In 1971 at fifteen and a half I left school and joined the Junior leaders regiment royal artillery based at Nuneaton in Warwickshire. After five and a half adventurous years in the British Army my first job in (civvy street) was in the light turnery at Ransom Hoffmann and Pollard, a ball bearing factory at Annfield plain near Durham.
That was back in 1976. Three years later and as a self taught machinist I went to Lubeck Germany as a contract worker where I spent the first year turning almost exclusively offcenter pieces.
First Spirals in Brass
Next was a move to Hamburg working for Hauni in Bergedorf. Where after a further year as a contractor and having taught myself to speak the language reasonably well I started working for the firm direct.
In front of the firm was an unusual spiral sculpture which inspired me at the time to design my own. This 36 stepped spiral I turned from a single piece of solid brass. You can see this piece named "Executive Stairway" in my gallery Spirals and Specials. At this time I designed and turned several more spirals all in solid brass.
After 13 years piecework on manual lathes I advanced to CNC machining and programming. During the next four years I also spent much time teaching apprentice machinists the operation and programming of the Gildermeister lathe which was fun and very enjoyable. Sometimes I translated German / English for visiting executive parties from the US and England.
At the end of 1997 I found myself moving across the Atlantic to Montreal where I live and work as a fulltime CNC machinist.
Discovering the Beauty of Wood
About 6 years ago (2003) I bought a machine-shop lathe with the idea of designing unique puzzles. But soon after I discovered the beauty and expressiveness of wood and designed and turned a series of spirals in exotic woods which are now owned by collectors in Europe the US and Canada. Between times on the internet I found what was to become my local club the "West island Woodturners". I thank friends and fellow members for their encouraging comments and inspiration. After seeing Jimmy Clewes demonstrating turning one of his winged boxes I started developing my own using my machinists lathe.
Success at Show
In my first competition entry at the Ottawa woodshow I was awarded a first and third placing in the beginner class and the following year 2007 three first placings in the intermediate class. Unfortunately 2007 was the last year the show had a woodturning competition.
For me theres no such thing as scrap or total disaster hence the words "Don't burn it Turn it", these unfortunate incidents are design and development opportunities out of which can come totally new ideas as you can see from "Rickshaw" and "SamuraiSentinel" in my gallery Spirals and Specials where you can see not only artistic woodturnings but also more examples of my machined art.
I will continue to further develop my artistic pierced pieces and spirals also with more carving and colouring.
Afootnote--
I am most fortunate to have the love, understanding, and very special friendship of my wife who is also an exceptional collage artist.
The self portrait and the one of my wife above are pastels painted by myself. Un-fortunately I, like most of you! cannot do everything I would love to do at once so my first choice and inspiration is artistic woodturning.
