I was four years old when my father gave me a pocket knife, and I have been a woodworker of one sort or another for 65 years now.   In 1983 I saw an article by Ed Moulthrop in Fine Woodworking that included a schematic of his lathe, and I built a close copy of his lathe and have done little other than woodturning since then.  I built another lathe of my own design in 1987-88 and this is the lathe that I turn with today.

Along the way, I have had articles published in Fine Woodworking, Woodturning, and some more obscure publications.  In addition, it has been my privilege to demonstrate at 3 American Association of Woodturning national symposiums, 12 of the Texas symposiums, and numerous club events, state fairs, and gatherings of all sorts.   

Although I have sold through galleries, and have quite a few pieces in private collections and even one piece at the Boston Museum of Art, for the last 12 years or so I have sold very few pieces.  Instead I have concentrated on development of new designs.  These designs include a ‘split series’ where the piece is split into 2 or more pieces then either has a section removed from the center or the two halves are joined back together with dowels, ending up with an approximately oval cross section.  Leather, beads, and other forms of decoration are often incorporated into the design.  Another design exploration was pieces where miniature cliff dwellings were carved into the surface.  These pieces were minimally hollowed to leave thickness for the carving.  Still another series was my ‘Alien Drinking Vessels’ where any shape was part of the series, as long as it had a cavity for holding whatever liquid aliens drank.  Mostly these were pretty far out woodturnings, the majority of which were carved and/or colored. 

After turning for 25 years, I still enjoy it immensely, and find new challenges on a regular basis.  I hope to be able to turn for a very long time yet, and to be able to pass some of my skills and knowledge along to a new group of turners who will be replacing us “old timers” some day.