***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH***

Its Therapy!

Tony - Memphis

>It satisfies many of my needs. To be creative, to use my hands, etc. It also takes my mind of of everything. I always feel better after working in the shop. Even if I just sweep and clean up. Its the only space in the world I consider mine (the wife understands). I worka desk job at a corporation that is not very rewarding, so I get that from the things I build (sometimes). And, i just like wood. I like the feel, the smell, and of course the look. And I like that its a natural material that we shape. One last thought, woodworking is a medium that is almost limitless in what you can do with it. That keeps me from getting bored with it. One one hand, I'm designing a Chippendale fern stand with reeds and carving and on the other hand, I just made a baby rattle for a friend's child (Nick Cook's design).

Tony

Therapy too!

Fred in NC

>

Ditto

Ron in Drums PA

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Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH***

Mike Rubes, Apex, NC

>Hi Ellis,

Great topic!

I do woodworking primarily because I enjoy it. I get a great sense of satisfaction at seeing a finished piece that I created, from start to finish. I find that I truly enjoy every aspect of the process (even the sanding, just a little), from the initial planning, to the stock preperation, to joint fitting to final finishing.

The side benefits of being able to do projects around the house and make things as gifts for family and friends (and the very rarely sold piece) is just that, a side benefit. I certainly don't do it to "save money"!!! You could go get a Sauder piece and nail it together and it would probably work fine. I have no delusions about doing this to make a living. I'm far too slow and make too many mistakes (read, do overs) for this to ever be profitable.

For me, I don't find the furniture making as much of a creative outlet for me as turning. I think the much quicker start-to-finish time I can get from a turned piece lends itself more to experimentation and artistic expression. While that's not true for everyone, I find it to be true for me. However, as I grow into more complicated furniture pieces, I and finding more and more areas there to slightly experiment with and try some artistic things. However, I do about 2-3 "big" projects a year, vs. 30 or more bowls/vessels, so I still get much more changes to "explore" when turning.

Neat idea, I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

Mike

Hacking away in Apex, NC...

A creative outlet

Dominic Greco in Richboro PA

>

Ellis,

I think Tony pretty much summed up 95% of my feelings with his description. Woodturning/woodworking is outstanding therapy.

But I also use woodworking as a creative outlet. I love using my ideas my way. Taking them from concept to completion with only myself to blame/congratulate.

See ya around,

Dominic

Re: Therapy too!

bill Crommett in seneca

>Another one for therapy, although the start was because of "pinch-penny" situations in my younger years.

Reasons

Raymond Overman in SC

>I turn wood because it gives me satisfaction making something with my hands, some time alone that doesn't involve someone elses deadline, some fellowship with my local club, a sense of community when my neighbors offer me wood, and a common interest with my father. I'm not an academic in the traditional sense but this offers me a chance to learn something every time I pick up a tool.

I'm not looking for wealth and I can't see making my livelihood from woodturning, though I don't mind selling the occasional piece. I'm lucky that I usually break even. I enjoy the interaction my woodturning gives me with my community and the power tools are definitely a bonus.

The arts and creativity

keith zimmerman, Normal, IL

>As a trained Art Historian and artist by avocation, I find woodturning to be an excellent outlet for prodding the creative juices within me to flow. I have only been turning wood a little over two years, but have found that as I learn the craft of this art, I am afforded an opportunity to explore avenues of creativity I had never before imagined. I love discovering new apects of turning and trying new techniques, as well as dicovering the hidden inner beauty of a piece of wood. I am now finding that I am beginning to think of woodturning in a more creative way and am actually realizing what it is that intrigues me and I can set about exploring these avenues.

I also have found the pleasure that comes from the praises of others as they discover the beauty of turned wood. Each sale of a piece I made fills me with a pride that I was able to add a bit of beauty to someone's life and from knowing they enjoy my work enough to want to own it. I find it to be the greatest praise an artist can receive.

This is why I keep turning that lathe back on and keep spinning the wood.

keithz

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH***

Keith Tompkins

>Why Am I a woodworker? I enjoy flat work, and have done it professionally. Usually, I made pieces from blueprints or to someone's specs. BUT, I turn because I can use my creativity, I can produce something that I feel is uniquely mine. I enjoy pushing myself to the limit of my abilities, to see what I can achieve.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH***

Barry Irby

>When I was a kid, we wanted to play baseball, at least the older kids did, I was six and knew I wouldn't get to play much. No one could find a bat. My Grandfather took pity on us and went off for a few minutes and made us one. Now there was a guy who could work miracles! He died later that year. About 49 years later I would trade my car for that bat.

