Toe River Arts | Wood

Nathan Favors

BOWLMAKER

Wood turning

173 Minnie Lane
Bakersville, North Carolina 28705
By appointment only

Born in Philadelphia and raised on Maryland’s eastern shore, Nathan Favors spent much of his life running his own landscaping and tree removal business with the help of his six sons. Through the years Favors was exposed to a variety of tree species and gained a huge amount of respect to nature and all its beauty. This also instilled in his mind a desire to find a way to preserve this beauty, not just destroy it.

In 2000 Favors visited a woodturners’ exhibit. There he saw how through woodturning, he could transform the trees that he had grown to love into works of art that he could share with the world. From there, Nathan embarked on a journey to master this ancient craft. Through observing methods of lathe work and through trial and error, Nathan taught himself the craft and hasn’t looked back since. He currently works out of his studio in Bakersville, NC.

Favors prefers maple, walnut, ash, cherry, oak, Manzanita and buckeye. His only requirement is that the wood be burls. Burls are natural deformities of the grain on trees, caused by injury to the tree or by virus, fungus, mold growth or insect infestation. Nathan loves how burls offer the most unique results in the woodturning process.

Most of Favor’s pieces are produced using a lathe, even though Nathan has hand carved some pieces in the past. Each piece is painstakingly sanded by hand and finished with natural oils to bring out its beauty. With woodturning, each piece is unique and never replicated. That is the amazing beauty of the woodturning craft.

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