Got Bowls?

Today we went to my grandparents for a visit.  The boys love their Great-Grandparents. They always have lots of toys and games to play with at their house.  In my real life I work for the family business, which is a custom architectural millwork shop.  It has been open since 1878 and has always been family owned. My grandfather used to run the shop, but is now retired. He keeps himself busy with lots of projects.  He made all of the wooden pens above (except for the second to last one in the first picture, oops my bad) over the past few months.

The pen below was made out of a very fascinating piece of wood.  It was purchased in Ireland by a friend of his.  It was in a Peat Bog. He told me that in some of the Peat Bogs in Ireland they have pulled out large logs.  Some of the logs are thousands of years old.  He was able to cut this extremely old piece of wood to make this pen.

 This carving of a turtle was done by the carver at our shop. He is so incredibly talented.  This is also a log from a Peat Bog and I believe this piece of wood is 3,000 - 4,000 years old.

My grandfather also made all of these bowls and he made the turned wooden balls.  He thought he needed something to put in the bowls.

Just in case you were wondering how he makes these. In the picture below is piece of wood before he turns it.  There is Cherry, Wenge and Maple glued together.

Below he was making pens, but they got turned into key chains instead.

The boys playing a game with their Great-Grandparents.