Eight years in the past, a logging truck pulled as much as Howard Werner’s studio exterior Phoenix with a supply. The truck’s crane hoisted the trunk of a 7-ft.-dia. cottonwood tree and nimbly set it on the lined concrete slab the place Werner carves his furnishings and sculpture with a chainsaw. The dimensions on the crane learn “15,000 lb.” Werner used his largest noticed to chop two 3-ft.-sq. chunks from the trunk for these tables and to noticed their prime and backside faces flat and parallel. After finessing these surfaces with an influence planer, he laid out the spirals in chalk and pencil—a big spiral on prime, a smaller one on the underside. Then with the blanks on their aspect, he carved the spiral channels, plunging in from the highest and backside faces. When the tough carving was full, he put the tables apart to dry—for six years—earlier than tuning their shapes and refining their textures, compensating for warpage and leaving clear, clear noticed marks on the vertical surfaces. The highest, against this, he power-planed and hand-sanded to close good flatness and a superb polish. Then one other truck arrived and took the tables to the Mesa Modern Arts Museum, the place they’ll be on show in an exhibit of his work till March 19.

Photographs: John Dowd.

From Wonderful Woodworking #302

	Furnishings by chainsaw Working with completely different chainsaw our bodies and the sharpest blades, Howard Werner strikes deftly by way of a log, discovering the complete design of every piece because it emerges.
	How you can add power and magnificence to any slab Inlays remodel a flawed slab right into a sturdy murals.
	Ash and ice Begin with some huge blocks of ice. Watch them soften. Then create your furnishings design.