I have always worked with my hands.…from working on thousand-foot ore boats in Sturgeon Bay, to installing large industrial machinery world-wide, to building and remodeling homes in central and northern Wisconsin…and I have found working with my hands has always been rewarding.

 

I fell in love with wood early in life while watching my dad build various projects. For many years I “puttered” in my woodshop building wine racks, tables, bookcases and a variety of other wood items. When I retired, I continued to build various things, but realized I was getting very bored with square things!

 

I bought a small wood lathe in 2020 and never looked back! I now have two lathes, oodles of tools, a nice collection of raw wood and burls, and not enough hours in the day! My wife says my hobby has run amok!

 

I am fortunate to have several friends that supply me with a variety of wood including burls. So…what’s a burl? Well, it’s that knobby, gnarled growth on a tree trunk or limb that you sometimes see in the woods. Burls form as the result of stress or injury to a tree, and are prized for their unique, swirling wood grain. Although beautiful on their own, burl wood can be very unstable, so I use epoxy resin in combination with the wood.

 

When turning a piece, I seldom plan what it will look like…I let the wood “talk to me” and (usually) when I do, good things happen! I have discovered that the learning curve for turning wood is long and steep, but I have found that listening to the wood has meant the difference between a plain bowl and a WOW!

 

The thing that keeps me turning projects day after day is the challenge of making something new and exciting. I do sometimes wish I had discovered turning earlier in life, but perhaps then the passion I feel on a daily basis would not be so great.

 

I hope you enjoy!