SIL - Mar/Apr 2019

Segmented pieces require math
skills, “and I always liked math in school,”
Bob said. For instance, when he crafts a
bowl, Bob first draws a pattern on a plain
sheet of paper, sketches out a half bowl on
graph paper, then uses a complicated formula
to finish it.
The larger bowls can use more than
900 pieces and take up to 60 hours to complete.
“Wood is expensive,” Bob said, “so
I often use what I have. Once, I had some
curly maple — some light, some dark —
not enough of either for the bowl. So, I alternated,
and it turned out better than if it
had all been the same color. That’s often
the case.”
Sometimes, material turns up in
unexpected places. “I had been wanting
some sumac,” he said. “We went to an
Amish farm to buy eggs and I asked the
farmer if he knew any place I could get
some. He told me, ‘Just look over there.’
I did, and there were a lot of sumac trees
he wanted cleared to make room for his
horses. I cut the trees, stacked the brush
and it benefited us both.”
Tools are expensive, too, Bob said.
“For instance, an index wheel costs about
$100. I looked at one and thought, ‘I can
figure out how to make that.’” And he did.
He also discovered that he could use an
Allen wrench to hollow out small items,
instead of buying a costly tool for that
purpose. •
His work is available at the Marengo Cave Gift
Shop and at Traditional Arts in Ferdinand. He
also has a booth at the Christmas show at the
Crawford County 4-H Fairgrounds. Bob’s
items sell for $1 for a small toy up to several
hundred dollars for a large open-segmented
bowl.
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Mar/Apr 2019 • 32