Meet a Maker: Edition 16

Meet David Rodgers

1. What is your craft and how did you get into it?

I’m passionate about working with wood using traditional tools and techniques – nowadays that means woodturning.

35 years ago at school, I did Craft, Design and Technology to GCSE, and thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly working with wood, although the research and design interested me too. I first used a woodturning lathe then, turning the legs and back of a chair, which I thoroughly enjoyed. However, there weren’t opportunities to take this further, so I worked in business until the health conditions I’ve had most my life prevented me from continuing about 14 years ago.

I then started working with wood, making smaller items, using hand tools and traditional techniques, including using a woodturning pole lathe (I used no electrically powered tools). It was very good exercise, and good for my wellbeing as I was doing something I really enjoyed. I did various craft shows, enjoying meeting people, talking about my work and techniques. However we also had two young children, and my health conditions needed more attention, so I stopped for a time, to get a clearer diagnosis and medication.

On returning to working with wood, I wanted to concentrate on something more specific: working seated (due to my health conditions). So after various trials, I found ways to be a woodturner, working seated with an electrically-powered lathe.

2. What is one interesting fact about you?

I have Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS), a life altering and debilitating health condition, which has also led to Gastroparesis (food doesn’t leave my stomach in the usual way), MCAS (allergies) and Fibromyalgia (lot physical pain).  These are complex physical conditions, which, amongst others, give me higher heart rate (esp. on standing), considerable physical pain, limited diet, allergies, a number of infections & exhausted more easily.

I’ve worked hard over the years to get the right medical diagnosis, life style changes & medication to enable me to live my life to the most I can, though, and wood turning is part of that.

3. How long have you been making?

About 14 years.

4. Who are your favourite makers in your craft?

One influence is William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement and the importance they placed on craftsmanship and materials. Where possible, I collect my own materials as locally-felled trees, which I air dry, selecting the right wood to make stable and attractive pieces, so I understand my materials, and design items in keeping with those materials (a designer/craftsman). I make everything by hand in small quantities; I’m not a factory mass-producing items. When I have to use bought-in planks of air-dried timber, I use my experience to understand the process of where this timber came from.

William Hair Haseler was a silversmith and my 3x great uncle, who worked with Liberty’s of London to make a number of their silver and pewter ware in the 1900s, and worked with Arts and Crafts designers such as Archibald Knox. Interestingly, I found this out only after my interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement – silver vessels of that era also influence my design!

The Arts and Crafts Movement reacted to 19th century mass production. In our digital age when so much can be created with computer controlled machines, I believe there is still a place for traditional handmade skills, learnt over time, finding ways to make and sell at affordable prices, which can be good for our wellbeing too.

5. What is the most challenging skill/technique you learned in your craft?

The physical health conditions are by far my most challenging as they affect every part of my working practice. It would be easier not to design and make things, particularly with such a physical craft as wood working / wood turning. However, I don’t see disability as inability; I want to get on with life and achieve things, and working with wood is part of this. It adds considerably to my wellbeing.

Due to childcare and my health conditions, I produce a limited number of items. Whilst this may seem a drawback, it does give me time to think about each piece I make, which is an advantage.

6. What is your favourite part of your craft?

I love the whole process of designing, and making. I don’t just get a piece of wood and try and make something out of it. I design it first, getting the proportions of the item right first, then translating those proportions into a working object. I use root proportions, dividing each side into generally 1/3s and 1/5s, putting design features, such as a lid, on one of these divisions. Doing this I hope creates a more pleasing set of coherent objects.

My process also uses traditional tools and techniques which I equally enjoy. My woodturning lathe spins the wood around; I use cutting tools (gouges, skews etc) held in my hands to shape the wood… no computer controlled machines / CNC, just skill learned through years of working with wood.

7. What project are you most proud of and why?

Recently, I’ve created a set of lidded bowls, with texture/beads on the side, which I really pleased with. I’ve had some really good feedback from various people about them. I’m proud of them not just because of what they are, but because they were created despite the health conditions I have.

8. If someone who knows nothing about your craft could know one thing, what would it be?

That wood is unpredictable! We might see a tree being cut down and think of all the things we could make with it, but the process of a whole tree to completed item is fraught with problems.  To make a tree grow, it has a lot of water in it, but to use something made from that tree indoors, we need to remove most of the water, and that process creates a lot of firewood, because wood can easily split during the cutting/drying/making cycle.  Over the past 14 years, I’ve collected a number of trees, cut them up and dried them. Whilst I’ve got some lovely timber out of them, I’ve also had some lovely pieces split beyond use.  But I see this as just part of the process – it is just another challenge which I have to deal with.

Learn more about David