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The turned-art forms on this page were all created from trees which grew on the Mercy campus. In early June, Sister Theresa called to tell us that the long-awaited Field of Dreams athletic field project was about to begin. This meant we could come to the campus and select material from the trees that were coming down.
So on July 7th, Mercy student Katie Wicks, her dad Jack and grandfather Harry came to OLMA eager to select wood for the OLMA projects to be. Upon arrival it was apparent that most of the trees earmarked for removal were maples but, there also was some black cherry and an oak or two. We worked our way through the felled trees to select the wood I felt best-suited for the art I would be creating.
Back at my studio the logs were sawn to usable turning blanks, with piths removed. After labeling the OLMA blanks with permanent marker, end grains were sealed and each blank was placed in a paper bag to control the drying. I did, however, turn some of the logs while the wood was still ‘green’ as I wanted to take advantage of the distortion that would occur in the finished work.
By early April 2010, all blanks had been used and seventeen pieces of various sizes had been created. They all have one design feature in common---a circle representing the OLMA ‘Circle of Mercy’.
Several of the pieces, including two donated to the May fundraiser, are now in private collections. The available pieces shown here can be purchased by contacting me; and we will donate 25 percent of each sale to the Mercy fund.
-- HW
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