A talented wood turner has hand-crafted hundreds of remarkable pens, bowls and candlesticks, despite not being able to see.

Chris Fisher, 48, had picked up the toxoplasmosis virus and became completely blind in just four weeks in 2008.

Chris, of Whittle-le-Woods, near Chorley, was forced to quit his job in the motor industry as a old vehicle restoration engineer for BMW as his sight left him.

Stuck for something to do and wondering how he was going to make a living, vampire film fanatic Chris decided he wanted to craft a stake out of wood.

The dad-of-one then spent three months listening to YouTube videos on how to turn wood by simply touching and feeling vibrations.

He then purchased the expensive machinery and he made his first Van Helsing-esque stake.

Proud of his achievement, Chris then took a year of honing his skills and began to make wonderful bowls – and then moved on to making artistic fountain pens.

Chris said: “It did take a long time to get used to turning and I had to keep stopping and starting. I always have to keep a careful ear out just in case the wood is close to splintering or being pushed out of the turner.”

Chris can sell a hand-crafted fountain pen from anywhere from £30 to £300 and beyond – depending on the type of wood. He said: “People can’t believe that I’m blind – I leave them amazed.”

Chris thinks he picked up the toxoplasmosis virus while playing in a park as a young boy – but has never found out the reason for it. The virus usually comes from contaminated water, undercooked meats and animal faeces.

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It all started with the wrong lathe.

About 10 years ago, Chip Nasworthy of Jackson was looking for a way to fill some time when he met a wood turner at a craft demonstration and decided to try it. Now in his second term as president of the Barnesville Woodturners, he seeks to preserve the art of creating things of beauty from chunks of castaway wood.

His house is full of wooden creations, from a cherry wood kitchen table made from a single tree to a box full of tiny Christmas ornaments colored with magic markers while they were still spinning on the lathe.

“It would have been helpful to me when I was starting out to have joined a club,” Nasworthy said. “I bought four lathes before I found the right one. The first mistake a wood turner makes is buying tools you don’t need.”

Nasworthy found a lathe he thought would help him make furniture and bought a book on how to turn bowls so he could make one for his wife Sandra. The lathe was suited for one use and not the other. The upshot of buying four lathes, however, was the same as buying just one.

“I quit doing anything else and started wood turning,” Nasworthy said.

The right lathe for Nasworthy needs variable speeds. Slow is for segmented bowls and vases made from layers of different woods that, when finished, form a design.

“Spindle turners don’t need a slow speed,” Nasworthy said, using an ironwood pepper mill — the first he has made — as an example. Pepper mills are long and narrow, so the lathe can run faster than it can for a bowl.

“For a bowl, the wood isn’t balanced. It’s out of round. It can come off the lathe and hit you,” Nasworthy said.

The pepper mill started out as a hunk of wood from a shipping pallet that came from South America, Nasworthy said.

“We call it a specialty wood, like mahogany or bloodwood,” Nasworthy said. “I like working yellow heart, padauk and sapele, which are from South America.”

That first bowl he made for Sandra she gave away, Nasworthy said. Since then he has made many more for her — including a spalted walnut bowl she keeps in the kitchen.

“Compared to what I do now, those first pieces were bad but you’re proud of it when you do it,” Nasworthy said. “Everything is supposed to be proportioned into thirds. They call it the golden rule. It doesn’t always have to apply but it makes everything flow better.”

Bill Bulloch, a wood turner whose work can be found in the Jackson-Butts County Council for the Arts’ permanent collection, introduced segmented bowls to the Barnesville Woodturners. Nasworthy went large with the new technique, creating a huge vase out of hundreds of individual wood pieces.

“My first vase has some mistakes in it I wouldn’t let pass now,” he said. “Wood turners are their own worst critics. You can tell when a wood turner is looking at your work. They’ll feel it and stick their hands into it. Other people just say it’s pretty.”

Nasworthy’s bowls have earned red and blue ribbons and a People’s Choice Award at the Georgia National Fair in Perry. His latest one is on its way to a new owner in Sarasota, Fla.

“I try to make them pleasing to the eye,” Nasworthy said. “At first I didn’t know the methods to make it all look good. It needs to be symmetrical, it needs to have a purpose and it needs to stand out.”

Once he mastered segmented bowls, Nasworthy moved on to dizzy bowls. In addition to being segmented, dizzy bowl uses wood with natural holes filled with colored laminate, giving them a spiral effect.

