In 2022, I came across a post from Olympic National Park that announced an open call for artists to apply to be a part of a virtual interactive multimedia experience as well as a physical gallery exhibit focusing using art to represent the feeling of shared grief from the changing landscape as glaciers disappear from the park. I applied, was accepted, and created a piece that was included in Terminus: A Glacier Memorial Project with Olympic National Park.
My art piece for the project was carved from Red Alder sourced in the meltwater watershed of White Mountain Glacier was displayed on exhibit in the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center (2023).
Pleases visit my artist page on the terminus project here to read an Artist Statement and to learn more about the White Mountain Glacier.
https://www.nps.gov/olym/terminus-white-mountain-glacier-by-kaylyn-messer.htm
The bowl and serving spoons were carved over a five month period to allow the wood to be carved green (freshly harvested), slowly dried, finishing carving cuts, and cured with a food-safe oil. In all, ~50 hours of hand crafting went into the project starting from a bark-covered log to the finished piece.
For those of you who are interested in the process of creating a hand-carved serving bowl and utensil set, I’ve included a series of photos and galleries below.
The first series of steps in hand carving is selecting the carving materials. I was lucky to be provided two large rounds of Red Alder selected and sustainably sourced by the trail crew of Olympic National Park. The two pieces allowed me enough material to find a section of the log without large knots, branches, inclusions, or other elements that could crack the bowl while carving. The log was sawed to size, split, and leveled.
Once the log is leveled the primary carving begins with a combination of a carving axe, adzes, gouges, and hook/bent knives.
I learned to carve bowls virtually through a course taught by Dave Fisher and Elia Bizzarri, as well as referencing a book by Danielle Rose Byrd. Two and a half years into my carving I was able to attend the Carving on the Edge Festival in Tofino, BC where I was able to observe and learn from master carvers who built my confidence using my adze and bent knives. I am grateful for the generosity of fellow woodworkers and artists who have given me advice along my carving journey.
The carving essentially begins with removing material from the center of the bowl hollow followed by shaping the back of the bowl. I tend to carve for several hours at a time. In between carving sessions, I stored the bowl in a plastic bag surrounded by the chips of wood I removed during my work. This keeps the bowl blank from drying too quickly and cracking.
Following the large material removal with the axe and adze, a smaller adze is used to shape the handles of the bowl and gouges remove more of the inner bowl. Each pass of a tool works to form the final shape of the bowl and evens out the texture of the surface. Red Alder has tannins in the wood that oxidize between carving sessions and can be seen in the orange and tan tones in the images.
Once the main form of the bowl is complete, the bowl is set aside to dry slowly over a few months. Once the bowl is dry, the final pass of cuts is completed. I added textures to the outside of the bowl with a series of palm gouges to represent the forest the wood was salvaged from. On the foot of the bowl I carved a silhouette of the White Mountain Glacier referenced from the historic image I was provided by the Park. I used a chip knife to carve in the lettering. To deepen the color of the bowl I applied a paste of baking soda to activate the oxidation of the tannins in the wood. Food-safe oil was applied and allowed to cure over a period of a month. At this stage the bowl and serving spoons are complete and were delivered to Port Townsend for display.
I wanted to share my appreciation to everyone who made the Terminus Project a reality and to those who helped to support me as an featured Artist.
Thank you to -
Eliza Goode, Visual Information Specialist Olympic National Park
Anya Samawicz, Volunteers-in-Parks Assistant, Olympic National Park
Larry Lack , Trail Maintenance Supervisor, Olympic National Park
Lindsey Shepherd, Interim Gallery Director Port Angeles Fine Arts Center