I hope to turn wood for many years and just a fact of life, I can't afford hobbies, there has to be some expectation of profit involved in the long term. Ideally, I want to get paid for doing something I would pay to do if I could afford to!
As I look at wood turnings here and on other sites I am uncertain of the path wood turning seems to be taking. Post processing seems to be taking precedence over the turning itself in many instances. Fantastic wonderful pieces of art but it matters little or nothing that some are turnings, matters little or nothing that some are made of wood. they could as easily be ceramic or any manmade armature that the artist started with as a base form and built on. Not possible to simply look at the object and realize that it was turned on a wood lathe or even that it is wood.
There is a place for the extensive post processing. However I have to admit that it simply isn't what I want to do. I have already made my living doing the extensive post processing. When I recarved auto body shapes from plastic filler and then sprayed what was basically a plastic coating over the work it was little different from what I see some of the wood turnings become. It was a process that I was quite good at, people had to wait six months or more to get a vehicle into my shop which sounds ridiculous even to me. This isn't a process I want to go back to however. I don't even want to turn very elaborate pieces except possibly the occasional change of pace piece. Hopefully in time I'll manage to turn some simple elegant pieces with maybe a few embellishments on some. That with a simple sealer type finish that leaves the texture of the wood exposed is the goal for my work.
Looking into your crystal balls, is there a demand for this type of work not only today but five or ten years in the future? Will there always be a demand? Will it become such a small niche it basically reaches the vanishing point with only a very very few people able to market this type of piece? I am interested in primarily art pieces, bowls and hollow forms, not primarily pieces to be used.
All opinions are most welcome. I'm trying to see into a very cloudy future and those just starting also and those that have been turning for a lifetime can all have insight to offer.
Thank you for your thoughts!
Hu
As I look at wood turnings here and on other sites I am uncertain of the path wood turning seems to be taking. Post processing seems to be taking precedence over the turning itself in many instances. Fantastic wonderful pieces of art but it matters little or nothing that some are turnings, matters little or nothing that some are made of wood. they could as easily be ceramic or any manmade armature that the artist started with as a base form and built on. Not possible to simply look at the object and realize that it was turned on a wood lathe or even that it is wood.
There is a place for the extensive post processing. However I have to admit that it simply isn't what I want to do. I have already made my living doing the extensive post processing. When I recarved auto body shapes from plastic filler and then sprayed what was basically a plastic coating over the work it was little different from what I see some of the wood turnings become. It was a process that I was quite good at, people had to wait six months or more to get a vehicle into my shop which sounds ridiculous even to me. This isn't a process I want to go back to however. I don't even want to turn very elaborate pieces except possibly the occasional change of pace piece. Hopefully in time I'll manage to turn some simple elegant pieces with maybe a few embellishments on some. That with a simple sealer type finish that leaves the texture of the wood exposed is the goal for my work.
Looking into your crystal balls, is there a demand for this type of work not only today but five or ten years in the future? Will there always be a demand? Will it become such a small niche it basically reaches the vanishing point with only a very very few people able to market this type of piece? I am interested in primarily art pieces, bowls and hollow forms, not primarily pieces to be used.
All opinions are most welcome. I'm trying to see into a very cloudy future and those just starting also and those that have been turning for a lifetime can all have insight to offer.
Thank you for your thoughts!
Hu