A special dizzy bowl was completed four months ago, the day his youngest granddaughter Adeline Anderson was born. Nasworthy hopes Adeline’s Bowl will stay in her possession for the rest of her life. All of his eight grandchildren have something he made, he said.

The Barnesville Woodturners always enter the Butts County Creates art competition and have done demonstrations at the Bluebirds and Bluegrass and Buggy Days festivals, something Nasworthy hopes to start doing again.

“We try to reach out to other wood turners and help people develop both an interest in wood turning and the skills and techniques to do it,” Nasworthy said. “If someone wants to learn about being a wood turner, we share all our little secrets. We like to help people learn how to do it. It doesn’t cost you anything and we have experts who come demonstrate their craft.”

The Barnesville Woodturners is happy to do demonstrations for Scout troops, church groups and anyone else who has an interest. Nasworthy worries that young people will not be interested in learning how to turn wood.

He knows how easily lost both the art and the knowledge can be. A serving platter on the Nasworthys’ dining room table is the first piece that came off his new lathe after his shop burned down in 2015. He lost everything.

His new shop was built with the help of other Barnesville Woodturners.

“We have a really good group of people,” Nasworthy said. “We become friends and family.”

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“Nature is the art of God,” wrote the Italian medieval poet Dante. Small but perfectly formed, the current exhibition featuring the work of Armadale wood-turner Jack de Vos is by extension a celebration of all three: nature, art and God.

De Vos migrated to WA from the Netherlands with his parents in 1952. He grew up in Armadale, later becoming a carpenter. In 1968, he and his wife Ina bought a citrus orchard in Pinjarra; in 1978 they planted a stonefruit orchard in Keysbrook.

In 1982 de Vos turned to wood-turning to supplement his income. Such was his talent and passion for the craft that in 1993 the orchard was sold and de Vos became a full-time wood-turner. He died earlier this year at the age of 75, leaving a rich legacy not just of work but of knowledge through his teaching.

The exhibition consequently displays not just finished works but works in progress, as well as the tools of de Vos’ trade; there are also sketchbooks.

But as de Vos had written on his website jackdevos.com: “I have an acute awareness that the wood, and the trees it comes from, as well as the talent one has to craft fine pieces, are God-given. In my artistic pieces I aim to reflect my appreciation for the majestic beauty of God’s creation, as a result most of my artistic pieces are inspired by nature.”

This is why the finished works have such integrity. Working with jarrah, sheoak or grass tree woods; turning, carving, piercing or staining; producing a vase, a bowl, a platter, a sculpture or even a cup and saucer, as part of his Fire, Gumnut, Foliage, Seedpod series: the result is an art in which every element grows organically from the whole in a spirit of love and exploration.

Of course one does not have to be religious to enjoy the art, and the craftsmanship, of de Vos. One simply needs to delight, as much as he did, in nature as the art of a power that transcends, and yet flows through us all.

The exhibition runs until April 2018 at History House Museum, Armadale. See armadale.wa.gov.au

 

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What do you see when you imagine a weaver or a wood turner? Most likely a woman at a loom and a man at the lathe.

That will change when you visit “Gender Bend: Women in Wood, Men at the Loom” at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton. It’s an exhibit filled with beautiful and intriguing works, made by male weavers and female wood turners.

“There continues to be cultural presuppositions about the masculine and feminine nature of applied handwork, and how they correlate to artistic and practical value,” wrote museum curator Michael McMillan in the introductory panel. “It is the hope of Fuller Craft Museum that (this) exhibition (will) transform the title ‘women wood turners’ into simply ‘wood turners’ and the same respectively for male fiber artists.”

Just as the artisans’ gender may surprise, so too do their creations. The woven works don’t just have colorful patterns, but some are tapestry like landscapes and portraits, made from wool, cotton, silk and metallic thread. The works in wood are not just bowls or vessels, but ones that look like a ceramic teapot, seeds and fruits, and ancient rock art, made from mahogany, redwood burl, African blackwood and other woods from around the world.

In “Wetland,” Urban Jupena wove a scene reminiscent of Monet’s “Garden at Giverny,” but actually is the view of a red walking bridge over a wooded and green wetland outside her window.

“It is about making something just for its own beauty — no political or earth-shattering statement — just a tapestry,” she wrote in the exhibit catalogue.

“NYNY,” by Klaus Anselm, is a bold-colored geometric weaving of purple, pink and orange skyscrapers, as though the surfaces reflect the setting sun.

