Peter Jacobson Spent 45 Years as a Geologist. A Bowl Class With His Sons Made Him a Woodturner

Peter Jacobson is a woodturner in Dresher, Pennsylvania, who makes hand-turned wooden bowls, vases, platters and other sculptural vessels under the name Rare Earth Bowls. After 45 years as a geologist, he took a class in how to make a wooden bowl with his two sons in December 2019 – and within weeks of that class he bought a lathe of his own.

Peter turns every piece on the lathe, mostly from wood found in his local community: he keeps alert to neighbors doing tree work and scours local woods for burls. A log is turned to rough shape in a few hours, dried in a small kiln he made for several weeks to a few months, then turned to its final form in about an hour, sanded and finished with multiple coats of oils and wax.

Peter gladly takes commissions. Some come from families who had to take down a tree and want a remembrance made from its wood – “this makes my work very meaningful”, he says. Others are bowls and vessels made to fit a certain niche in the owner’s home. When people give him wood from their trees, he returns a finished piece to them, usually months later.

Peter sells through seven channels, and the Red Tulip Gallery in New Hope, Pennsylvania, brings about 30% of his sales, ahead of the Princeton University Art Museum store (20%), the Museum for Art in Wood store in Philadelphia (15%) and Etsy (15%). Both museum stores invited him after their managers saw his work at local art and craft shows.

In December 2019, Peter asked his two sons if they were interested in taking a class in how to make a wooden bowl. The three of them had a blast, and each came home with a bowl. Peter also came home knowing he had to pursue bowl making further. “It was like getting bit by a bug.” He still has that bowl: “it is not the most beautiful bowl I have made, but it is in daily use in our home.”

“I had no idea where it would take me, but within weeks of taking that class, I purchased my first lathe.”

He was raised in a home where art and craft were venerated. His mom ran a local craft gallery, both his parents were ceramic artists in their spare time, and they were early customers of George Nakashima, eventually filling their home with his furniture. Peter was encouraged from an early age to explore making things – and still pursued a career in the sciences, spending 45 years as a geologist while raising a family. As that career wound down, he felt a freedom to explore other activities, and the creative spark instilled many years before came back to life.

He set up the lathe in his basement, bought a few tools and started scavenging wood. Then, in early 2020, the pandemic hit. “It was actually fortuitous for me”: his daily routine became woodturning videos online in the evenings and practice in the basement the next morning – an intense stretch of learning that let him develop skills, learn about tools and techniques, and start to develop his style. Geology never left: “My understanding and appreciation of the earth and its materials forms a strong connection between my life as a geologist and my current focus on woodworking.” Some of his turned pieces are reminiscent of earthly features – volcanic, granitic, metamorphic, primordial, early-earth.

“My job as a woodturner is to create a form that is pleasing to eye and hand, and that enables one to fully appreciate the beauty and character of the wood itself.” Grain patterns, tonal range, figure, texture and features such as burls, knots, swirls and bark are all part of nature’s palette in each piece of wood, and Peter seeks to make work where these elements are honored and, together with the form, tell a meaningful story about the piece.

Nakashima still guides him: his reverence for the wood, his use of natural edges, the way he highlighted as features what others might consider imperfections, and his tenet that a woodworker’s responsibility is to give the trees a second life.

A lot of Peter’s wood comes directly from his local community. “I love the sound of chain saws in the morning!” He has found some very nice cherry burls in local woods, and buys some special burls from online vendors. Lately he has been drawn to burls – “Burls are like catnip for woodturners.” A burl is a growth on the outside of an otherwise healthy tree; inside it the grain is wild and discombobulated, in stark contrast to the straight grain of the rest of the tree. “Burls are full of surprises”: often the finished grain no longer looks like wood and is reminiscent of stone, marbled beef or other materials.

A piece like a burl platter or a hollow form goes through many steps. He prepares the log to be mounted on the lathe; once mounted, it can take a few hours to bring the piece to its rough shape. Then the wood dries – typically in a small kiln he made – for several weeks or a few months, depending on how green it was. Once dry, and once all the warping has happened, it goes back on the lathe for final turning and shaping, perhaps an hour or so. Then come the finishing steps: “sanding, sanding, sanding” and multiple coats of oils and wax.

