood to provide a pattern that seems to fit it. Mr. Davidson mentions that he prefers to start with a sketch of the cross section of the piece he wants to make, he chooses the type of wood, and also chooses a pattern for accent strips or other independent designs that may be incorporated. He then determines the number of segments he wishes to use in the main body of the bowl, he generally uses twelve although he can go as high as thirty two and as low as six. He then calculates the segment lengths and width based on the cross section of the design, and then cuts the segments to the proper angle and length. He glues the segments into a ring that become one of the layers in the assembly. The rings are glued together, stacking and centering them one on top of another until the blank is totally assembled. From there it is to the lathe and he starts to make shavings to remove the excess wood and leaves the remainder to match the pattern, taking great care so as to maintain the same wall thickness throughout the piece. After sanding the piece with varying grits of abrasives the bowl is ready for finishing. He normally applies six coats of varnish and then buffs the piece out.

Mr. Davidson states he uses any wood that he finds appealing and is constantly searching for figured grain of a pleasing pattern. Most of what he works with is the native hard woods although he does purchase some imported material for color and grain. Most of the imported lumber is very expensive and our native hardwoods, for the most part, provide him with everything he needs.

Mr. Davidson has spent a considerable amount of time with his son-in-law, Steve, teaching him the craft of bowl making. Periodically a fellow turner will spend some time with him sharing information and once in a while someone will come along who wants to spend several days with him and he will welcome them. Mr. Davidson mentions it is fun for him to have someone he can share his enthusiasm with.

Most of his bowls are give to friends and family, but he does have some for sale at two different art galleries. His charge for the bowls does not generate many sales. The length of time required to make a bowl is dependent on the number of individual pieces that it contains. It could vary from a low of six hours for a 4x6 bowl to over sixty hours for a 6x8 lidded bowl. Hence the high price for the bowls and the low amount of sales.

Mr. Davidson has made a lot of bowls and perhaps has one hundred or more scattered around the home he shares with his wife. How many bowls total, he would not even hazard a guess. He does know that his annual production has been going downhill a great deal over the last few years, driven in part by more complex patterns as well as his age catching up with him.

This post is in response to the Material Culture (Artist/Craftsperson) encounter assignment

My Traditions (Chapter Three Reflection Question)

After reading about tradition in chapter three I was able to draw upon my own life and that of a group to which I feel connected to; my family. While reading, thoughts of three varieties of tradition that I am able to identify and explain came easily to mind. The three varieties of tradition that are significant to me that I intend to expound upon are: a tradition that seems to be longstanding, but that is perhaps disappearing or changing in some fashion, a tradition that seems to be increasingly central in importance to me and others in my life, and a tradition whose origin I witnessed and participated in.

The first variety of tradition that came to mind was a tradition that is longstanding, not disappearing, but has changed in many ways. That is the tradition of camping over Labor Day weekend and celebrating our family reunion on Sunday. My mother’s side of the family camps, but everyone, extended and beyond, attends the reunion but do not camp. I had to miss this celebration for three years due to relocation, and was spotty many years prior also due to relocation, but was able to attend this year and the year prior. My first year back, 2006, was a surprise. A second cousin married and had a baby, an uncle remarried and her kids came, which makes six new people to welcome, including some people whom I had never seen before, this made for an interesting family reunion. Our family did not meet in the usual spot of past family reunions. We camp at Spring Mill state park and our family reunion is held at the pioneer village at the picnic table area prior to crossing the walk bridge, when just entering the village. Those of you who are familiar with this area, we were on the left, incase you were wondering. Not anymore, we are now by the playground. How easily this confused me when trying to find my own family reunion. We were not in the same location as I had remembered and there were many new faces. I felt a little out of place because there were more strange faces than familiar.

Our family reunion is in fact a longstanding tradition that is held every year, regardless of who attends it is a tradition because we are all a group and are connected through kinship connecting us to past generations that link us and are important to all (74). Of course the time together while camping and at the reunion is spent telling stories of the past, and sharing memories, which are always funny to hear even if they have been told a thousand times. The book points out that “a tradition must continually adapt as groups develop and change” in the case of our family reunion, which is the tradition, has done exactly that, continually adapted through development and change (76). One thing that has been done after eating at the reunion is taking a walk through the creek. My sister, brother, cousins and I all did it when we were young every year, and now the youngest of the family were able to do it this past time; my daughter is on the left.

A tradition that seems to be increasingly central in importance to me and others in my life would be that of decorating the Christmas tree. Christmas is my favorite time of year, the decorating that takes place, cold weather, lots of sweets to eat, and classics Christmas movies. All of this begins the day after Thanksgiving. Many may think of this day as “Black Friday” but I think of it as the day to decorate, the tree being the most important. The first two years I was married we had a real tree, after the pine needle cleaning that followed months after, we splurged for a fake, which looks incredibly real, pine cones included. My husband dreads this day because he knows how into it I get, he calls me Clark Griswold. As minute as some may think this is it has become a central importance to me during this time of year, which brings me to a tradition I invented with my daughter.

