Utilitarian or decoration?

[Kenneth Whiting]

While looking at Curt's latest cottonwood bowl, which is wonderful IMHO, the woman at the other end of my leash asked if the bowls we see on here get used or if they are decoration. My first response was that they mostly get used for something. Then I thought for a second, maybe not. Some of this is art that I would appreciate just sitting there being pretty. So to the question, do you make most of your bowls/hollow forms to use or look at?

[alex carey]

Almost everything I make is for use, then again, I wouldn't feel bad if my pieces were broken or scratched or anything like that. My pieces tend to be pretty replaceable. If they were amazing works of art or special types of wood I might want them to be art instead.

[Jeff Nicol]

Well that is one of the great questions. If I make a bowl for use as a food holder it is shaped to be used and finished to be used. Some bowls that have a spectacular finish on the outside may not get the same on the inside if the bowl is going to have salad in it. Hollow forms are mostly for decoration or holding a flower or 2, depending on the size of the opening. Some are used as Urns. But most all bowls can be used to hold fruit, nuts, chips, crackers or whatever you want to put in them. The ones with the holes and such, well they tell thier own tale! I have sold little bowls to hold salt and spices and some to hold junk on the dresser. So like I said in the title they are all used for something, some of mine get used to start a fire in the wood stove!

Lots of answers and they all work,

Jeff

[Bernie Weishapl]

For me I would say 80% of my bowls are for using and the other 20% to look pretty. By that I mean a nice bowl to hold things like nuts, M & M's, fruit, etc.

[Steve Mawson]

So far most of mine are to use. I have not made that many and there have not been any in the "art" category. Hopefully some in the future.

[Ted Calver]

90% users.... and finished for either dry use (Waterlox or wipe on poly), or wet use, i.e. salad, popcorn (Mahoney's Walnut oil and beeswax). I appreciate the skill and creativity it takes to produce an "art" piece and have made a few, but I'm drawn to functional, utilitarian pieces.

[Ron Ainge]

when I first started turning (8 years ago) I made most of my work for someone else to use but as I progressed to the position I am in to day I find that I have changed to the place where I do mostly art pieced to be looked at. I won't say that they cannot be used but if you are paying several hundred $$$ for a piece I would think that you would set it on the mantle and looked at it. A couple of years ago I started making Christmas Ornaments and I thought to my self that everyone could use them, but this thread got me to thinking and I now think that even though they are used for decoration they do not have any great utilitarian use. O do use mostly woods that I can find in the local community that do not cost me a bunch like Cotton wood but it is wood that I have learned to work with and I like it because of the grain patterns it has in it that show up in my finished product.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Well, to be honest, I would have to say that just about everything I turn, as far as bowls and hollow forms, are intended for decorative use.

Most of my turnings are finished with gloss poly and the bowls are often used for center pieces, fruit bowls, anything 'dry'. The hollow forms were turned with the only intended purpose being 'form'. I have had folks ask me what it was used for, or what it was good for, and although I have struggled to explain the idea behind the 'art', I have come to realize that there are those folks who see and appreciate the 'art' and those folks who only look for function.

[Ryan Baker]

99.5% of my stuff is for decorative use. I don't aim to make things for utilitarian use, and don't have a desire to use my pieces that way -- though some certainly could be. I make pieces for the challenge, the art, and to try what's possible. I doubt many people buying at art fairs or galleries are looking for utilitarian pieces.

[Curt Fuller]

I don't turn a lot of bowls. But of those I've turned I just can't think they would be very practical as 'users'. I have to think that back when the cavemen (and women) invented things like pottery and metal bowls it was probably because they got tired of having to turn a new bowl every few weeks. A wooden salad bowl, soup bowl, ice cream bowl, popcorn bowl, or whatever is really pretty and might impress the relatives from out of town if you use it at the supper table. But after a few washings, especially with how we all worry about things being clean more than they did back in the olden days, a wooden bowl either has to be refinished after every few washings or it's going to be ruined.
I'm sure there are a lot of people who like to use their wood bowls and more power to them. But at my house I use a few for fruit, spare change, car keys, the cat's toys, and I have a couple nice ones sitting around just to look at, but I've never used a salad bowl for salad.

I will say that the invention of the bowl gouge a few years back did revolutionize the wooden bowl. And with the popularity of woodturning as a hobby the wooden bowl has taken on a new life as an artform. I don't think there are many forms that show off the beauty in wood better than a nicely turned bowl.

[Paul Atkins]

Most of mine are used to take up space and collect dust. And not just in my place. One of my 'art' bowls just became the house peanut/chip bowl.