A few weeks ago, I wrote about drawing inspiration for my woodturnings from the work of Bob Stocksdale, one of the most influential woodturning artisans of the past 50 years. No less a luminary than Sam Maloof says, “As far as I’m concerned, Bob Stocksdale was the father of American woodturning.”

A new book, scheduled to be published at the end of March by Fox Chapel Publishing, offers up an in-depth view of Stocksdale, his work, and his approach to craft. To Turn the Perfect Wooden Bowl (paperback, $24.95), by Ron Roszkiewicz, is based largely on lengthy interviews the author taped with Stocksdale in 1987. Roszkiewicz writes that his objective “is to provide a snapshot of a few days in the studio of an American original and to hear him describe his life and work in that comfort zone.”

Born and raised in Indiana, Stocksdale turned his first bowl during WWII when, as a conscientious objector, he was detained in a work camp in Michigan. After the war he settled in Berkeley, California, where he lived and worked until he died in 2003. Among his first clients were Gump’s, the legendary upscale San Francisco giftware store; Nieman Marcus, equally legendary and equally upscale; and Georg Jensen and Bonnier’s, stores that did much to popularize Scandinavian design in this country after WWII.

To Turn the Perfect Wooden Bowl reproduces letters to Stocksdale from those stores, and describes in considerable detail how Stocksdale chose his wood, roughed it out with chain saw and band saw, and how he worked at the lathe. But for me the most valuable part of the book is the photography–some 50 examples of his work. The “perfect” bowl of the title may not be among them, but you can quickly see what shapes and curves obviously captivated Stocksdale, because they occur repeatedly.

What’s also striking to me is how carefully Stocksdale shaped his bowls so that the wood grain and figure had maximum impact. That’s no accident. Roszkiewicz writes:

“Bob Stocksdale’s approach to bowl making was workmanlike and efficient. Wiith each cut, new wood emerged and he often stopped to calculate the effect of continuing on the current path or altering the design.”

To Turn the Perfect Wooden Bowl won’t teach you woodturning technique.  But the inspiration and insight it does provide are worth it all.