ROTATION SCHEDULE

     I started turning wood at age nine; my father bought a lathe for my brother and I when he bought a shop full of machine for our impending renovation of a barn and made the statement "there you can play on this for awhile so you can keep your finger a little bit longer. Meaning; stay away from the other machines!Bro and I had a great time turning gifty items for our family members for a number of years but that fell by the wayside when we became old enough to drive and got cars.
     I picked up turning again at age 30 so I could turn the balusters and newels for the stairs I was building. Soon after I learned of the crafts world existence and I moved into natural edge bowls, once I discovered that someone was already doing that I decided I needed my own "thing"! I went into the production of large constructed Vases some of which had natural edged neck parts. These were great fun to make and they fit well with my architectural scale tendencies being the builder/stair builder that I had become. Problem was that my "thing" was too big; most collectors had neither the space nor the pocketbook for these vases.
     I turned my first hat in 1990; it was a ten year old idea at that time but needed to come out and when it did it sure grabbed hold real quick---an instant hit!!! After twenty one years and 5000 hats of all sizes I am still totally enthralled by the process and will probable always make hats simply because there are hats that only I can make. I’ve given away the store on the basic hat making process but there are the nuances of shape and special materials that I find hard to "share" even with my good abilities as teacher. So I will make only the hats that my followers don’t make!
    I have gone back to some vessels and am focusing on forms that I don’t see out there, mainly one piece turning of wet wood thin as hats---my own thing!
     Meanwhile I am happy and proud to be the leader of the "WoodHat Movement".