Chippin’ Right along
Thanks for your interest in my “Food Safe” Handmade Wooden Bread Bowls. The YouTube videos I’m featured in have been viewed over half a million times (search for “JP Madren Videos” or use the links on the Home page).
What few bowls I have are shown on the BOWLS Page! There may not be any more as my health continues to go down hill.
Due to declining health, cancer, and a worn-out body, this old Disabled Veteran is out of business until 2025.
I am still recovering from a cancer operation, broken shoulder, shoulder operation, and 3 other operations. I see that making bowls is not going to be a major part of my future.
For 10 years I worked for the NC State Fair as a “Paid Display Artist”. I enjoyed the interaction with the large crowds the fair provided. I’ve had folks from 40 states drive, fly and even ride an Amtrak train to visit with me and that has really humbled me.
All Bowls will be sold as FREE SHIPPING in the lower 48 states (no international sales!) my quality is the best you will find anywhere. Every bowl is sanded smooth, buffed and waxed.
“Thank YOU” to the many people who have offered up prayers on my behalf. It really means a lot !!!
A Special Christmas Present
This past Christmas I wanted to do something special for my granddaughter. She has worked hard getting her nursing degree and we are so proud of her. She’s a person that really holds on to memories and family is everything to her.
When she was small, she loved to play in the leaves each fall. My wife Nancy and I would rake up all the leaves from a big maple in our front yard and go over near the woods and gather even more from all the trees that surround our yard to make her a nice big pile. The two dogs that we had at the time “Sadie and Daisy” would join in the fun and all three of them would have a great time playing in the leaves.
On May 1 of 2022 a tornado tore up several houses just down the road from us. It also uprooted or broke off over 60 big oaks, maples and other trees around our house and destroyed a building I had recently built. I often wondered how the big maple in our yard seemed fine with no missing limbs when almost all others suffered damage or were broken up. In the summer of 2023 after my first surgery of the year for cancer, I was sitting under the tree watching the Purple Martins flying around the houses we have for them and looked up at the tree admiring its beauty. I was shocked to notice a large crack in the trunk where it split into two trunks. The tornado had damaged the tree after all and if it split further, it would be on our house. I had a tree company come cut all the limbs off of it – leaving only the trunk so that I could preserve it until fall so I wouldn’t lose the log.
I cut it down in November after the sap went down and made several nice bowls out of it. These were special because I actually planted the maple when it was very small, and here I was cutting it down to make bowls from it and using one of these bowls as a canvas to burn a picture of my granddaughter Katie and the dogs – playing in the leaves beneath the very tree that the bowl was made of.
