Ivan Braun, Who Turns Felled Trees Into Bowls
The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx has found a way to give its fallen trees a new life: as hand-turned bowls and vases made by Ivan Braun, a woodworker from the Bronx. The one-of-a-kind objects, sold at the garden, are crafted in yew, red maple, plum, juniper, white oak, cherry, apple and zelkova, a Japanese elm. They range from $45 to $145.
Mr. Braun, 65, grew up in Ohio and is married to the cartoonist Anne Gibbons. He has worked for a number of nonprofit social-service organizations, and has been working with wood all his life.
These bowls are beautiful — do you have a background in art?
My mother was an artist, my father was a quality-control engineer. Actually, part of what I’m enjoying about wood turning is I remember my grandfather having a lathe. I have some of his bowls. I have bowls that my father created. And the lathe that I am using was passed on to me from my father, who is now 97 and not doing this kind of woodworking anymore.