He bought the farm he lived on when the government took his home place to make room for an army base for WWII. It had a house. He built the barns. The farm is no longer in my family. The house basically fell down, but the barns are still there.

I make things on the lathe. If something turns out well, I sign it. If I turn something really good I might put his initials on it, too. I hope he would like it.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH***

Bob Hackett

>Anything that gets someone out in the woods(sometimes just to sit)has to be a good thing!

WWing has given me something that all my years as a metalworker(30+) never did,a chance to gather and process my own raw material.

The fact that I start in the woods with a chainsaw and end up with something useful and beautiful is just magic to me.I`ve even been able to get my 2 WWing brothers to become amateur sawyers,thus repaying them for getting me started in wood.

Mainely,Bob

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH***

adrien

>It's not just the process of creating something. It also fits in with my pack rat feeling of not wanting to waste anything.

I started out many years ago making bowls of clay, firing them and having the sense of creating something from nothing. The equivalent of a destructive catch in pottery making is dunting. Take the bowl out of the kiln too soon and you have shards.

I even did some sculpting in clay. If you don't make certain the clay is totally dry, the steam generated inside the piece will give you large clay splinters.

Then I found wood turning. Firewood, stuff that people had absolutely no use for suddenly became something beautiful (sometimes). I have rarely bought a piece of wood. But as one of our club members puts it, "Road Kill" is so often available and one has the chance once more to take something "useless" and create something utilitarian and/or attractive. It's most gratifying.

As I look back at the items I've made 20 plus years ago, I wonder how I did them, and nostalgically realize that with greater sophistication, I've lost my childhood.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH***

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>Lots of reasons for me, and many unknowns - many of you have turned to woodworking/turning as a release, for therapy after a long day at work. And the therapy effect of working wood is one of the huge aspects that appeals to me. But, I'm only twenty-one, beginning my career, and I hope woodturning is a part of my future, for the purpose of making money. Many people would and have tried to warn me of what happens when hobby turns profession, but I've been at it four years so far, and my love for working in a shop has only increased. Some folks get bored with the finishing, or tired of keeping up a roughed stock of bowls, but I find a great deal of enjoyment in all the aspects of turning wood - from chainsaw to 1000 grit sandpaper. So, I guess I hope to couple some of that therapy and enjoyment with what I have to do to make a living. The creative release and stimulus is also a part of the "why", as well as the enjoyment of doing something I have learned to do well - not well enough by any means, but well enough to be comfortable with the basics, well enough to begin striving for tbe better than average peice of art, craft, or utilitarian peice of ware.

David

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH*** *LINK*

Paul Porter in Phoenix, AZ

>I like making stuff. I've have always made stuff. I made stained glass windows for 15 years before I got into woodturning. I enjoy the creativty. I really like creating something where there once was nothing (well maybe the raw materials, but you know what I mean). I enjoy the fellowship with fellow wood turners.


my web site

It depends on the stage of my life

John Trant (Baltimore/DC area)

>The first productive woodworking I did was as a 13 year old when my Dad and I turned a Liberty Bell for a school project. What a thrill! Throughout high school, I made furniture and turned bowls because "I enjoyed it". I enjoyed going from an idea in my head, to a drawing, to the finished project. I enjoyed the accolades I received from friends and family. I enjoyed the smells and the feel of the wood. In college and grad school, woodworking was not available to me but once I settled down (read wife, marriage and baby), woodworking was an enjoyable method to furnish a new house and nursery. The precision of furniture making (cutting, joinery, sanding, finishing) fit well with my life as a scientist where I needed precise control over my experiments. As I now approach a half-century of life and am (too?) well established in my career, I find that I have returned to my childhood satisfactions with woodworking (in agreement with the old addage that we are once an adult but twice a child). I enjoy the evolution of an idea as it progresses to the finished project. I enjoy the accolades of friends and collegues who may think of me as a "stuff old scientist". Wood turning (opposed to furniture making) is just the right form of therapy for me at the present time because I can turn a bowl or vase in any shape that feels right. I can just "go with the flow" without the rigid confines I find pervasive in my academic life. Additionally, I can carve/color/texture a vessel until I am done. However, if I need a shot of "order and control", I can construct a segmented bowl, cut a Stuart Mortimer spiral vase, piece together a Keith Tompkins "swirly, ribbony thingy", or turn a perfectly fitted lidded box. I imagine (hope) the benefits of woodworking will change once again when I enter my Golden Years (i.e., retirement, grandchildren, and old codger-dom).

Great thread.

John

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Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF MARCH***

Eddie Pacheco; San Jose, Ca.

>Because it's an enjoyable, challenging, sometimes frustrating, sometimes strenuous activity I can do with my wife. Hmmm, at my age, that reads like another husband/wife event.....