Vermillion Bowl
Title: Vermillion Bowl
Artist: Tom Eckert, US
Nationality: US
Date: ca 1980
Materials: Vermilion, bronze, and feathers
Dimensions: 8 x 14 in. dia.
Price: NFS
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Credit Line: Owned by Jack Breckenridge, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University
Owned By: Jack Breckenridge, ÿProfessor Emeritus, Arizona State University
Object ID Number: 2016FBTE1
Object Number: 2016FBTE1
Notes: In 1981, Vermilion Bowl with Feathers, was included in Albert LeCoff’s Turned Objects: The First North American Turned Object Show. I completed this piece (one of my first lidded containers) in 1980 as a result of teaching myself how to lathe turn wood. Early in my teaching career in the School of Art, Arizona State University, I remember standing at the lathe with an instruction book in one hand and my turning tool in the other, trying to make sense of the process. At that time, there was no place to go for help in Tempe, Arizona and pieces would regularly fly off the lathe. I quickly learned that if I could catch the turning by the second bounce, I could save it. Learning wood turning was essential for me because it was to become a class offering through the school’s Wood program which I had recently started. At some point, maybe encouraged by Turned Objects, I really thought I wanted to spend my life at the lathe. I turned vessels in great numbers, sometimes adding bronze, silver and feathers. Living in the Southwest with Native American influences, feathers seemed right. The vessels were in demand at galleries and I would get messages requesting more of them, especially the bleached maple with silver pieces. Then one morning, thinking about my studio work, it occurred to me that the lathe could only spin in a predictable circle and troubled by this, I thought I needed more latitude. After that, I explored other areas within woodworking.