Spalted Maple Bowl

I've had a love for woodworking ever since I was 9 or 10 years old. As a kid I enjoyed working in the basement alongside my dad, where he made many of the functional pieces of furniture that sat in our house. In High School, I got the pleasure of spending a week in my grandfather's shop in Indiana, where he was a full-time clock maker (after retiring from the army, where he fought in WW2). He made his entire clocks from locally harvested and milled walnut wood. His specialty was grandmother clocks, and would travel around the country delivering them to his various customers. During the course of my week with him I got to make 4 or 5 smaller clocks, which really inspired me. From that time, I've done lots of different types of woodworking as a hobby. Fast forward 30 or so years... in 2014 I received a small wood turning lathe as a birthday present, and I immediately fell in love. I found something very meditative in the turning process, and it was rewarding to watch the shape take form. Since then I've spend many many hours in the woodshop (and far too much money on tools, as my wife would tell me!), doing primarily nothing but wood turning when in the workshop. Lately I've been working on curve shapes, technique, surface decoration, and finding my own style. I particularly love the combination of stone and wood, and also wood burning treatments. Lidded boxes, bowls, and platters are what I do primarily, along with an occasional pen or bottle stopper. I currently live in Merrimack, NH, with my wife, 2 youngest children, my dog Copper, and my father who lives next door in an in-law apartment. By day I'm a Digital Marketer, and life is very very busy! So I squeak in my time wood turning as I'm able, with the hope that one day I'll be able to devote more of my time to it.

- Jeff Grantham