Hello !from Bill Woodard

["william m woodard" <stoneturning@zzzzzzz>]

As my EMail address says, I,m a stone turner, but also carve and build with
stone. I've been doing this for about ten years. I got into carving when I
meet a sculptor in Nashville TN who took me under his wing (or so he told
me), I finished his work for two years as an under-study at the same time as
running my own wood working shop. On my shop floor I had a number of lathes
as this was a large part of the income, turning orders from the local
'millworks' in the area. Every thing from little
pots and vases (Xmas retail) to 12 foot wooden columns. It was going to
happen sooner or later...
it was the sculptor who mentioned it first, walking into the shop one day
with some alabaster ask me to try putting it on the lathe. That was it, I
have been hooked ever since.
After a pretty bad auto accident I ended up closing "The Wood Works" and I
moved around the country quite a bit over the next three years. This meant
no lathe. I have settled in Santa Fe NM now and over the last five years I
have made a living working on Historic buildings here in NM.
I live in an adobe house that is situated on the grounds of a small estate
that was rebuilt in the 60's by a sculptor called Boris Gilbertson. He died
in 1982 and the property is now owned by the Historic Santa Fe Foundation.
The studios that he built serve as my work shops and at the rear of the
house is a concrete pad that I'm using for the lathe. It was built some time
at the beginning of the century (the lathe that is) and I purchased it on E
Bay for $335.00 then found out that it was in L.A. Towed it back,spent a
couple of months working on it to put it to rights and am now in the throws
of the first turning on this machine. I love it ! It seemed to take me so
long to get back to this passion, but now there I feel like I never stopped.
form. Any one wanting to give it a try or see the products produced is
welcome to visit and /or join.
One of the fav' things on my list is seeking out my own alabaster.Any one
knowing sites where this maybe 'culled' please get in touch as obtaining
ones own stone is an advantage.I'm always looking for that 'Ringer' that
will give rise to the finest of vessels. Well that's my intro to this forum
and I look forward to meeting, on line, some of you.Bill Woodard (Rockhound)