Woodturning has been very different from my other woodworking experiences. I attend Santa Fe Community College Fine Woodworking Program which I will discuss another time in more detail. It’s a terrific program that teaches furniture making and fine woodworking featuring an amazing array of artists and professional woodworkers with an extraordinary background and portfolio of work.

My woodturning instructor, Al Mirman, is a great teacher.  Al blends an easy-going common-sensical approach to learning, an engineer’s perspective for precision and detail, and true artistic skill and passion.

When I turn, I find myself entering an altered state, transformed by my focus on the creative process and as I now reflect upon my thoughts I believe that turning serves as a great metaphor for generating success in life.

While other forms of woodworking in which I’ve engaged are generative, where pieces are individually milled and shaped and then joined together in an additive process to create an entirely new thing, turning in some ways is uniquely pure and reductive.

In turning, you remove all that is not a part of the piece.  When you start with a blank of wood, the completed work is already in front of you.  You simply subtract all of the non-essential parts, paring back the piece, revealing its true nature, and maximizing the elements that you find extraordinary within.

Be Present

Just like life, the only thing that truly matters in turning is where the wood meets the cutting instrument’s edge in the present moment … and transforms.

The edge is nothing more than two flat planes meeting in an infinitesimally precise way.   The point at which that edge meets the wood as it turns through time and space reveals what’s inside.

See Where You Want To Go

Al’s insightful teaching methods can be extrapolated to all learning.  He directs you to notice that immediately upon the cutter joining with the wood in the proper geometry to remove stock, your attention shifts from the cutting instrument to the Horizon where the results, and the impact that you are making in the present, are simultaneously revealed on the shape of the blank, and the future you are creating.

Al intuitively points out that this is similar to driving a car when you gaze though the windshield in the direction you want to go rather than focusing on your hands on the wheel.

Be Patient As Your Skill Develops

There is a certain element to learning which requires that you begin to recognize the pattern, cause, and effect of your physical inputs to the system.  Then, it becomes a creative process of making the results in the world match the images you are creating in your mind.

Don’t Think About What You Are Doing But Rather Do What You Are Thinking

In driving a car you look where you want to see yourself going and your hands simultaneously create that result with inputs to the wheel.  In turning you see and feel the shape you want to create in your mind and allow the wood to come onto the cutting edge revealing the inner shape you have imagined.  Your internal thoughts and images become manifest in what you create.  The more precisely you imagine your desired outcome the more accurate your result.

Begin With The End In Mind

In turning, as in life, it is important to recognize your desired outcome so you can fashion a plan to achieve and know when you have what you are seeking.

The questions to ask yourself include:

How does the blank speak to me – what is it’s highest and best use?
If my desired piece was already created what would it look like?
What do I want to make?
What purpose will it serve?
What qualities will it it have?
How do I get from where I am to where I want to go?
What are the steps involved?
What is the critical path for me to follow?
Is there a sequence to the path?
What do I need to get from here to there?

Where are You

In turning, it is essential for you to have situational awareness.  You must identify your starting point and your resources: the qualities of the material with which you are working; the type and quality of the wood;  the type and quality of your tools available;  the tools appropriate for the shapes you will create; the grind and quality of your edge;  the capacities and function of the lathe; your capacity and understanding;  your present state of mind and your ability to be completely present in the moment when making the cut.

Constantly Evaluate Your Progress and Make Necessary Adjustments

Life, like turning, is a dynamic process.  You must continually update your evaluation of where you are in relation to where you want to go.  As an airline pilot, I was rarely on course to my destination, yet I was continuously making necessary course corrections along the way.  As I got closer to the destination the corrections became more and more precise until I brought the aircraft to the gate in exactly the right location at exactly the right time.

In turning you are continuously present, focused on making a smooth efficient cut.  You also maintain an awareness of your ultimate goal, your ultimate plan, and the results you are getting… You ask yourself am I making smooth curves? Am I cutting evenly? Am I getting a continuous curl?  Am I burning or burnishing the wood?  Am I creating tear out?  First you make rough cuts approximating your final shape.  Then you make finer and finer finishing cuts until the shape is perfected.

Be Flexible and Open to New Possibilities

In turning you keep evaluating the results and modify your actions according to your plan.  Until the item is complete it is a work in progress and your plan is flexible.  Sometimes you achieve your best outcomes through what is initially perceived as a mistake and causes you to think differently, to adapt your plan, and perhaps you discover an entirely new, or more elegant, way of doing something.

You may set out believing you are going to reveal a particular shape and as you pare back the wood you begin to recognize something; perhaps a check, perhaps the quality of grain or structure which causes in you, when you remain flexible, the ability to dynamically change your plan and facilitate the Optimum outcome.

Know When You are Done and Enjoy Your Growth

Work with intention.  Know how your work should look when it is done.  Good enough may not be.   Be clear with your plan and your work will be as well.   A profoundly simple thing that Al suggests is to sign your work when it is done.  Only when you are comfortable signing your piece is it complete.  Recognize that throwing something into the scrap pile and and turning to something else has added to your knowledge and experience.  You are not looking for perfection, but rather your awareness that you have transformed yourself through the piece, and you are now ready to move on.  Notice your progress and skills as you develop and your perspective shifts.

Is your work ready for signature?   Are you ready to Create your Optimum Reality?

Matt Finkelstein