Master woodworker Rodney Band makes hand-turned wooden bowls in his workshop at Imhoff Farm in Kommetjie, just outside of Cape Town. 

Each bowl is completely unique – its shape, size and form determined by the type of wood, its unique grain, age, size and number of branches. The outside of each bowl is turned on a lathe, while the insides are sculpted by Rodney using a tool he designed himself, that allows him to shape the bowl in an asymmetrical way best suited to the piece of wood. 

Rodney began exploring the art of wood turning in the early 1990s. He is happiest when working with wood and crafting nature’s raw materials into pieces of art. Most of his wood comes from trees that have naturally fallen and so his practice is one of sustainability, repurposing that which would otherwise go to waste or end up as firewood. He uses a variety of wood depending on what is available, from his favourite soft wood, Cork Oak, to harder wood such as Norfolk Pine that is very difficult to sand, to the indigenous Wild Olive root that creates beautiful holes in the bowl, to rare finds such as Red Ivory.