Lou Pignolet is a woodturner from Hovland, Minnesota, who specializes in lathe-turned wooden bowls made with local wood. Lou’s bowls are displayed in art galleries and at art festivals on the North Shore. “For the past 38 years I was a chemistry professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I have always had an artistic interest in wood and became inspired by the beautiful turned bowls in Hawaii during a vacation in 2005. I explored woodturning in a course at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais and soon after purchased a lathe and turning tools. I have been learning by trial and error and advice from woodturners in Hawaii. I have since retired from my teaching and research career and spend a good part of my time turning wooden bowls in Hovland. All of my bowls are hand crafted on a lathe. This means the cutting tools (gouges and scrapers) are held by hand and steadied on a tool rest while cutting a rapidly turning piece of wood. The final shape of a bowl evolves during the turning process and depends on my mood and on the grain, size, and shape of the piece of wood. I prefer making natural bark-edge bowls from old spalted pieces of wood and from burls. My bowls have simple shapes and are designed to display the natural beauty of the wood. All of my wood is from Minnesota, mostly from the North Shore of Lake Superior, and trees are never cut solely for making bowls.” -Lou Pignolet
Lou Pignolet
 
Guest of kkd Pottery
(Kristi K. Downing)
September 25 - October 4