I knew this hollowform was in there somewhere. š
Hello, my name is Ed Pretty and among other things, I am a wood turner. I divide my work into commercial turning, artistic turning, teaching and demonstrating. I do a fair bit of production work for a few regular clients as well as one-off jobs for local furniture makers. I have limited my artistic work recently because something had to give time-wise, but I do maintain some pieces in the Circle Craft Gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver. Live teaching and demonstrating have taken a back seat due to the present Covid situation but I have picked up that slack with online Interactive Remote Demonstrations (IRD).
My online IRD’s are divided into two groups; private, for woodturning clubs or guilds and scheduled. Guilds can book me for topics of their choice by emailing me through the Contact page. My wife, Arlene, has “renovated” my site, listing my scheduled IRD’s on a new page, Interactive Remote Demonstrations. To sign up, go to the Shop page.
As always, I maintain this site as a place to share information, available to anyone who may find it of interest. I have been most fortunate to learn first from my father – an experienced traditional turner, from many of my peers and from many turners from around the world who have demonstrated for the Greater Vancouver Woodturners. I feel that it is my responsibility to pass that knowledge along on kind.
Because it has been a long, uncertain process to get where I am, I am very sensitive to the needs of new turners as well as experienced turners venturing into new territory. I am, myself, always learning new techniques. In my profession as a firefighter I became an experienced trainer, enjoying the process of helping others learn, keeping themselves and others safe. It is my hope that now I will be able to help others learn the skills they need to enjoy woodturning to their best ability. Surprisingly, that ability is often greater than they themselves believe. The great satisfaction in training is having the opportunity to help bring that out.
To that end, I hope that everyone is able to gain as much as possible from my posts and the comments posted by others. Should anyone who is not a woodturner review the posts and gain a greater appreciation of how we do what we do, I would be most pleased.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
Ed,
I found your blog while researching the techniques that Douglas Fisher uses to do his offset turnings.
I am not yet retired, so my turning time is restricted to evenings and weekends, however I have been involved with turning for nearly 2 years now. I have no formal education, that time went to my degree in Engineering. I do believe that I understand the techniques of the tools and that is not my concern. I am particularly interested in working on my pieces after they are turned.
My current interests are in carving, pattering, and coloring.
I live in Alaska and therefore materials (ink, dye, and bleaching chemicals) are difficult to obtain due to shipping restrictions. Therefore I am probably more inclined to go down the carving path which brings me back to Fisher. I am a 3rd generation Alaskan and have always been interested in the Haida art. I was exploring that language when I again stumbled upon Fishers work on line. While I have many books on the SE Alaskan and Canadian first nation art, I have yet to master it.
I find your blog very interesting. It will take me a number of weeks to review all the info here, and I thank you for putting all this great information on the web for others (like me) to learn from.
Thanks,
Tom in Alaska
oops – typo! I have been turing wood for about 20 years, not 2…
Ed do you still do 2 or 3 day private training courses?
Hello Ed
My name is Fred Scallion, and I am enjoying visiting your site. I think that you are doing a wonderful service to the turning community. I am a member, and president of the West Island Woodturners. We have a membership of about 55. We are in the West Island of Montreal,Que. I have been looking at your articles on dye stain, and have just ordered some from Wood Essence. Thank you for your insights.
Fred
Thank you Fred. I’m so happy that you find the information here useful and, I hope, inspiring. Your gang is about the same as ours (55 years) but we have a group of younger members who are quite active and we’re hoping that will continue.
Ed: My wife purchased an American Holly wood pen from you at the Bordentown City Street Fair. The pen and case are beautiful. However when I depress on the pen ball to write, the top barrel of the pen separates from the bottom barrel of the pen, causing the two halves (top and bottom) to disengage. If I mail the case and pen to you, can you please fix this?
Robert
text/phone 732-713-2007
Hi Robert. Sorry for the delay. I responded quite a while ago but I’m assuming I didn’t hit “Send”. I am pretty sure you have me confused with another woodturner. I don’t live in your area and have literally never turned a pen – ever. If I could, I would offer some suggestions but I know nothing about pens other than there are several manufacturers of mechanisms so it would be difficult to know how to proceed. I hope that you have been able to find some solution for your problem.