keeping it together

so, i see tiffany on gchat and i show her a photo of my favourite piece, a small, round-bottomed bowl turned from freshly-cut copper beech and then allowed to dry. this is what it looked like fresh from the lathe:


while drying, it warped out of round and cracked slightly, but retained the marvellous shading it had before. this is how it looks today, after being finished with blonde shellac and rubbed-out varnish. the crack was highlighted with black dye and then tied together with copper wire. it's a bit wonky:

keeping it together

and tiffany said it reminded her of this new yorker cartoon by ariel molving:


which is exactly right and made my day.