Beautifully turned wooden gifts and homeware, tuition and craft collaborations
The Dorking Turnery
Inspirations
Firstly I'd like to acknowledge the inspiration of my wife and children, without whom I would not be in a position to pursue my new vocation. Their support, comments, and ideas are invaluable. ​
​Like most artists, I can't always say where ideas come from. Sometimes it's the wood that suggests what it will become, either before or during the turning. At other times a recent experience, another piece of art, or learning a new technique will have an influence. And I'm always delighted to receive a commission, where someone knows what they want, or we can work on a design together.
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Recently, however, we have been visiting cathedrals across the UK, and the art there has inspired me to try different effects, especially the stained glass, gilding and carved script. The carving enables me to express ideas and comments about the art itself, sometimes tongue in cheek and sometimes about our relationship with art.
Another influence on me comes from my interest in Japanese culture when I grew bonsai trees. Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in things that are imperfect, impermanent, or incomplete.
It's a worldview that emphasises accepting transience and flaws, and finding comfort in purity. It combines the words wabi which could mean "less is more" or "simple and rustic" and sabi meaning something like "attentive melancholy", revealing the beauty due to, or despite age and deterioration. ​
​A Japanese legend is that an apprentice completely cleared a tea garden of leaves when ordered to do so. The zen master then shook a cherry branch to bring down just a few leaves to lend the scene a feeling of wabi-sabi for the tea-ceremony participants to enjoy. A more contemporary example might be The Beautiful South's song 'The Prettiest Eyes'.
​​It is one of the philosophical ideas in Zen Buddhism, a way of teaching and coming to terms with the "three marks of existence", impermanence, suffering, and emptiness.
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While wabi-sabi is generally celebrated in naturally aged and rustic objects and situations, it can be created by the technique of 'kintsugi'. This is the repair, generally of ceramics with metal, so as to highlight the imperfections. In a similar way, I age and distress some of my turnings to introduce a feeling of wabi-sabi.
Maybe you could use one to experience wabi-sabi and find the beauty in the old, the decayed, the imperfect?
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As I explore the almost infinite possibilities woodturning presents, I look forward to the inspiration that will come along if I allow it to.
The Dorking Turnery
The Dorking Turnery
The Dorking Turnery
