I currently live in Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire but origninally came from a small village in Ayrshire. I work in the IT industry and am relatively new to woodturning.

I used to be amazed at wood turned by my close friend Alan Mackenzie who is an extremely talented woodturner. The bowl shown right was turned by Alan and given to me as a house warming present in July 2000. After constantly adimiring this piece it didn't take much persuading for for me to buy a small lathe in order to have a go myself and I have never stopped since.

 

The obsession is so bad i even turned our wedding bands when getting married recently. They were made out of Scottish Yew and were contained within a sporran sized clamshell box also made out of Yew.

 

 

My garage has been turned into a workshop and even installed a heater to enable me to spend more time out there in the winter.

I have recently upgraded my lathe to a Wivamac DB1200 which is an impressive machine and allows me to turn very large pieces of wood which i really enjoy.

All the large bowls are rough turned and then covered in wax and left to dry for 6 months which ensures they are stable and won't crack. When dry they are put back on the lathe and finished.

 

 

As you will see from my gallery, my turnings are varied in both style and size as turning similar objects on a regular basis can become a little tedious.

I love to switch between delicate pieces incorporating intricate finials to very large bowls which can be over 20 inches in diameter.

My other favourite turnings are natural edge rustic pieces. I think these speak for themselves and show the beauty of wood in a more natual form.

 

 

One of the few downsides to woodturning is the amount of bloody shavings which are produced from one piece of wood.

How can a relatively small piece of wood produce a bowl and three bin bags full of shavings. I am conviced that someone else leaves their shavings in my garage.

On the other hand my wife can't understand how the shavings manage to get in the house. I blame the same guy who leaves them in my garage.