Tom Dubois: Hand Turned Sugar Maple Bowl, 2001

A hand turned bowl of sugar maple. Measures about 4 inches tall x 6 inches across top diameter. Signed Tom Dubois and dated 2001. 

Tom Dubois is a licensed psychologist by trade, but keeps a workshop in the little coastal town of Eliot, Maine for wood turning, which is his passion. He writes, “In shaping wood I imagine that the spirit of the tree is found and released in a new form, and in each piece I try to bring out the inherent character of the color, texture, and figure of the wood. Every vessel is a celebration of the wood from which it is made."

He continues, “There is a timeless beauty and universality in certain vessel forms. My shapes and forms are sometimes influenced by my wife, Anne, who is a painter, and I am often inspired by the work of artists in other media such as pottery and glass.”

Dubois works with different kinds of wood from all over the world, much of which he purchases on eBay. The hunt for interesting samples, he says, is addictive. But the process of making a piece is long. After shaping the wood into a rough form, or blank, it must be seasoned, or left to breathe and dry, for at least one year.

Then Dubois takes it up again and uses lathes and chisels to shape, or turn, the wood. He finishes the wood with various methods, from giving it a good rub of linseed oil and wax, to applying a hard varnish, to leaving it as it is. Some pieces are topped with small aluminum finials, which he also fabricates by hand on his metal lathe.