These are recent pieces that show a range of the bowls, vases and hollow forms Peter makes, each with strong character from the wood he selected for it. “I hope the magnificence of the wood shows through in the photos as well as it does in person.”

Peter’s buyers come from across the US and Canada, and fall into two groups: sophisticated, experienced collectors of art and craft who use his work as part of their home decor, and people buying gifts for weddings, housewarmings and appreciation. His pieces range from $100 to $1,000.

Some commissions carry a family’s history. His earliest came from a friend who had salvaged a few pieces of a Japanese maple planted in her front yard many years before, and wondered if he could make something memorable from it. The slices of the trunk constrained his design options, so he made a platter-like wall hanging – it now hangs in the office of her eldest daughter. When he returns finished pieces, often months later, people tell him what the tree meant to them: “our daughter used to sit under that tree and write poetry”, “we planted that tree when my son was born”. “These stories are very gratifying to me, as they humanize what I do.”

In his early months, Peter’s bowls went to friends and family. When he began selling, he built his customer base on two fronts at once: local craft fairs and an online presence.

Peter no longer does the weekend craft fairs, even though there are many fine fairs in his area. Seven active channels sell the volume of work he can make, and keeping that volume under control is critical to maintaining quality. His rough breakdown: the Red Tulip Gallery in New Hope, 30%; the Princeton University Art Museum store, 20%; the Museum for Art in Wood store in Philadelphia, 15%; Etsy, 15%; his own website, 10%; his home gallery, 5%; and juried art shows, 5%.

The museum stores came from the shows: their managers saw his work at two different local art and craft shows and invited him in. “Those connections proved to be more valuable to me in the long run than the sales at the shows themselves.” Online, he has more than 4,000 Instagram followers, and his Etsy shop gets 40 to 200 visitors a month.

“I have created a lot of firewood along the way.” Peter is not afraid to try new things, but they don’t always work out: sometimes a piece is just a dud, and sometimes the work breaks up violently on the lathe. Losing a piece that way is frustrating, because it usually happens towards the end of the process – but, as he puts it, “I ’lick my wounds’ and move on.” As disappointing as these moments are, they are opportunities for learning.

He has never had a time when he wanted to quit, and credits the endless positive support and encouragement of his family, friends, colleagues and customers.

About a year in, Peter had been making bowls as much as possible, until they filled his dining room table. He realized he needed an outlet beyond giving them away to friends and family – if he wanted to keep making more, he needed room on the table. So he set up a driveway sale, let his neighborhood know, and sold everything in a day. “More than just making room on the table for more work, it was an incredible sense of validation that my work appeals to the general public sufficiently for them to open their wallets.”

Three of Peter’s pieces are in Works in Wood at New Hope Arts in New Hope, Pennsylvania, through December 13, 2026, and one is in Craftforms 2026 at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania, from November 23, 2026, to January 25, 2027. In July 2027 he has a solo show at Art in the Storefront in Ambler, Pennsylvania. His home gallery is open by appointment. His sons don’t turn now, but he is holding on to tools for them and hopes the older one will someday come back to it – “I think he is naturally talented in this area.”

“I owe it to the trees to craft forms that reveal and enhance nature’s organic beauty.” I’m Peter Jacobson. In my studio near Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, I turn distinctive woods into functional and sculptural objects, letting the grain and character of each piece guide the form.

Have a question for Peter about his work or a commission, or a few words about his story and work?
Leave them in the comments at the end of this story.

Who: Peter Jacobson (Rare Earth Bowls)
What: Hand-turned wooden bowls, vases, platters and other sculptural vessels for utility and decorative applications
Where: Dresher, Pennsylvania, USA
Started: January 2020
Audience: 4,000+ Instagram followers; 40–200 Etsy visitors a month
Customers: Collectors of art and craft and gift buyers across the US and Canada
Price range: $100–$1,000
Custom orders: Yes
Channels: Word of Mouth & Offline