Woodturner Dale Slipp
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Slipp, at left, in his workshop turning the outside of a new bowl on the lathe.
Centre, from top, the bowl after the first turning then going to the second, inside phase.
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Dale Slipp, a carpenter by trade, says he took up turning bowls “to keep me out of trouble.” A Carleton County native, he still lives on his family’s farm in Northampton which provides much of the wood for his bowls. His masterly wood products ─ bowls, small plates, furniture ─ are available exclusively at the O’Toole Gallery in Grafton NB.
Dale, we’ll get to bowls soon enough but let’s get a bit of background first.
Right out of school, I was in the logging business. Then I went to work with my brother as a carpenter and found that carpentry comes quite naturally to me. After that, I guess twenty years ago, I started making furniture as a hobby. People saw the work and recently I’ve started taking custom orders.
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At left, two views of a bowl about to be turned again after
drying for months, prior to finishing; lastly, a finished plate
which is usually the cur-down result of a bowl cracking badly
during the drying process. At right, Slipp is obviously pleased
when he talks about the detail work involved in crafting a tall clock.
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Blanket boxes, tall clocks, side tables, cabinets, vanities. All hand-finished. I enjoy the finishing end, the detail work, most. But you have to be careful with your time.
Now about these incredible bowls…
I always admired the work that was turned out years ago with simple hand tools. As a turner, I’m completely self-taught ─ never really saw anyone turn a bowl except for on the internet.
What are your strongest sellers?
Cherry burl bowls are the best sellers. But anything out of the ordinary like curved rims or wood with natural defects sells well. People seem to like the pieces with a natural bark edge too.
Is the wood all local?
Some of it comes from my woodlot here but mostly it’s firewood. Some people save burls (a canker on a tree trunk) for me. Regardless, the grain always surprises. You never know what you’ll get.
So tell me about the process.
I turn when the wood is wet. To start, the wood goes on the lathe for outside shaping and then I just turn it around to do the inside. Then it dries for up to eight months, depending on the size of the bowl. Once dry, the bowl is put back on the lathe and turned to its final shape. Then the bowls need to be sanded, first with 60-grit sandpaper and so on down to 600-grit at the end. A small bowl takes about 45 minutes and a medium sized one takes about two hours. Once it’s nice and smooth I finish it with a mixture of beeswax and mineral oil.
It’s time-consuming but your work is quite reasonably priced, it seems to me.
The biggest part of the bowls I sell are in the $20 to $40 range. For me it’s more of a hobby and at that price, people don’t mind.
Bearing in mind that you’ve only been turning bowls for a few years, how many have you sold so far?
I number each piece and I’m up to 341 now so I suppose I’ve sold about 200 including a few gifts. But for every finished bowl, I need to make a new rough one. I’m always thinking six to eight months ahead, making rough bowls for my bowl bank.
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“I can turn these little bowls fast,” Slipp commented, surveying the finished products about to be sent to the O’Toole Gallery. The cabinet and table in the background would retail for $300 and $150 respectively.
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