What to do with your work?

[Steve Mathews]

Gift giving for family and friends last Holiday season was all about bowls, some even received more than one. I even gave one to a dealer that sold me a new tractor. I'm already working on a different focus for next year's gifts; tea boxes, Kuksas, possibly a hollow form, etc. The problem is what to do with the bowls that I still enjoy making. Do any of you donate them to charity? I'm not a flea market type of person so I don't care to do that.

[roger wiegand]

The Empty Bowls project is a good hunger-related charity that will take almost any number of bowls-- the one here is thrilled to get decent wooden bowls, as they provide a nice contrast to the ceramic bowls they get in profusion. A surprising number of the donated wood bowls get pulled out of the general distribution (everyone who shows up for the fundraising dinner gets a bowl) and put into the fund raising auction.

[Tim Elett]

I make pots for imitation plants with some of mine, wife made me a hanger 20230402_190351.jpg

[Ben Darrah]

I find any fundraiser that is having an auction or item raffle is happy to have them. Many of mine go to different cancer fundraisers. You can also make Beads of Courage boxes.

[Paul Williams]

I provide bowls to two fund raising events. One is at our church. The other is for a shelter in Grand Rapids, MN. Have been donating to both for more than 5 years. They seem to do well in charity auctions.

[Prashun Patel]

When my basement was full of bowls,
I put them up for sale on a squarespace website, had my son take pix of them, and posted on Facebook to friends and family to donate 10, 25, 50, or 100 for any bowl at their own discretion; I didn’t price them individually no matter how simple or ornate. All proceeds went to our area soup kitchen. Some of the bowls weren’t perfect, but they were advertised as such.

Setting up the website is easier than posting pix on smc . If ur challenged you can always get a local eagle or girlscout to help you - especially if you give them turning lessons. (Side note, mentoring scouts is a great way to share your skills and reach the local community).

I was even honored to have our very own esteemed John Jordan donate for a very simple Osage orange bowl, the log for which I received previously as a gift from Baxter Smith. Love this place.

People are generous and kind. If u are in the position to do this for fun, it’s a great way to see the beautiful side of people.

I think we sold 75 in a week. It was a win win.

Nowadays, I enjoy giving everything away that I make for fun, if ur at that stage. Imho there’s no greater joy.

And btw if you are looking to do something new this year, try spoon carving…. All u need is a couple knives and some branches. There are ways to add turned elements to ur spoons and carved elements to your bowls. Spoons are even easier to give away….

[Grant Wilkinson]

I'm a bad person. :-( MIne go into a closet until the closet is full, then they go into my friend's wood stove.

[Dwayne Watt]

This made me sad for a moment.

I'm a bad person. :-( MIne go into a closet until the closet is full, then they go into my friend's wood stove.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

This made me sad for a moment.

It is sad. Wood Turning is fun, finding applications is challenging. I keep trying to think of things to make that have a turned component. These too generally end up being gifts or shelf holder downers. Some of the turned gifts do end up being fun for the recipients. Lamps, stereo speakers, banjos, and drums have landed in hands that are happy to have them.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I make very few bowls. I make and donate holiday ornaments to a charity and have for several years. Last year I put together plain turned ornaments and paint sets for the grandkids to paint their own. Fishing gear - bobbers, hand lines, lures. Snowmen, I made several snowmen that were hollow incense burners (a German traditional decoration called a Rauchermannerchen) Look up a German Pyramid, a sort of table top merry go round powered by candle heat. Bottle stoppers, pens, ceiling fan pulls, (I make little Lighthouses and lobster pot floats for such pulls. ) Some people buy gift card holders or fancy boxes to put currency in. I made several small snowmen shaped boxes, the hollow part about the size of a lip stick case and curled up money to go inside. For the past two years, I made wind up music boxes for my wife. It is actually easier than it sounds An Art Works place in Ohio sells reasonably priced wind up mechanisms in dozens of tunes. You would just be making the case and the figures for on top. You can have the figures move or not. So far, I have not attempted moving tops. ( my wife had a Swiss music box from when she was a child. It was dropped at some point so I took it apart and fixed it and it was easy to copy the general shapes and round 1/8 plywood bottom makes a great sound board.

[Neil Strong]

I sell most of what I make through a gallery that I have been supplying for the last 25 years or so. What I make almost always sells and I can manage to make as much as will sell. My pieces have ended up in many countries around the world, perhaps in cupboards in some cases...

Woodturning is not so much an occupation for me but a preoccupation that pays for itself with a bit left over to spend on whatever I like.

Friends and family all have a bit of my work as well, but there is a limit to how much of that you can impose on significant others. Friends that have purchased some of my pieces at exhibitions get a few extra pieces from time to time because I know that won't be an imposition.

Some of the surplus from the sale of my woodturning goes directly as cash donations to causes that we support.