I Wanna Turn... Something...

So I spent last weekend at the Saskatoon 2012 Wood turning Symposium.  Wow.  I am totally psyched to do some turning.  I just can't decide what I want to do first.

I really felt that the symposium offered a great blend of instruction (this is how you make this), techniques (here's some things to try on your next piece), and inspiration (try to come up with an original idea!).  When you put all of these together my creative juices really start to flow.  Watch this space in the future for pieces influenced by the likes of Mark Sfirri, Jimmy Clewes, Beth Ireland, and  Mike Hosaluk.  If you know wood turning in North America, you know that's some pretty shameless name-dropping.  But really, they were all there and I attended sessions with all of them and more. 

How about a few pictures from the weekend?

A barley twist created by Beth Ireland

An attempted panorama shot of the instant gallery.  This didn't work as well as I wanted it to.  Too close.

Beth Ireland describing how she came to create the bowl in the picture.

The non-wood parts are epoxy resin and polymer clay.

Mike Hosaluk hollowing out a ladle.  That blur by his shoulder is the handle going around.

Finished product.

A garden of flowers made by Andrew Glazebrook.

And more of Andrew's work.

A pair of Asian influenced boxes by Jimmy Clewes

I just noticed  I have no pictures of the 'wacky bat' turned by Mark Sfirri.  That's really too bad because it gave me a couple of ideas that I'm dying to try.  It's too bad I won't be able to show what inspired them, assuming I actually get them done.

Another thing that I have been thinking of, in relation to the work of others, is this: Where is the line between 'inspired by' and 'blatant rip-off'?  And where do I want to fall?  In the case of the boxes in the picture above, I thought it would be cool to add a third level between the top and bottom.  Although the result would be something different it would still be pretty obvious where the idea came from.  I find now, suddenly, that I am not entirely comfortable with that.  It's really not any different from a lot of other things I have made, including the planes Ive shown on this blog.

I guess as long a credit is given when it's due it isn't a bad thing, and it's sometimes necessary to copy the work of others to learn a new skill.  Ultimately though, you need to leave a little of your self, your soul, in a piece to make it really satisfying.  How you do that is up to you.