A Good Turn
MIDDLESEX TWP — True to the spirit of the holiday itself, Christmas tree ornaments made by Jack Brown are not sold, but given to share in joy and the beauty of art.
“I just keep making them and finding people to give them to,” he said.
Brown, a member of the Butler Woodturners Association, makes ornaments and other wood crafts on a lathe, a hobby he picked up about 17 years ago and has dedicated much of his free time to since retiring about 12 years ago.
The former excavating contractor occasionally picked up spare pieces of wood cut from newel (handrail) posts while on the job, eventually piling more than 100 pieces of maple, cherry and beech in his basement.
“I just thought it was a shame to throw them all away,” Brown said.
“The only thing I knew to do was to get a lathe and start turning them.”
Brown first worked with a lathe in shop class at Hampton High School, where he graduated in 1953.
“At that time, they had all kinds of machinery and hand tools in the shop,” he said. “We all got a chance to use the lathe, and I really liked it.”
Brown bought one of the machines to begin woodworking and sought both national and local wood turning clubs before he and three others started the Butler Woodturning Club three years ago. Its membership now has about 25 people.
Such clubs allow for exchange of ideas and techniques, as well as meeting like-minded artists.
“It's great for retirement. It's something different for you to do,” Brown said.“I started with some candle holders and candlesticks, then I learned to turn small boxes, such as ring boxes.”The holidays are a particularly special time for the woodturner clubs which, in addition to ornaments, sometimes craft tops for children in hospitals, bowls to hold goods donated to veteran hospitals or items to benefit the Wounded Warrior project for veterans.“There's all sorts of different designs you can make,” Brown said.“Every year, I make a different (ornament) design.”The differences range from simple to elaborate, including hollowed shapes resembling bird cages, ornaments with spiral patterns and inlaid wood patterns, or pieces featuring both techniques.Lately, Brown has been incorporating a new technique, “multi-axis” turning, which involves repositioning the wood as it turns to achieve asymmetrical designs along the wood, a skill he picked up from a French expert at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn., in October.“After you learn to do it, it's fun and you keep moving (the wood) around to see what else you can create,” Brown said.Ornaments also can be painted or have carved additions attached such as a tree or bird inside a hollowed design. Some works may use a dozen pieces of wood, carefully glued, turned on the lathe, then sanded and covered in a clear coat. Rarely does Brown stain any of the wood, preferring its natural luster.“Each one has a distinct grain pattern or color, some of which change or darken under the UV rays of the sun,” he said.
Although maple is a hard wood, there are softer varieties and, although cherry is a dark wood, there are lighter tones, Brown explained. He also works with exotic woods like padauk, a reddish wood from Africa or Asia, and everything from walnuts to banksia seed cones.“Sometimes, you just get on a roll when you are thinking of something,” Brown said, adding that inspiration can come from an amusement park or a film at the theater.“There might be pieces of some of these ornaments that lay on my work bench for months and, all of a sudden, I think 'Why didn't I see this before?'”However, sometimes designs don't work out, or a slip of the chisel can ruin a piece, leading crafters like Brown to ruin “a good many” pieces of wood.“In any artwork, that's the way it is,” Brown said.“You keep a five-gallon bucket sitting to the side of the table for trash.”Brown used to turn wood for what amounted to a normal eight-hour work day, but has slowed down a bit recently, he said.“I've got boxes and boxes of them I've done, but I won't start selling them or going into business,” he said.“I do it for a hobby, and to make people happy.”