“Young Icarus,” by exhibit co-curator Jon Eric Riis, is a rear view of a standing naked man in contemplation, and next to him are two large glistening wings made of blue and yellow feathers. It’s a thought-provoking work that asks, “Did Icarus (who in Greek myth plunged into the sea after he flew too close to the sun) know of his impending doom?” Riis asked.

“This is the tragic theme of failure caused by foolish pride, which unfortunately seems to exist well into the 21st century,” he wrote in the exhibit catalogue.

On a lighter, humorous note, “Lip Service,” by Dixie Biggs, is a cherry wood teapot painted in black paint, whose spout looks like a bright red puckered mouth and handle like a red lipstick. Many sensual lips decorate its side, making the piece look like it’s made of clay.

“Drying Apple and Ladybug” is a cross section of a boxwood apple, whose delicate flower-shaped core holds a tiny ladybug.

“My work points out little things in nature that most of us tend to disregard during our busy lives, and might present a small story which arouses quiet memories,” wrote wood turner Janel Jacobson.

Hayley Smith found her inspiration for “Handful” at Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, where the walls were covered in 700-year-old handprints of the Anasazi people. She inlaid overlapping dark and light handprints onto a round base, which seems to call out to be spun so that the three hands blur into one.

“I experienced a powerful urge to connect with these people, to place my hand palm-to-palm with the past,” she wrote.

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Wood Craftsman Francis Orsbon uses an air compressor to rid himself of the sawdust and woodshavings covering the faded overalls he wears when he uses chainsaw and operates his wood turning lathe.

The Greenbrier resident began making wooden bowls, plates, goblets and vases from single selections of wood about 15 years ago as a hobby, but now that he’s retired, it’s become a full-time job.

“I enjoy this so much,” he said, standing in his workshop on afternoon. “I enjoy talking to people and explaining what I do. People are amazed by what I do, but it’s nothing to me. I just, it’s fun. I enjoy it.”

When he begins a new piece, Orsbon starts out with a chainsaw, first cutting the right piece of wood from a log to begin his process. His next step, he said, is where his piece really begins to take shape.

Using a woodworking lathe, a tool that rotates a piece of wood about an axis of rotation, Orsbon “turns” each piece and begins to shape it into whatever item he happens to be creating at the time.

After the piece has been shaped to his specifications, Orsbon puts it away.

“Green wood has to be put up so it can season out,” he explains. “And that takes probably eight or nine months.

“Then I put it back on after it dries out, and I true it up because it’s gonna be egg-shaped and warped. And then I sand it.”

By the end of the process, Orsbon has spent about ten hours getting each piece just right, he said. And when you’re dealing with a single piece of wood, he said, you have to be very careful.

A single mis-step can ruin a piece.

Each year, he tries to recoup his investment in time and labor by taking his finished products to at least “half a dozen” festivals in Tennessee.

“Everything (you see) is from a solid piece of wood straight out of a tree,” Orsbon said.

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BlackRock Center for the Arts – “HANDCRAFTED: TURNED WOOD Juried Exhibition” (Functional, Sculptural & Creative Turned Wood)

BlackRock, a nonprofit arts center, invites woodturners to submit entries for HANDCRAFTED, a new turned wood exhibition juried by Fleur Bresler, who is a collector of turned wood and a Commissioner for the Renwick & Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibit is dedicated to enhancing awareness of turned wood, and providing a venue for woodturners from our region to share their functional, sculptural, and creative endeavors. Age 18+ Entries must be original works created with the past 3 yrs. The show will run January 13 through February 24, 2018 at BlackRock Center for the Arts, 12901 Town Commons Drive, Germantown, MD 20874. Residents of DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, WV over age 18 are eligible to apply. Entry fee: $15 for the first piece and $10 for each additional piece (4 maximum). Deadline for applications: December 17, 2018. Contact: Anne Burton, Gallery Director, aburton@blackrockcenter.org, 240-912-1050. More information and to apply.

Since his high school days at Community, in Unionville, Chris Haynes has transformed an enjoyable pastime of wood turning into a business, Duck River Woodturnings, offering unique handcrafted works of art.

Over the years he has gone from turning wood on a homemade machine to working with sophisticated machinery. Along with his wife, Susan, Chris still resides in Halls Mill.

He discussed his craft with freelance writer Michelle Hastings for this week’s Sunday Conversation,

T-G: When did your passion for turning wood begin?

