Woodturning Weekend Conversations

Linda learned of wood working through her father, a hobby woodworker who mainly did flat work and as he got better he devoted more time to do that. She became a his biggest customer for custom work. And then they started to work together. As time went on it got closer to time he could no longer safely handle the equipment. And like a lot of people he liked to buy tools and equipment he had bought a lathe, never used it but he had one, so during the auction I bought that lathe saying well I can continue working with wood. So after I got that, I decided I better learn how to use it. So I took classes and my first teacher was Alan Lacer and he said join the Minnesota wood Turner’s and join the AAW so I did those things. 

Join us as we talk with Paul Russell, one of the demonstrators at this year's AAW symposium in Chattanooga, TN. 

A transplant from San Diego to Utah, I’m a maker of 35 years with a passion for woodturning. My career with wood started at a young age and is always inspired by life’s simplicity, patterns and textures. While woodturning has been a longtime love, Paul Russell Designs is a more recent endeavor as my work has taken a more serious and artistic turn. I still appreciate my legacy heavy rustic bowls. However, more recent works focus on the line of the natural edge bowl, thin wavy platters, or extreme twig pots made from limb elbows and bends, or extreme natural trunk shapes. This latter work I refer to as my Barely There Series – and you can see why. It all started with a piece of Lilac branch rescued from a firewood pile, becoming the first in the series. The series reveals beauty in the otherwise ugly and unusable, exploiting ideas of negative space, while utilizing defects and imperfections to accentuate. Inside is outside!

This is a recording from the Woodturners Worldwide Online Symposium. 

As a proud member of America’s favorite home improvement team since 1986, general contractor Tom Silva has provided years of expert advice to home enthusiasts across the country on This Old House and Ask This Old House.

Renovating houses since he was a child, Tom’s first major project, working alongside his dad and brother, was installing a basement fallout shelter underneath their 1787 Colonial in Lexington, Massachusetts. After digging out the 20x40x12-foot hole under the house, by hand, and hauling away all the boulders, they framed it and finished it off. “It took us two years, and I felt such pride in what we had accomplished that I knew I wanted to do this for a living,” says Tom.

Silva Brothers Construction, made up of Tom, his father, and brother Richard, built the original set for the WGBH-TV Boston production The Victory Garden in the parking lot of WGBH. Russell Morash, the creator of This Old House, discovered the Silva crew while they were conducting a major restoration on an 1845 Greek Revival-style house. It was then that Russ named Tom and his crew the general contractors for the show.

“Each job is unique and different, which is just what I like,” says Tom. “Besides loving my work, I’ve made good friends with the entire crew of This Old House, and it’s been a rewarding experience.”

Parents of a daughter and a son, Tom and his wife live in a 19th-century house he continues to renovate in a Boston suburb. He is a native of Massachusetts and a boating enthusiast.

Follow Tom on Facebook, Twitter @TomSilvaTOH, Instagram @tomsilvatoh, and on TikTok.

Woodturner - artist, demonstrator, mentor, AAW WIT committee member since 2019. Wife, mother, daughter, aunt, enthusiastic friend and instigator!

Working as a builder/carpenter, woodturning was a craft I knew very little about before 2001. I had done some research and found a woodturner in my nearest town. Lucky for me, this woodturner was one of the finest turners in Ireland. Willie Stedmond, one of the founding members of the Irish Woodturners Guild, was giving night classes to which I attended a few. It is always my first advice to anyone interested in woodturning, get some lessons and join a club. I also did the latter and met some great people who helped and encouraged me along the way.

My turning has progressed and moved through different areas of this wonderful craft as the years went on. I had many years and long periods of no woodturning time whatsoever due to work and other commitments, but the draw was always there. The need to make shavings! I am very proud of the recognition I have received from my peers and other artists over the years for my work, demonstrating and winning pieces. I am also very honoured to have my work in collections across the world. When Mark Baker, GMC Woodturning magazine approached me to write for him, I was completely taken aback. I straight away said no to Mark, but Mark persevered and said he would help me. So, with huge thanks to Mark I have many articles gone to print.

As of late, with the dawning of virtual woodturning, I also have entered into the world of delivering IRDs, (Interactive Remote Demonstrations), in high definition. Working as a team, myself, my daughter Chloe and Helen Bailey, are able to offer an excellent well prepared service to clubs and individuals. We also run a meeting called “Meet the Woodturner”, where we interview artists from all over the world and get a fascinating insight into their woodturning lives and careers. Our audience is from all over the world and attendees get to ask the guests questions through a chat box on the virtual platform we use. These fantastic meetings have made the world a small place for the woodturning family to come together for evenings of great entertainment.

With a Bachelor degree in Product Design, I noticed I enjoyed being part of the making process of objects. After carving my first spoon from wood, the deep fascination for the material has never left me. I enjoy working with hand tools, leaving traces of axes and knives, adding my own narrative to the story told by the wood.

- Rabea Gebler / instagram

Robert Rising, known to his clients as “the black lumberjack,” is dedicated to saving fallen trees and creating furniture out of rescued wood. Rising also seeks to break stereotypes around lumberjacks, and he mentors younger people of color who want to be part of an industry that often boxes them out.

Taken from a section of the Huffington Post