The Gathering’s design was inspired from my love for small entry hole hollow vessel turning. This is the art of hollowing a piece of solid wood completely through a very small hole. I wanted to showcase the beautiful world of hollow vessel turning in a functional piece of art for my client. The vessel started from a amazingly beautiful large piece of rare and unique Australian Jarrah Burl. Acting like a hub reminiscent of a wagon wheel, 6 “legs” spiral out from center made each from dual compound tapered bent African Wenge curves simultaneously meeting the floor and the oval glass table top made from low lead glass that gives truer clarity to view through. Many complex techniques were designed and developed to create this seamless flowing piece of functional art. “The Gathering” draws your eyes in like a hurricane viewed from space or a spiral galaxy. Every angle it’s viewed from gives the onlooker a different prism of compound curves and and organic lines to explore. The piece was chosen to be in “Best Of” Fine Woodworking, Turning edition. It stood alone as a functional piece of furniture art with its hollow vessel turning acting as the main structural element and focal point in a piece of furniture. This has inspired other designs that I look forward to exploring in the near future.