A few years ago, when my daughters were in high school and college and the “empty nest” years were just around the corner, I was searching for my own “thing”. Being an artist seemed wonderful, but I lacked the creativity or experience. Our family enjoyed attending art festivals and open studios at The Umbrella Community Arts Center here in Concord, Massachusetts. Secretly, I thought how wonderful it would be to participate as an artist alongside the many talented painters and sculptors. When visiting these art festivals it seemed that I was always drawn to items made of wood and would often be teased by my daughters not to purchase yet another wooden bowl.

Then an idea slowly emerged to give wood turning a try and I made the move to enroll in a beginner’s class in a town nearby. When the instruction session was finished, I drove home excited to show off my own wood bowl. After about six months of talking about the new experience of transforming a piece of wood into a beautiful creation, my family dramatically revealed a fully-assembled Rikon lathe in our garage on my birthday. It was fun starting with small items such as pens and pencils. Then I tried my hand at wine bottle stoppers and openers. The feeling of creating something was addictive, exciting and satisfying.

A few months later I began to share items on social media and was delighted to discover that friends and family wanted me to make them something for holiday gifts. After selling a few more items the confidence began to build to create more complex things such as serving utensils, bottle openers, coffee scoops, grilling tools, pizza cutters and ice cream scoops.

At some point during this process there was an “ah ha” moment where wood turning became my “thing.”