Hello, everyone! My name is Heather Marusiak and I just started woodturning in the summer of 2020. My background is in art education and I have taught both primary and secondary art, depending on where my husband and I have lived (he is in the Army and we move every few years). Being an art educator, I have to have proficiency in a variety of media, but my personal body of work has been primarily in clay and wood sculpture. My husband surprised me last summer with a lathe as a birthday gift and I was instantly hooked. Since then, I have participated in two AAW Women in Turning Virtual Exchange collaborations, and these experiences have opened my eyes to the potential of artistic turning. I'll attach pictures of these collaborations below. In the first picture, I turned the walnut spindle and carved the figure, and in the second and third photos I turned the candlesticks, then carved and painted them along with carving and painting the central spinning cylinder. It might be too much to go into descriptions of my WIT experiences and collaborations here in the introductions forum, but these women challenged and encouraged me in such a way that I know I am going to be sticking with woodturning for the long haul.
