Studio Discovery Tour
Labor Day weekend & the weekend after
on the Sonoma / Mendocino Coast
September 4 - 6 and 11 - 12, 2010
Artists' studios open 10am - 5pm each day
Chuck Quibell - Turned Wood Vessels | map #20 → |
Born and raised in Fresno and at Huntington Lake in the Sierra Nevada, I
earned a B.A. in botany at Pomona College [1958], and a Ph.D. in botany at
U.C. Berkeley [1972].
Following this I spent nearly thirty years teaching botany, including wood
anatomy, at Sonoma State [1970-1999] before branching out into woodworking.
I now, when not traveling or backpacking/fishing in the Sierra, spend
essentially full time turning - mostly native woods - into useful and/or
decorative objects.
I belong to three woodworking and craft organizations, presently or until recently serving on the Boards of each in some capacity: The Sonoma County Woodworkersą Association [SCWA], which puts on the annual "Artistry in Wood" each year at the County Museum; The Wine Country Woodturners [WCW]; and The Baulines Craft Guild [BCG], the pre-eminent craft guild of northern California in existence since 1972.
I was awarded the top prize for turning ["Award of Excellence"] at each of
the last two "Artistry in Wood" shows, and after many exhibitions and sales
with the Baulines Craft Guild, I was made "Master Craftsman" last year.
My studio is a large, wood-filled, metal building set below an adobe and redwood, half-buried, solar-powered octagonal home which my father and I build from 1975-1980. In between are a row of olive trees and a small vineyard from which we make a Bordeaux-style red wine and an 'extra virgin' oil.
In my turning, I strive for clean, simple lines often influenced by the
oriental bowls which habitually I study and photograph in the museums of the
world. I have recently been working on details of edges and bases and have
developed what I call a "secondary lift" in my decorative bowls which sets
them off from whatever they rest on by elevating their lower edges above
that surface. I also believe in making the outer wood surface the 'finish'
by polishing each piece to 2,000 or 2,500 grit.
I then treat the finished surfaces of my utilitarian pieces with an edible grade walnut oil and my decorative ones with either tung oil or a wipe-on polyurethane followed by a paste wax. I sometimes, however, leave the polished piece entirely UN-finished to allow a direct contact with the wood surface. This elemental contact with a highly polished wood surface is something we too rarely experience but it is, I believe, one of the reasons we love the 'feel of wood.'
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Contact Information:
Chuck Quibell
Email: quibell@sonic.net |