Haynes: “Since high school, I’ve enjoyed working with wood. When I was about 18 or 19 I built my own wood lathe since I couldn’t afford to buy one. It wasn’t a very good one, considering it was just a bunch of metal welded together with a washing machine motor on it, but I managed to turn some small things on it like miniature baseball bats and small bowls.”

T-G: Since then, how have you expanded your craft?

Haynes: “It was about four years ago that I purchased my first wood lathe. It was a small midi lathe that I could turn bowls up to 10″ in diameter. Since then, I have bought two more wood lathes, each one being bigger than the previous one. The one I use the most now is my Powermatic 3520. With the newest attachment I have, I can turn a 30-inch diameter bowl or platter.”

T-G: Where do you typically get the wood used for your creations?

Haynes: “The largest percentage of wood that I turn is locally accessed wood that has been recently cut down. I like to turn natural edged bowls and vases. I like to turn wood that have a lot of character in it. I like wood with voids in it and has swirls in the grain. I like wood that has color in it and has just started to rot and has lines in it called spalting. One of the best woods I enjoy turning is burls because there is no way to know what the grain is going to look like until it’s turned.

T-G: Do you have a favorite type of wood to work with?

Haynes: “I have no favorites to turn. Each piece of wood kind of decides what it would like to be. The wood itself determines a lot on how it’s placed on the lathe and to a large part, how it’s turned. I really enjoy turning thin walled hollow form vessels. A hollow form is a type of vessel that has a small neck or opening compared to the size of the rest of the vessel, the inside is hollowed out so that the vessel is extremely light compared to its size. There’s a certain rush trying to hollow the inside when you can’t see your cutting tool and you’re trying to get a consistent 1/8″ wall thickness. The main rule of any turned object is that the inside cannot be larger than the outside.”

T-G: How have you come to learn how to create such beautiful pieces, on your own, or has there been some formal training?

Haynes: “When I bought my first lathe, I realized very quickly; if I was going to do decent turnings, then I would need some guidance. I decided to take a turning class at Woodcraft in Franklin being taught by David Sapp. This turned out to be a very good decision on my part because David is an excellent teacher for beginning woodturners and still one of the many people who are there for me to answer many of my questions. The next decision I made that was extremely fortunate was to spend a weekend taking a class from Jim Greenwood from Gainesboro, Tennessee. Jim taught me how to take my turnings to the next level and continues to be a mentor to me. I belong to three woodturning clubs that meet monthly. They have show and tells and have demonstrations on how to turn different projects. I am a member of the American Association of Woodturners which is a worldwide club that has online access to many videos and articles.”

T-G: Since honing your craft, have you been a mentor to any beginners?

Haynes: “On numerous occasions, I have had new turners come to my shop for help on getting started turning a bowl or even pen and pencil sets. I have given several demonstrations at both the Columbia Woodturning Club and also at our local woodturning club, Volunteer Woodturners. I helped get a woodturning club started here in Bedford County. After going to the Nashville and Columbia clubs, I approached another woodturner, Joe Sheetz, about forming a woodturning club in Bedford County for local turners. We have been meeting for about two years and have an average of about 15 members at each meeting. I was elected president of the club and try to arrange informative demonstrations each month. We are now a chapter member of the American Association of Woodturners.

T-G: With the gift giving season upon us, where can people find your unique creations to purchase?

Haynes: “I try to keep my Facebook page, Duck River Woodturnings, updated with my newest pieces and I sell out of my shop. I try to do five or six craft shows a year where I have many repeat customers. For the month of November, I am exhibiting some of my work at the Brentwood library. I am also trying to get new members to join the Volunteer Woodturners.”

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2017 Lifetime Impact Award Recipient: Phillip Brown
by Gary Guenther

At the 2017 County Executive’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities, on Nov. 6 at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland, Montgomery County Executive, Ike Leggett, presented awards to eight individuals to recognize their contributions to the county’s arts and cultural community. Mr. Leggett presented the 2017 Lifetime Impact Award to Phillip Brown for his work with Montgomery County Woodturners. Vicky Guenther presented Phil with a program signed by a number of Phil’s friends and associates who attended to wish him well.

The ceremony, which started in 2002, honors the work of individuals who have made a mark in the community through arts and culture. Leggett and his wife, Catherine Leggett, presented these awards during a special gala ceremony that included performances by Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras of Strathmore, Flying V Theatre, Metropolitan Youth Ballet, Bel Cantanti Opera, Jazz Encounters, and a screening from Gandhi Brigade Youth Media.

