About the Artist

I love turning green wood. There is an immediacy to it, a closeness, a sense of direct and instant involvement. I can find a piece of the tree I want to work with and bring it into the shop and start to work on it - now. It will take 6 months to finish the urn, but I can start now. That start requires a focus and a quickness of pace, once the wood is on the lathe it needs to be shaped and hollowed out before it dries too much - if it dries too much it will crack. Then patience. The rough urn needs to be dried slowly, thoroughly, over a period of months, before it can be returned to the lathe to be finished.

The pandemic forced us to hibernate for a year, it has been rough, but it provided me the opportunity to finish building the shop and get back to woodturning after an extended hiatus. I started woodturning 22 years ago with master woodturner Walter Goodridge. Woodturning techniques, tools, machines, working green wood, drying wood, finishing - Walter is such a generous, innovative teacher. It’s been fun putting all that knowledge back to use this past year.

Contact

We are located on the Eastern edge of the Berkshires in Conway Massachusetts. Open by chance or by appointment. Drop me a note.

mail@wrhaines.com

316 Roaring Brook Road, Conway, MA 01341

phone 413-628-1715