In between setting up the crockpot with stew for tonight's dinner and serving lunch to my temporarily invalided spouse, I turned a hard maple bowl this morning. It was one of those "tweeners," small for salad, marginal for a bag of micro popcorn, and too big for a nut bowl. I figure most likely use is chips or such, so I consciously did a few things for my customer.
1) I cut the walls thin, for capacity, but left the bottom heavy for stability. No sense making something tippy if it's going to be picked up and set down multiple times in use.2) I made a lip outside and a slight undercut inside, where a thumb can find a grip as the bowl is passed. No sense making something easy to drop and spread the contents on the dogs' "table."
3) I prepped it for a surface finish - probably polyurethane - rather than a show only type. No sense leaving it too vulnerable to water if folks are going to have to wipe out the fragments of chips and/or oil with a bit of detergent and water.Now it's plain vanilla, as hard maple tends, but I consider that its utility enhancements make it the useful equal of a piece of curly fluff that can barely stand on its own and sports a buffed wax finish over a French polish.
What considerations do you folks give your customers when you approach a blank?