// Vessels // The Space Within //

2016

Coffee Table

Curly maple, black walnut, zebrawood, bloodwood

22“ x 25” x 22“

The Lovers

Black walnut, purple heart, eastern maple, teak

2 pieces, 7.5” x 3.5“ & 7” x 3.35“

Curls

Black walnut, curly maple, eastern maple

6.25” x 3.25”

Show Piece

Zebrawood, bloodwood, black walnut, eastern maple

6.75” x 3.5”

Mahogany Cup

7.25” x 2.75”

Captive Ring Cup

Teak, walnut, eastern maple

7.75” x 3.25”

Red Cedar Cup

6.25” x 4.25”

Mixed Cup

Oak, teak, black walnut, eastern maple

7.7“ x 3.5”

A vessel can be filled but has the power to hold – to contain, to protect, to preserve.

When filled, a vessel can represent abundance, fecundity, and when empty, a barren womb, an idea that never came to fruition. Whether empty or filled, the vessel itself remains the same. In its void, the wholeness remains.

Through this historically and culturally reinforced gender portrayal of vessels, a chalice becomes a conquered woman; while the drinker, an individual in a position of power. What of a chalice that does not desire to be filled? In its void, potential is infinite.

Creating these glue-ups is a process of unifying color and grain*. Through the slow and deliberate process of removing layer by layer on the lathe, the wood can take many forms. I hollow the cup – I hollow myself. Layers are shed and a space is created. I hollow the cup to create a space for all of the potential. As a new woodworker, a woman working in a cis-male dominated crafting tradition, my work is more than just a skill to be cultivated. There is much more that has to be intentionally engaged to not just be making ‘cute’ and ‘pretty’ objects that can be filled with all of the projections of historically and culturally reinforced gender tropes.

If you sit at this table, you are not here to drink from my cups. You are here to witness the space to exist that I’ve created in each one.

*All wood was sourced intentionally in order to reinforce a relationship between method and material through aesthetics and plasticity in this turning tradition.