Island WoodTurning
Working With Wood
I am a woodturner who makes bowls.
I work out of two studios; one in outport Newfoundland, and the other in Toronto, Ontario. Two very different forests provide different turning opportunities and a fabulous range of wood to transform.
I use a lathe to transform a log, beam, branch or almost-firewood into a useful form that also enables the inherent beauty of the wood to emerge.
All the bowls I make - whether from fresh green wood or 100 year old beams - move into a final shape after the turning is completed. This changes their shape sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically – but they rarely stay “in perfect round”. I am honoured to co-create the form of the final bowl with the wood; I turn the round version, and the bowl then naturally moves into its final form – an expression of its lifeforce, of its individuality.
The result? Unique bowls of profound beauty and functional form that are tactilely seductive, finished in a foodsafe hemp oil finish with a bit of beeswax.
Many of the bowls I make in Newfoundland are translucent, in whole or part. This is a function of the type of wood, the thinness of the bowl wall, and the oil treatments they receive. The colours and complexities of the wood’s structures are amazing; I smile every time I pass by one of these bowls as it glows in natural light.
I am a juried member of the Newfoundland & Labrador Craft Council, a member of the Toronto Woodturners Guild, the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain, the American Association of Woodturners, and Women in Turning, a global network. I am also the creator of Whale Tail Trivets, available through the Champney’s West Aquarium Giftshop and my studio.