Biography
David Earle was hooked on wood at an early age. This might be due to the labeled hardwood blocks made for him by his grandfather. Or perhaps it's just that all children find trees perfect for monkeying around on.
Born in Houston Texas, he spent elementary school in the Bay Area before moving to Seattle. Constructing towers with blocks gave way to ceramics and painting, which became more of a focus in high school. Persuaded to seek out better visual arts schools on the east coast, David decided to attend the Tyler School of Art, in Elkins Park, PA.
Studying there gave him a chance to experiment with new materials, techniques, and ways of thinking. Having access to wood and metal fabrication shops was an education in itself. Early projects used materials purchased from the home depot, and other limited sources.
As he focused on Sculpture, some of the projects were quite large, and most had to be thrown out at the end of every semester. This began to get both expensive and depressing. From then on, more and more of his projects were constructed of the plentiful junk that litters northern Philadelphia. Old propellers, bicycle parts, wood from demolished buildings, clay dug from a campus vegetable garden, and many other findings slowly became sculpture.
One winter, a heavy storm took down some massive trees around the campus. Given some native Oak and Hard Maple rounds, David began the slow process of learning to work with green wood.
"After cutting them into smaller blocks, he set about carving some into spoons, spatulas, odd-shaped bowls, and other objects. Unfortunately, carving is not learned in a day, and without the tools or know-how, he wasn't able to make any significant pieces with the green wood.
"Even though the wet, smelly stuff I was working with looked nothing like store-bought lumber, the variety and potential was much greater. I remember that Oak smelled like really good wine."
After school, David came back to the Seattle area, and sought out a place to continue making things. His father offered an unused garden shed, and so a work-bench was built, power was run, and the tinkering began. "I finally learned to sharpen tools from my grandfather, and a man named Frank Tashiro, who sells Japanese saws".
A forge was built, anvil and welding torch procured, and all kinds of musical instruments and bicycle projects came about. A wax for a bronze piece was also made.
"One day I was looking on Craigslist for a metal lathe - I wanted to make some bike parts." He instead came upon an old Sears wood lathe. Even with a sub-standard machine, an extremely useful book by woodturner Richard Raffan allowed him to succeed in making a few small bowls and spinning tops. Suddenly the problem of working green wood turned into an opportunity. After only a few months of obsessive woodturning, David quit his job as an estate gardener, and hasn't looked back since.
