spalting

July 20, 2017

Spalted Wood Documentary!

In June of 2017 I spent a few days at ‘art camp’ with Mark Lindquist. He had enough foresight to video the experience, and we turned it into a full documentary on spalted wood. It’s broken into eight parts, all of which are available on YouTube.

Spalted Wood Part I: Dr. Spalting’s Journey

Spalted Wood Part II: Mel and Mark Lindquist

Spalted Wood Part III: Understanding Spalted Wood

Spalted Wood Part IV: Mark and Seri Turn a Bowl

Spalted Wood Part V: Seri and Mark Talk Turning

Spalted Wood Part VI: Seri and Mark Finish Turning

Spalted Wood Part VII: Dyeing with Pigments

Spalted Wood Part VIII: The Past and Future

June 23, 2017

A week with Mark Lindquist

I’ve delayed a bit on writing this, mostly because I am still processing. Last week, I spent an amazing four days with Mark Lindquist, son of Mel Lindquist, both of whom not only reinvented spalted wood for North America, but also brought woodturning out of craft and into art (and made it a mainstream American woodworking form). Mark also helped set up the American Association of Woodturners and Arrowmont.

If you can’t tell, I am a huge fan.

I was fortunate enough to interview Mark for the spalted wood book, back in 2014 when I was working on it, and included a good bit of his family’s history. Mark kept in contact and in spring 2017, we finally decided to meet up. Historical spalting and new spalting. Groundbreaking artist and wide-eyed upstart. Pot stirrer and…pot stirrer. Heh.

Yes, I’m wearing a ‘Wicked’ t-shirt. If you don’t like ‘Wicked’, you are clearly dead inside.

We talked a lot. Eventually Mark got out the ole iPhone and started recording, so at some point, you might see video. We talked spalting, Mel, woodturning, and of course, roller derby. I made Mark and Kathy watch part of the 2016 WFTDA championships. I think Bonnie Thunders blew their minds.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to turn with Mark. It was great to be with someone with a similar disregard for the perfect surface, the perfect form, the perfect tool angle, the perfect bowl thickness. We turned. We laughed. I got to wear Dale Nish’s old smock (which was the coolest thing, ever).

Partially turned spalted wood bowl by Lindquist and Robinson, and The Most Awesome Turning Smock Ever, by Dale Nish.

It was an absolutely amazing four days, which are impossible to capture in a blog post. There may or may not be video at some point, but there will definitely be more visits and more collaboration. I’ll also post photos of the collaborative bowl as I continue working on it.

Thank you for everything, Mark. For woodturning, for spalting, for your art and for ‘art camp’. You’ve done more in your lifetime than most of us can even dream of.

It’s not often we get to meet our heroes. I’m really glad I’m one of the lucky ones.

May 4, 2017

A Hidden Treasure Trove

It’s workshop week here at OSU–the one time of the year that we throw open the doors to the Applied Mycology Lab and run workshops on fungal pigments, DIY spalting, and turning spalted wood!

One of the best parts of the two-day turning workshop is that participants get to go through our massive supply of spalted wood and pick out any and all goodies they want to turn. Check out what someone selected today! Finished photos of at least one of the pieces will come tomorrow, hopefully.

The one below here shows what the log looked like on the outside. The best part about spalting, IMHO, is that the logs can look just grey and weathered on the outside, and can be a huge rainbow of colors on the inside!