History

How it all started.......sorry this is a bit long.

At Christmas of 2005 I got a book called Woodturning a Fresh Approach by Robert Chapman (http://www.robchapman.com/). Being a lover of all things creative and especially things in wood I thought this wood turning lark looks good.

After a scout round the net, I found that that are thousands of Wood Turners out there. All of them giving their own advice on what were the best tools, which were the best lathes etc, etc. confusion reigned.

What was clear was that for a half decent lathe and tools you needed a bit of spare cash, so I decided to put some money aside each month until I had enough to buy myself a lathe.

By Christmas of 2006 I had enough put away to start looking round for a bottom of the range lathe and a decent set of tools. So again I had a scout round. It was at this point that I found that quite a few Wood Turners recommended, on their web sites, that you should have some lessons with a registered turner.

Rather than pay out cash on a lathe to find I didn't like it, I found on www.creative-woodturning.com a guy called Mike Swain who was quite local and e-mailed him about lessons and his reply came back Unfortunately, due to commitments with exhibitions and demonstrations all the time I have for tuition is fully booked for most of 2006.

Hey I thought, this is popular!

but also if you let me know the area you live in I will look on the professional register to see if there is a registered turner in your area.

Off went the e-mail again and the reply came back I would have no hesitation in pointing you towards Jerry Marlow who lives at Barlow. Jerry's a good friend, please let him know I passed on his number and hopefully he will be able to help.

So after a few phone calls to Gerry I made arrangements for a couple of days in January of 2006.

So off I drove to Barlow not knowing what I was going to do, getting lost on the way, as I usually do. It was like the first day of school again!

Gerry and his wife are a lovely couple, very friendly and welcoming and Gerry?s wife makes a great home made soup and is an artist in her own right, you should see some of her work with a needle.

But when I first walked in to his house it was like an Aladdin?s cave for Wood Turners, there were lots of beautifully turned items everywhere. It is one thing to look at stuff in books and on the web and another thing entirely to see them for real and touch them.

After a safety talk and showing me round his workshop, he just got a piece of wood put it on his lathe (Polewood but not sure which model) started to show me how to rough down a blank (a rectangular piece of wood in this case) then handed me the tool and said. Now it?s your turn.

I was scared to death! There you stand with a what looks like a concave chisel in your hand with a piece of wood spinning round at what seems a million miles an hour.

The first time you pick up a tool you are hanging on to it for dear life thinking you are never going to make anything!

But Gerry?s teaching is very down to earth and relaxing, you are not afraid to make mistakes (he made some himself while I was there) and he put me at my ease straight away.

By the end of the first day we had make the tool handle, the garden dibber and the platter.(With a break for home made soup and sandwiches). I came away after the first day pleased as punch that I had actually achieved something. Unfortunately, as I had booked the lessons for Friday and Monday, I had to wait until after the weekend before I could go again.

On the Monday we made the Rosewood pot, the Yew mushroom and the Yew goblet.(With another break for home made soup and sandwiches). At the end of the day I was again pleased that I/we had done so much.

What he taught me has given me a great basis to fall back on when I get a bit ambitious and make mistakes or start wondering why things aren?t going right.

This is only a very, very short summary of Gerry's teaching, but I could write a book about what a great couple of days I had.

One piece of great advice Gerry gave me was, when you stop enjoying making an item or you start making mistakes go and have a cup of tea!

It works every time.

I've got my own piece of advice to add to that, but that's another story.

Thanks Gerry, I'm now addicted.

Gerry doesn't have a web site but if you are interested, let me know and I will get his details to you or visit the web site of the Register of Professional Turners and look under Turners.

God Bless

Creatist