After almost 30 years as the head Human Resources for a large Santa Clara Company, I retired and started Rustik Woodkraft Art Studio. In the begining I carved walking sticks, signs, wall art, etc. Then I attended a wood turning demonstration at a local woodworking show and became immediatly "hooked". So I bought a lathe and began teaching myself how to turn wood lathe art. Although I've never had lessons, I attend every demonstration I can and most importantly I get a lot of help from my fellow wood lathe artist.
I started out making small vessels i.e. lidded boxes, pens, bottle stoppers and small bowls. Now I mainly work on larger (10" to 14") bowls, vases, platters and hollow forms. Ninety five percent of the wood I turn is wet (freshly cut) local woods. The remaining five percent is dry, usually exotic woods from other countries. Since 95% of the wood ends up as shavings on the floor, I prefer to turn wood that is given to me by someone who is trimming or felling a tree.
After "rough turning" the piece leaving about 1/2"-3/4" wall, I place the piece in the freezer until it's frozen hard. This causes the "trapped" moisture to burst the membrane preventing cracking 90% of the time. I then let the bowl dry for several days or weeks depending on the size and thickness of the piece. When the piece contains less than 15% moisture I place it back on the lathe and finish it. At any given time I have 10+ pieces in each stage of the process.
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