| Alabaster Turner | I use alabaster quarried in Colorado. The basic colors are white, pink or grayish, but minerals such as iron and copper, native to the area, give each piece a unique and exquisite character of its own. The thin walls of the bowls and vessels display the translucent quality of the stone. |
| Wood Turner | I use a variety of domestic hard woods for my turnings. The bowls and vessels act as the vehicle to exposure the natural beauty of the woods. |
| Cabinetmaker & Fine Furniture | Prior to devoting myself to the lathe full-time, I designed and built fine furniture. I worked in both commercial and residential environments. |
| Selected Shows | American Craft Council, St. Paul, MN
Plaza Art Fair, Kansas City, MO American Craft Council, Chicago, IL Celebrate Colorado Artist, Denver, CO Lakefront Art Festival, Milwaukee, WI American Craft Council, Sarasota, FL Arvada Center, Arvada, CO Park City Arts Festival, Park City, UT American Craft Council, Charlotte, NC Birmingham Fine Arts Festival, Birmingham, MI Art Festival Beth-El, St. Petersburg, FL Celebrate Colorado Artists, Denver, CO Laumeier's Contemporary Art Fair, St. Louis, MO Brookside Art Festival, Kansas City, KS Port Clinton Art Festival, Highland Park, IL Boston Mills Artfest, Peninsula, OH Bellevue Art Museum Fir, Bellevue, WA Des Moines Art Festival, Des Moines, IA |
| Galleries and Selected Exhibitions | Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Contemporary Fine Arts, Vail, CO Three- artist Show, The Nature of Art, Depot Gallery, Littleton, CO Selected Artist, The Whitsetts Center, Denver, CO Denver Urban Ministries, Awards commission, Denver, CO |
| Awards | American Craft Council, Sarasota, FL ,2000, Best of Show
Port Clinton Art Festival, Highland Park, Illinois, 2001, 2nd Place Laumeier's Contemporary Art Fair, St. Louis, Missouri, 2001, Award of Merit Art Festival Beth-El, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2001, Award of Distinction American Craft Council, Sarasota, Florida 2000, Best of Show Celebrate Colorado Artist, Denver, Colorado 2000, 3rd place Evergreen Fine Arts Festival, Evergreen, Colorado 2000, 2nd place Crested Butte Festival of the Arts, Crested Butte, Colorado 1999, 1st Place |
| Television | Home & Garden Television (HGTV) Modern Masters Series, 2003
season
Featured, Nickel's Worth, Channel 4 News, Denver CO |
| Publications | Fine Woodworking , Design Book Two
Woodshop News , Feature, 1997 Denver Post, Sunday Lifestyles Snapshots, Feature July 2001 Englewood Herald, Lifestyles, Feature May 2002 |
After twenty-some years of working in wood, first as a carpenter
and cabinetmaker, then as a furniture maker and woodturner, I began looking
for a new direction and a new medium. The alabaster stone that sculptors
around me were using increasingly caught my eye. The alabaster was
not only beautiful and captivating but I soon found it to be very workable
and adaptable to the many skills I had already developed while working
with wood. The first piece I turned marked a new beginning for me.
I was, and have been ever since, transfixed, not only by its beauty but
the mysterious story the stone has to tell with its colors and textures.
The sole purposes of my forms are to bring your eyes to a piece, once there, the stone, alone, is to be focused upon. The natural beauty of the stone is the miracle, not the form it is captured in.
The alabaster I use comes from a single quarry in northern Colorado. Millions of years ago this area was covered by an inland sea. Calcium deposits from the life of this sea collected on its floor. Eventually the water disappeared, the great Rocky Mountains pushed up through the crust of the earth, and some of these deposits eventually became the alabaster that I work with today. Prior to being exhibited at art shows, this alabaster and the bowls made from it have been touched by two pairs of human hands, the quarryman and my own.
Colorado alabaster has a fine texture and is usually pinkish, gray or white in color and somewhat translucent. It is often highlighted by iron, copper and other minerals native to the region.
I begin working the stone by hand, with a hammer and chisel. Later
I mount it on a lathe for the final shaping and finishing. The rim
and foot of the bowls are made of domestic hardwoods and applied to the
stone toward the end of the turning process.
The bowls are finished with a combination of oils, varnish and wax.
The thinness (approximately 3/16") of the bowls allows light to literally
shine through and show the translucency of the stone. These bowls
are objects of art and not considered functional pieces. Please handle
with care.
Send
mail to ron@rchristie.com with,
orders, questions or comments. You may also reach me by phone at
(303)781-9388, 1-800-765-8410 code 04.
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