A tradition whose origin I witnessed and participated in was one that I invented. The new group that we, my family, created invented a tradition during the weeks prior to my daughters first Christmas. The book explains that “a new group may invent traditions that it assumes will be carried out in its future” (83). The invented tradition is that of making reindeer cookies during Christmas time. My daughter was 11 months old and since I love the time of year so much I wanted to create something that we could do together that she would love and we could continue in the future. This year will be our fourth and we will make our reindeer cookies, wrap some for our neighbors, and eat as many as we like.


This is in response to the chapter three reflection question.





Sims, Martha C., and Martine Stephens. Living Folklore An Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2005.

Second Peer Review (Lauren Pais)

After reading Lauren’s chapter two reflection post about folk groups, I immediately thought of my two best friends. When I was in the forth grade I moved to a new school and was lucky enough to sit by Heidi. I remember so vividly her crazy brown hair, and big glasses (this was the mid 80’s). We were friends from the start. She had a sister who was a year older than us, Carly. We instantly became the three amigos, if you saw one the other two were not far behind. In a past post I wrote about a tree house I built with my two friends, these are those same two friends. We did everything together. In the 6th grade they moved to a nearby town, and had to transfer schools. As tragic as we thought it was at the time, it did not detour our friendship, but only allowed it to flourish. They moved into the country which was a playground for us for many years; fields, creeks, farm animals, and a scary basement. Our parents would alternate driving us back and forth.

The land we used to play on as children, hiking through the woods, has been semi-cleared for over seven years now and both sisters are married and built houses right where we used to play. Lauren’s post brought back memories of my two friends, who were also sisters. We stayed very close through my moves with the military by visits and many phone calls. Now, I am back in the U.S. and as close as ever, which is great! Heidi and I both have children and it is so fun to watch our kids play together in the same creek we used to play in and run around the same trees and grassy areas. The tree house is off limits for now, due to bad construction (us) + time = shoddy tree house. I too think of us as a folk group.

This is my second peer review posting.

Little Nashville (Encounter 2)

Over the weekend my family and I set out for Nashville, Little Nashville that is. The drive was nice but we did not get to fill our eyes with the famous view of the changing colors of the fall foliage that would normally be taking place during this time of year. Little did we know that the month of October is the busiest month of the year for this small, quaint town. The streets were filled with people carrying their bags of treasures bought from the charming stores perched on either side of the road and tucked beyond. We followed the signs leading us to the Fall Fare, which happened to be the 35th annual Fall Fare. We expected something would be going on in this small town, but had no idea we came on the perfect day, aside from the abnormally blazing heat for the month of October.

Along our walk we passed many shops, galleries and presumably homes that were highly decorated with fall colors, Halloween decorations, handmade crafts, and scents of brown sugar and pumpkin spice which surely welcomed everyone who passed by. We made our way to the Fall Fare and were welcomed by tables filled with home baked and handmade goods. There were so many table and stands overflowing with treasures big and small. We were able to grab some nice sized pumpkins, homemade doggie treats, and also a loaf of cinnamon bread. As we were leaving the Fall Fare we stumbled into a refreshing ice cream parlor that was packed to the door. We waited patiently in line for the homemade, stated the sign, ice cream. It was well worth the wait. As we were walking back to our car we saw a sign advertising a puppet show, The Slightly Haunted Puppet Theatre was the show of the day. The theatre itself was situated between two buildings and tucked behind a rather small entryway. The Melchior Marionette Theatre seated 60 and served free popcorn. We were able to get seats up front and close to the action. The show featured “A ghoulish cast of traditional Halloween characters. ..a Juggling Scarecrow, Dancing Skeleton & Ghost, Alien, The Flying Purple People Eater, a Kitchen Witch, Concert Pianist & Dracula” (noted from the pamphlet). I truly enjoyed the show and my daughter expressed her delight throughout the performance, and the whole way home.

I did not intend to write an encounter assignment based on my visit to Little Nashville, but after thinking about it I realized this was a perfect celebratory event that was new to me. Yes, I have been to many festivals and celebrations but this was different in a charming kind of way with many out-of-towners visiting this town for the same reason as I and feeling consumed in the atmosphere it presented. The people of Little Nashville were kind and warm; they bring their town to life with ongoing presentations of their crafts. I found it nice to be able to peek in on their day-to-day lives that they know as nothing but simply how they live and earn a living. The town of Nashville, IN gave way for a nice days escape filled with too many stores to see and too much fudge to eat, although I had my fair share.

This post is in response to the Ritual, Festival and Celebration encounter assignment.