“We are thrilled to honor these incredibly gifted artists and scholars and appreciate the power of the arts and humanities to bring grace, hope, understanding and perspective to our world,” said Suzan Jenkins, CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. “By celebrating these eight recipients, we celebrate all that is right and beautiful in our community.”

Phil was interviewed prior to the ceremony, and gave the following responses to questions:

In what ways do you think your involvement in the Montgomery County arts and culture sector is impactful?

The formation of Montgomery County Woodturners (MCW) provides how-to-do-it training to amateurs, some of whom later create quality work accepted for exhibits and which sells in craft shows. MCW has exhibited member work at eight county libraries, those with exhibit cases, for the last 10 years. MCW has arranged multiple visits for members to major turned wood and craft collections in this area, including those of Fleur Bresler, Jerry and Deena Kaplan, Jane and Arthur Mason, and Judy and Jeff Bernstein. I have shown my turned work in invited or juried exhibits at the Tower and Popcorn Galleries, Glen Echo Park; Kramer Gallery in Silver Spring; Blackrock Center for the Arts in Germantown: VisArts and Washington Arts (now Artists and Makers) in Rockville; and in Creative Crafts Council exhibitions at Strathmore Mansion, and serve as the CCC treasurer. I helped hang pictures and shown in the Labor Day Art Shows at Glen Echo Park.

What do you love about the arts and culture sector in Montgomery County?
I like that there are art centers and galleries where I can see exhibitions in all media, theaters like Round House and Olney, and the Baltimore Symphony at the Strathmore Music Center.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to get involved in arts and culture?
I would recommend people identify the medium they are most interest in, volunteer at an organization, and attend events and exhibitions focusing on the medium. If they want to make art, there are classes at VisArts, Glen Echo Park, other art centers, and other places.

What was your earliest “art spark” or impetus for an interest in the arts?
An important and lasting spark for me was seeing the Craft Multiples exhibition at the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery in 1975. This exhibition caught the attention of numerous people who became craft artists or collectors.

After the ceremony, Phil’s wife, Barbara Wolanin, had these recollections:

Phil was very pleased and gratified to be recognized by Isiah Leggett with a Lifetime Impact Award, one of the County Executive’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities, on November 6, 2017, at Round House Theater. Phil’s was the last award presented in a long program of awards, performances, and recognition of numerous grantees, and one of only two awarded by the County Executive himself. The focus of the award was Phil’s founding of Montgomery County Woodturners and his acting as its first president. MCW has continued to be very active and successful, with many members attending the demonstrations, critiques, and skill enhancement sessions each month. Phil has arranged exhibitions of members’ work in eight county libraries with display cases for ten years, enriching county residents and bringing attention to the field. He and other members demonstrate at the county fair each year. His award certificate reads “Phillip Brown / Montgomery County Woodturners,” so in a real sense the chapter itself was recognized for its “vital contribution to the cultural life of Montgomery County.” Phil was pleased to learn he was the unanimous choice of the judges.

In Phil’s acceptance speech, he noted how twelve years ago, at a meeting he organized to see if there was interest in a new club, 23 people paid membership dues, and individuals volunteered to take on the website and the newsletter, which were both amazingly created in just two weeks. He thanked “the nine volunteers for elected positions, fifteen other volunteer roles, and our Woodworkers Club free meeting space, that keep MCW running as a vibrant educational organization” and continued “I was the catalyst who brought everyone together and provided encouragement to engage in outreach and educational endeavors.” Phil was appreciative of the fellow turners and friends who came to celebrate with him.

Thank you, Phil, for all you’ve done.

The AAW seeks videographers for its 32nd International Symposium in Portland, Oregon, June 14–17, 2018. Applicants must have experience with video camera equipment, possess technical competence, and be able to make decisions regarding lighting, shooting angle, etc. The application process will be open through January 15, 2018. Videographers are required to do six rotations to receive a free Symposium registration. Selected videographers will be notified by March 2018. Apply for videographer role.

The residency is an 8-week summer program for five artists; a student artist; photojournalist; and scholar who live and work together at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Designed as a collegial experience, the program encourages an open exchange of creative and technical innovations and culminates in a group exhibition. We are currently accepting applications from student artists, scholars, and photojournalists for 2018, and from artists, scholars, and photojournalists for 2019. Entry fee: $25. Deadline: December 30, 2017. Questions? karen@centerforartinwood.org or 215-923-8000. More information and to apply: http://centerforartinwood.org/windgate-ite international-residency/