Jeffrey N. Clark

My primary goal is to use foreign and domestic hardwoods in accent colors to create beautiful and useful items. I particularly like to use woods that provide a contrast to each other. These include exotic (foreign) varieties such as: padauk, bocote, bubinga, mahogany, morado, tigerwood, purpleheart, rosewood, chakte viga, ebony, sapelle, wenge and many others, and the domestic hardwoods such as black walnut. oak, sweet hackberry, poplar, osage orange, elm, black and wild cherry, ash, ambrosia maple, holly and sycamore. I especially like to include woods that contain spalting, fine figuring or unusual grain characteristics.  A crotch wood piece because of its fantastic figuring is also very important to turn for bowls and platters.  I also experiment with a large array of finishes to bring out the best in the wood.  I use stone such as turquoise, malachite and blue lapis to “fix” defects in the wood caused by knots or wormholes.  Finished items include lamp bases, cutting boards, cheese platters, pens, salt and pepper shakers, pepper grinders, wine bottle stoppers, Christmas ornaments, bowls and platters, ice cream scoops, pizza cutters and many other useful items.