This sumptuous, full-color photographic collection features 500 masterworks from today's finest contemporary woodcraft artisans. Using age-old hand tools and modern machines, these artists bend and shape the wood,blending inspiration and technical innovation with cultural influences from Asia,Europe, and the Americas to create fantastic shapes that continually delight.

Wood bowls are common to virtually every culture on every continent, where their functions range from utilitarian to extravagantly ceremonial. In the latter half of the twentieth century, contemporary artisans began to rediscover the creative potential inherent in the wood bowl's form. This new generation of "bowl makers" has produced an extraordinary array of magnificent artworks. Far removed from their beginnings as simple holding vessels, the 500 wood bowls featured here celebrate both the artistic vision and transformative technique of dozens of contemporary woodcraft artisans.  They bring their visions to life by exploiting the special properties of the wood itself. Warm, forgiving,and malleable, wood adapts to an extraordinary range of working tool techniques, from powerful hydraulic chain saws and laser cutting machines to traditional hand-shaping tools. This full-color pictorial survey showcases the rich variety of the bowl-turner's art, from the gentle elegance of Christian Burchard's sandblasted and bleached madrone burl, "White Gourd," to the striking wood and copper "Oceanic Anointing Vessel"

Introduction

The Bowls

About the Jurors

Acknowledgments

Artists' Index