New Masters of Woodturning

by Terry Martin & Kevin Wallace

Fox Chapel Publishing: 2008 Paperback, 198 pp., $29.95 ISBN 978-1-56523-334-8

In 1985, Dale Nish published 'Master Woodturners' to celebrate the innovative leaders of the field. Authors Martin and Wallace have jumped ahead a generation to showcase new artists, new technologies and new works of art. From Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States, thirty-one wood artists show their finest efforts and talk freely about influences, design ideas, lifestyles and where they are headed in the future.

Much of this new work is highly sculptural, but as Ron Layport puts it, "The turned form must be valid before I proceed with sculpting." In the Introduction, the authors say, "Much of the wood art in this book inverts the truism that turned work is round. The lathe is merely the beginning, with additional off-lathe processing to come."

The technical challenge in producing these works is amazing. Several turners show a series of photos on how they work: hollowing on three axes using wedges and straps to mount an irregular burl, or steaming and bending turned work over a curved form.