From boyhood Marc Ricourt was fascinated by both woodwork and art. But after training and working as a carpenter for some years and then attending art school, he found himself unsure what he would do. A book by Richard Raffan taught him how to turn, and gradually his passions for art and handwork began to merge. Ricourt harvests beech and oak trees for his vessels from the hilly, forested land around the village where he lives in Burgundy, France. His pieces begin with chainsaw work, then move inside his shop, a former clog-maker’s stone workshop several centuries old, which Ricourt restored. There, at the lathe, he defines the overall shape of a piece and hollows it.

Next comes power carving, and then, after an eight- or nine-month wait, sanding begins—his least favorite step, though extensive and essential—and finishing commences: bleaching, scorching, or treating with ferrous oxide, then applying half a dozen coats of lacquer, each preceded by more sanding. Despite his affection for art, Ricourt is not inclined toward intellectual discourse about his work. His native language is aesthetics: he speaks shape, texture, color. He is proud of his work, but his pride stems not so much from particular pieces he has made as from having found a way of life and work that he loves. “My grandfather used to say, ‘You’ll be rich when you are satisfied with what you have.’ I think that’s a beautiful philosophy.”

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