bowl with a simple ogee shape." Well, since I didn't really know what a "simple ogee shape" was, and, typically male, thought it beneath me to ask, what I produced has a somewhat rounded shape but not a good ogee shape.Although I liked the bowl and the instructor made a nice correction to my squared-off rim, I wanted to learn what ogee really meant and how to make a pleasing formed bowl.
A quick look in Wikipedia led me to understand that an ogee shape is a convex curve followed by a concave curve. When I looked at my spalted maple bowl, it had the convex curve but a very, very small concave curve.
What I also wanted to understand was the proper proportion of the two curves in relation to the entire bowl shape. I found a nice article on good design and the "Golden Mean" which gave me a lot of direction. That lead me to draw out a bowl with the appropriate ogee curve in proportion to those design principles. I then produced a walnut bowl that matched those dimensions. Using the drawing as a guide helped me conceptualize the design ideas. I'm glad I did the research to fill in my missing knowledge because it will help me on the next bowl.
I had to use some purchased bowl blanks which are a little shallower than would be ideal. But the difference is only slight and I still ended up with a nice salad bowl size piece. I will now try to duplicate the size and shape in order to have sets for salad bowls at our house.
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