design help

[curtis rosche]

i was asked to make a bowl as a present, i was told either oak or cherry or something else that is common wood so it wont look out of place. they said a bowl to be used to serve chips and things, but not just a plain round bowl, im supposed to make it a little unusual. any one have any suggestions?

[Maria Alvarado]

Curtis,
You could do a bowl-in-bowl to create a chip & dip, but have the central bowl a bit higher, or on a stem, or you could put your carving skills to work and carve the dip bowl into a holder (like for a gem setting in a ring, or the base of a flower) for a glass dip bowl. In the latter instance, it might be wise to match the profile of a specific glass bowl, so you get a perfect mating of the two surfaces.

[Dick Sowa]

Or grab a freshly cut log, turn the bowl to final wall thickness while green, then let it warp as it dries...shouldn't take very long. It will definitely be different :)

[Dean Thomas]

I like Maria's idea. Has possibilities. Dick's thought about a green wood bowl warped to it's own idea of shape also has merit.

If it were for me and it was for chips, I'd want something that would be fairly stable, that would hold a LOT of chips. Stability for me means you need a foot that is close to half the diameter of the bowl. To hold LOTS of chips, you want something that is going to have a lot of internal volume and that will let gravity help keep chips in the bowl. I'm seeing something like a flat salad bowl with a graceful S or ogee shape to it. If the outer lip goes up, not just flat out like an upside down coolee hat, it will hold more chips in and gravity will cause them to move to middle, not seek the table. :p

Trying a GIF of a shape. Not all I was trying for, but might be interesting. If it works... Bowl would be 10" wide, 3" deep, 5" foot.

Take a piece of string and play with a shape. Put the string on paper so that if you find a shape that's pleasing, you can draw it and graph it out! And take pictures when you're done. ;)