Blond bowl
The title was chosen because the bowl was bleached using peroxide (as women use on their hair) mixed with caustic soda. The bowl is figured and spalted Big Leaf Maple. The natural colour was very dark, and did not display the spalt lines very well. The bowl had to be turned and sanded without any sort of stablilization -- a real feat when you realize part of the wood was rock hard and some of it was so rotten you could poke the wood out with your finger. Once turned it was bleached, then hardened with water-based polyurethane. (Oil finishes would have darkened it.) Between each coat of polyurethane, I sanded. It took multiple coats and multiple sandings to get a smooth surface. If anyone can tell me a way of stabilizing the wood before sanding, I will make another one. The bowl is 1`6 inches wide and 6 inches deep.

This bowl was highly praised by David Nittmann, while doing the critique of the Instant Gallery at the Totally Turning Symposium in fall of 2006 at Albany NY. He really liked the shape, saying it was
"fabulous" and "exceptional". Cindy Drozda, who was also doing the critique liked the shape of the rim, saying it "directs your focus like running water toward the inside of the bowl".