John Gerrard » test

I have been turning now for 12 years and it has become a passion of mine. 

How I started turning came when I was offered the opportunity to buy our local school lathe, the one I had used at the school many years ago. Well I jumped at the opportunity to purchase it  and I have never looked back since ! 

I am self taught and have learned through my mistakes rightly or wrongly so. I am now a member of two local clubs which I attend whenever possible. I suppose I am the same as everyone else starting away with smaller items such as pens etc and progressing to larger and more intricate pieces. I do a lot of wet turning and then reintroduce the items back onto the lathe to turn and finish.

I am a big fan of Stuart Mortimer and love to try and mirror the type of pieces that he is famous for. Lately I have been experimenting turning platters at 7 different centres and was quite pleased at the outcome. I have also been making large segmented Christmas Trees standing 5ft tall that have been popular with my clientele. One of the other things that I like making is anything that is left looking natural as possible once finished. I have undertaken  a few demonstrations at my local clubs and this is something that I would like to expand on.

I am also a qualified AWGB INSTRUCTOR and I do teaching from within my workshop. This is something that is growing in popularity .