Hand-crafted masterpieces

POLSON - When Polson artist Martin Mumma looks at a stump or slab of wood, he doesn't see the same thing you or I see. He sees the wood as a potential bowl, a dining room table, or a chair. Sometimes, it takes a long time before the true art form comes alive in his mind, and even more time before it is completely transformed.

"When I start out with a piece that I consider to be ‘one of a kind,' I never know exactly what that thing is going to look like until I get into it," Mumma said. "The grain, the pattern of the grain, how and where it's going to present itself on a bowl... the nature of the wood determines what's going to happen at the end of it."

Mumma's unique turned wooden bowls and vessels are on display at the Sandpiper Art Gallery and Gift Shop in Polson as a part of the "Through the Lens and by the Hands" exhibit also featuring local artists, Jay Cross, Eugene Beckes, Donald Stein and Lee Proctor.

Mumma has been making things with his hands since the age of 18 when he built his first wooden masterpiece, a cypress johnboat. With a complete furniture, cabinet and woodworking shop located next to his home at the foot of the Mission Mountains, he now focuses his energy on turning wood on the lathe. Maple, birch, ash and walnut are a few of the more popular types of wood he uses. While trying to use mainly local woods, sometimes salvaged from the dump, Mumma said he occasionally buys exotics from Washington or Oregon.

"I try to stay away from the tropicals because I am more interested in their conservation," he said.

For furniture, he works mainly with solid hard woods derived mostly from trees he harvested and milled himself. His favorite type of wood to use for furnituremaking is black walnut because it's easy to shape, handle, and accepts machinery really well.

"Not all woods do," he said. "And the grain pattern really jumps out and presents itself well."

Since Mumma uses natural oils, hand-rubbed into the fiber of the wood, his furniture and bowls shine like no other and feel silky smooth to the touch. The oil takes about four days to soak in about 1/8 of an inch or more.

"It preserves it really well," he said. "Scratches and dents are usually easier to refinish, too."

Before retiring to Montana in 1998, Mumma taught geology in universities for 13 years, 12 at Eastern Washington University alone. After suffering a difficult personal loss, he decided to stop teaching in 1981, and headed to Tulsa, Ariz. for a career as a petroleum geologist. While in Tulsa, Mumma cultivated his love of woodworking.

Mainly working on projects for himself, his family and friends, Mumma became an expert in making both furniture and bowls. In Montana, he began to explore the local arts and craft show scene. While he only presented a sampling of his work, that's when the custom orders really started to generate, Mumma said.

"I would earn enough commission at one or two shows to last the whole year," he said.

When employed to make custom furniture, Mumma said he was often at the beckoned-call of his clients.

"When it turned into a business, I said, ‘I don't want to do this,' so I quit all commercial aspects," he said.

While about half of his 16 to 20-piece collection at the Sandpiper Gallery was turned this year in preparation of the show, Mumma said the other half are older pieces that, "frankly, my wife didn't want me to sell."

At the height of production, Mumma made between 200 and 300 bowls a year, mostly functional pieces. The bowls on display at the Sandpiper, however, are decorative, collector's type items, and perhaps the last of what Mumma considers to be his "first class" work.

"I probably won't duplicate that again," he said.

Pick up next week's edition of the Lake County Leader for a closer look into the life and work of St. Ignatius photographer Eugene Beckes.