January 1, 2019 – 3:27 pm
Dennis has joined the group of Pikes Peak area artists at the Boulder Street Gallery on Tejon Street in downtown Colorado Springs. He will have different products every month, to coincide with the Gallery’s participation in First Friday events.
In January, Dennis will show a variety of bowls with his stone inlay. New for 2019, several of the bowls in different shapes incorporate tiny turquoise tiles in the rim. This photo is a mesquite bowl with the tiles.
The case will also include several smaller items with stone inlay. In addition to turquoise, Dennis uses lapis lazuli, Minnesota pipestone, and malachite. He crushes most of this stone in his 1910 laboratory rock crushers. There is no better way to process small batches of semi-precious stones!
Wood was often the only available material for making canteens in the past. They were probably used by the Romans, and there are some examples in Civil War collections. Some woods, such as the white oak used for this one, are watertight, and may even improve the flavor of spirits, if not of the water they carry. If you are planning for a watertight vessel, in addition to the white oak, you will need to use epoxy glues, and a tight-fitting silicon stopper.
Dennis has added new elements to the canteens he has demonstrated in Michigan, Mississippi, and at the John Campbell Folk School in N.C., with laser-cut designs for stone inlay on the medallion portion of the canteen.
The canteens will be one of his demonstrations for the Utah Woodturning Symposium.
Fine detail for stone inlay is now possible with laser-cut grooves for the thunderbird on this bottle stopper. Dennis also finds that he needs a very fine grind on the turquoise to match the scale of the detail.
The laser wizard is neighbor Milo Scott, who has been exploring ways to use laser engraving on woodturners of all shapes and sizes.
March 21, 2013 – 11:17 am
Dennis has always chosen his stone inlay petroglyphs around a theme. Like the Storyteller pots of the Pueblo Indians, these vessels are related, but each one has its own story to tell. In the group photo, you can see that the Mama Storyteller carries a set of Hawaiian petroglyphs. Each small pot has its own set, inspiring the viewer to turn the pot, and tell a story.
Dennis will demonstrate stone inlay at the Utah Woodturning Symposium in May.
Dennis has joined the group of Pikes Peak area artists at the Boulder Street Gallery on Tejon Street in downtown Colorado Springs. He will have different products every month, to coincide with the Gallery’s participation in First Friday events.
