Wood turning is an art, it is a craft and above all it is one of those hobbies in which you can escape to your workshop and within a few hours or even less you come out with a finished article. It is for these reasons that so many have taken to the hobby. Perhaps one of the most significant developments in the world of wood turning is the fact that wood turning is now recognised as an art form as much as oil painting, watercolours or sketching. As such, it is not uncommon to find people who will purchase wood turning artifacts and use them to decorate their homes in much the same way as they would purchase a painting.

This dramatic move into the world of art collectors has challenged wood turners to go way beyond the conventional turning processes such as bowl making, making pens or candlesticks or balustrades. Now when there is a new art form emerging which requires the wood turner to move way beyond the process of wood turning to include craft forms such as calving, pyrography, colouring, dying, sandblasting, compiling wood with metal and epoxies just to mention a few of the parallel processes which the modern day wood turners can express the beauty of this art form.

At the heart of all of this is the fundamental reality of the wood itself. Here once again the modern day wood turner has to come to grips with some of the challenges that working with a natural product presents. Behind the bark of every tree lives a hidden mystery which in many cases requires that the wood turner make decisions which will result in a fundamentally different shape as originally anticipated.

As layer after layer of wood chips off the log, that Turner will discover many hidden secrets some of them which are incredibly beautiful and others such as nasty knots, areas which have started to rot and other areas which have been subjected to the ravages of wood borer and other such insects. This venturing into the unknown is perhaps something which is overlooked by many people as they start their journey into wood turning.

Ask any wood turner how many times they’ve had to make fundamental changes from the original design due to either flaws in the wood or discovering something insanely beautiful which has spirited them on to making use of this newly discovered beauty. When one ultimately comes up with a finished product there is no doubt that there is a tremendous sense of self satisfaction.

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