• The forum upgrades have been completed. These were moderate security fixes from our software vendor and it looks like everything is working well. If you see any problems please post in the Forum Technical Support forum or email us at forum_moderator (at) aawforum.org. Thank you
  • February 2026 Turning Challenge: Cookie Jar! (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Chad Eames for "Red Tines" being selected as Turning of the Week for February 23, 2026 (click here for details)
  • AAW Symposium demonstrators announced - If the 2026 AAW International Woodturning Symposium is not on your calendar, now is the time to register. And there are discounts available if you sign up early, by Feb. 28. Early Bird pricing gives you the best rate for our 40th Anniversary Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 4–7, 2026. (There are discounts for AAW chapter members too) For more information vist the discussion thread here or the AAW registration page
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Chris Short

Chris Short

Chris Short

Joined
Mar 23, 2018
Messages
26
Likes
21
Location
Wales
Hello everyone! Just joined the forum yesterday, very pleased to be here. I stopped lecturing fine art recently after a couple of decades, for a new start making sculpture and learning to build furniture for a living. Then, about a month ago, I bought a lathe... Completely obsessed with turning now and I'm learning something new every day. I love it. I'm in Wales, UK, and really interested in the thriving and innovative world of woodturning you seem to have the other side of the pond.
Thanks for having me on board!
Chris
 
Welcome aboard. There is lot that comes this way from the U.K. too.
Around 1995 I took my first formal class with Liam Oniel, who was visiting the US from Ireland.
LIAM had was teaching us his innovation - the side ground bowl gouge. Paired with the Deep fluted bowl gouge the derivatives of Liam’s grind have become ubiquitous in it use by the best woodturners around the world.

Our member run AAW symposium almost always has a coupl of presenters from the U.K.

Al
 
Welcome aboard. Look forward to your point of view from an artists eye. We don't get a lot of that and I think it's needed. So feel free to comment on any of my work.
 
Thanks all. I'm very much at the beginning of learning to turn, so my technical needs are very basic and not remotely innovative! But looking at the work in the gallery here, I'd say there's lots of exciting and challenging work being done by members.
Concerning the fine art perspective - I think my teaching across the years came down to a pretty simple strategy. I tried to understand what the students were interested in and what they were seeking to achieve, and then tried to help them find ways of achieving it. When they produced something, the question became 'to what extent have you achieved what you were after?' and 'how could you improve on that?'. As a middle-aged bloke I couldn't possibly come to each (mostly young) student's work and know what was going on, and for sure I couldn't judge how successful it was til they put it in the context of what they were after and how that related to the work of other artists.
Ha, that's a bit of a ramble, I think it's the first time I've looked back over the years and tried to summarise what I was doing. I guess my point here is that each artist/ craftsperson (whatever) has a sense of what they're after, and is probably the best judge of the extent to which they achieved it. No absolute standards in the art world...
I'll stop this rambling now, and say thanks again for having me on board!
C
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top