One of the biggest decisions I had to make, when I decided to spend a week at Arrowmont, was which class to take. I have respectable - if, somewhat, amateur - art ability, but the kinds of classes offered was staggering - life drawing, woodturning, bookmaking, pottery, cabinetry, textiles and more. At the time, I was involved with workforce development at Lone Star College and was following discussions about the re-emergence of training in the skilled trades - carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, etc. I was also reading a book titled, "Shopcraft as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work." Like many American students in 1980s, I took a shop class - leatherworking - but I was not very good at it (I would usually get the leather too wet and punch right through the leather with too heavy a hand). For this adventure, I decided I wanted to be introduced to a craft - with tools...and machines. God help me! So, I chose a woodturning class. Little did I know that I had signed up with one of THE woodturning gurus, Nick Cook. Before leaving for Arrowmont, I bought a set of tools, read two books and watched a video on woodturning. I didn't want to be a completely ignorant. Luckily, I wasn't the only novice in the class - there were two girls who were just as green. (How's that for hitting the old male ego a good one?) Honestly, even the more experienced turners agreed that they had learned a lot during the class. Nick was a great teacher, letting me make mistakes and counseling me to work with "finesse and patience" - two of my least strong attributes. Our workshop assistant, Aaron Hammer, and the other students in the class were also a great help. After a couple of days trying to turn beads on practice wood and catching the tool, a skew, several times, I persevered. By the end of the week, I had turned a couple of honey dippers, a bottle stopper, a odd-looking candlestick, a plate, a bowl and mini-goblet. Not bad for a beginner. I was very proud of the work, including the practice sticks with all of the wonky beads and gouges - I call them my "totems." The Wood Studio at Arrowmont was more than I could have imagined. (I thought we would be in some hot metal building.) The (air conditioned) woodturning studio has 15 lathes, each outfitted with an exhaust fan and workbench. Students can bring their own tools or borrow a set from the school. Besides the woodturning shop, the Wood Studio has a gallery of some incredible wood pieces, a huge woodworking shop and an upstairs gallery for visitors - a group of whom got to a piece of wood I working on go flying across the shop after I caught it the wrong way with my tool and knocked it off the lathe!
In the end, my experience at Arrowmont was incredible. I haven't been able to turn since class - need a lathe and a place to put it - but that's okay. In the end, I proved to myself that I could lighten up, and with some finesse and patience, actually produce something.
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