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Marios Karpikoudis

Marios Karpikoudis

Marios Karpikoudis

Joined
Feb 15, 2025
Messages
3
Likes
0
Location
Thessaloniki, Greece
Hello everyone, I come from the other side of the Atlantic, specifically from Thessaloniki, Greece. I became a member of AAW just before the covid era and I participated on the virtual symposium on 2021 on the instant gallery with one of my pieces. I just find the time to search about the forum and HERE I AM!!!!
My profesion is firstly a woodworker and carpenter, but I started woodturning 9 years ago as a hobby and now I do woodturning presentations around Greece and courses on my shop.
Artistic woodturning isn't very common in Greece, mostly commercial turning and carpentry parts (which is a craft with origins back to ancient greeks) but me and some friends have a group and try our best to put us on the map.
Photos will follow!

Also my favourite ice cream flavour is strawberry cheesecake!!!!

ps. this is my shop and my woodturning corner!!
 

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Marios Karpikoudis said:
Artistic woodturning isn't very common in Greece, mostly commercial turning and carpentry parts (which is a craft with origins back to ancient greeks) but me and some friends have a group and try our best to put us on the map.
Photos will follow!
Click to expand...

Hello Marios!

Would love to see photos of your woodturning!

We visited Greece in 2016, was beautiful. In Athens I found a shop with everything in it made from Olivewood - it was amazing. (I love Olive!) What you said about artistic turning seemed true in that shop. There were lots of utility pieces, carved, etc. but I saw nothing turned with the form, detail, or finish made to enjoy seeing or holding. I showed the shop owner some photos of turning on my phone and he wanted me to come back and show his son, who had made almost everything in the shop, but we had to leave the next day.

I looked everywhere for things made of Olive that I might buy just for the wood, but found nothing useful.

Later, a friend in Northern Italy took me to a woodworker's shop in the mountains. He worked almost exclusively with pine, but found an old, rough, olive board in his back room. The US customs said I couldn't bring back "raw" wood but could bring something MADE from wood. So he made a "cutting board" for me. When I got home I cut it up into turning squares! (I still have a bit left)

olive_Italy_2016_IMG_4953.jpg olive_board_IMG_5419_se.jpg

We have since been to Italy many times and to other places in Europe but have not yet made it back to Greece. We would love to visit again, this time to places out in the countryside.

JKJ
 
John K Jordan said:
Hello Marios!

Would love to see photos of your woodturning!

We visited Greece in 2016, was beautiful. In Athens I found a shop with everything in it made from Olivewood - it was amazing. (I love Olive!) What you said about artistic turning seemed true in that shop. There were lots of utility pieces, carved, etc. but I saw nothing turned with the form, detail, or finish made to enjoy seeing or holding. I showed the shop owner some photos of turning on my phone and he wanted me to come back and show his son, who had made almost everything in the shop, but we had to leave the next day.

I looked everywhere for things made of Olive that I might buy just for the wood, but found nothing useful.

Later, a friend in Northern Italy took me to a woodworker's shop in the mountains. He worked almost exclusively with pine, but found an old, rough, olive board in his back room. The US customs said I couldn't bring back "raw" wood but could bring something MADE from wood. So he made a "cutting board" for me. When I got home I cut it up into turning squares! (I still have a bit left)

View attachment 72903 View attachment 72902

We have since been to Italy many times and to other places in Europe but have not yet made it back to Greece. We would love to visit again, this time to places out in the countryside.

JKJ
Click to expand...
Hello John
Olive wood is very common timber in the Islands in souvenir shops and touristic areas but you won't find art there. and most of the times now days those pieces are imported from africa.
Woodworking and woodturning for utility pieces in Greece is a dying craft. The combination of low wages with the rising cost of living made impossible for old craftsmen to keep up.
and, if you believe it, in most of these Greek islands with the biggest of them Crete, the use it for burning wood, it's not commercialized timber, you only find one or two shops around Greece that sell slabs mostly for tables or countertops.
Luckily I have great friends around and we share wood all the time so I've got a pretty good amount, even though olive wood is not my favorite wood to work with cause I find it a little bit too "noisy" for my taste and my creations.
I live in northern Greece, If someday you find your way here, let me know and feel free to take as much as you can carry!!!!
 
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