If you have never attended the Tennessee Wood Turners Symposium let me encourage you to make the trip to Nashville. You get a discount on the registration if you register before the end of December. It is held at the Radisson Hotel across from The Opryland Hotel.


I have posted the bios of this years demonstrators. Those of you in and around Tennessee I hope to see you there.

Demonstrator Bios

Stuart Batty – Wood Artist

Stuart Batty grew up in Newcastle, England and presently lives in Boulder,

Colorado. He began turning at the age of 10 under the expert tutelage

of his father Allan Batty, an internationally recognized turner and

teacher. At the age of 16 Stuart joined the professional ranks as

spindle turner and teacher in his father’s workshop. At age 18 he

became the in-house teacher and woodturning demonstrator at Craft

Supplies Ltd. in England and a tool tester for Robert Sorby Tools.

While working for Craft Supplies Ltd. he helped set up their first

sawmill, as well as being their buyer for exotic woods. Stuart then

went on to set up six additional sawmills in five African countries,

which included Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, and

Madagascar.

Stuart’s style of woodturning is a development of an old orthodox British
woodturning style. He uses very simple tools and grinds, these enable

him to create his pieces and to teach to his students. Stuart has now

been teaching woodturning for over 27 years to over 4,000 students in 12

different countries.

One does not see any carving or surface texturing in or on Stuart’s artwork. It is pure lathe made. He specializes in bowls with corners,

deep thin tall bowls, very thin goblets and a variety of boxes.

Stuart’s work has been depicted on the covers of many magazines and

catalogs since 1980 and has some of his artwork in the White House

permanent collection. For more information visit Michael’s web site www.woodturning.org.

Bill Grumbine – Wood Artist

Bill Grumbine has been turning since May of 1993, when he started a

woodworking business, and decided he would need a lathe to make table

legs and chair legs for all the tables and chairs he would be making.

He turned his first table leg in July – of 1999! By that time he was

already on his seventh lathe, and had discovered the world of pens,

bowls, vessels, and all sorts of other round things.

Bill had been teaching and demonstrating since 1995.
Even though he had only been turning for two years, and only knew

a little bit about a couple of things, he was experienced in presenting

that, and began teaching for the Woodcraft Corporation. In 1999 he

started teaching in his own shop, and people started coming from all

over the US and Canada. In 2004, after much encouragement from

students, he made his first video, Turned Bowls Made Easy. It was very successful, and a second video, Beyond the Basic Bowl followed.

Bill still makes furniture, but turning and teaching is the focus of his business. He has been all over the US and up into Canada turning,

teaching, and having fun behind a lathe. And people are still making

the trip to his shop in eastern Pennsylvania to learn more about turning

there. For more information visit Bill’s web site www.wonderfulwood.com.

Michael Mocho – Wood Artist

Michael has been a full-time craftsman since 1976 with extensive experience in

furniture design, woodturning, architectural millwork, pattern making,

and stringed musical instruments. He operates a small shop in

Albuquerque, New Mexico producing commissioned furniture, contract

woodturning, and decorative containers for the gift market. He has

completed residencies at the Arrowmont School of Craft, and the

International Turning Exchange program at the Woodturning Center in

Philadelphia.

Michael is an acclaimed and enthusiastic instructor, and has taught
at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the Arrowmont School of Craft,

the John C. Campbell Folk-School, The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship,

Peter’s Valley Craft Center, Brookfield Craft Center, several national

and regional woodturning symposia, and has presented programs for over

35 AAW chapters across the country. He is known for his intricate

containers that often combine bent wood with turned, carved, and

textured components, which have won numerous awards and are in many

private and public collections. For more information visit Michael’s

web site www.mmocho.com.

Molly Winton – Wood Artist

I was introduced to woodturning while in high school, but it wasn’t until
22 years later that I again stepped in front of a lathe. In 1998, I sold a

successful Vocational Rehabilitation business so that I could be home

with my growing family. When my first child was six months old, my

husband presented me with a lathe, but I wouldn’t have the opportunity

to work with it regularly until my two children reached school-age. My

first priority is my family, and then as time allows, I get to pursue

the opportunities that come my way as a result of my turning.

A brief exploration in pottery introduced me to the importance
of form and design, the foundation to any embellishment of my turning,

be it branding, pyrography, coloring, texturing or carving. I endeavor

to make wood pieces that pursue excellence of form and beg to be picked

up and caressed. Not being able to leave well enough alone, I began

exploring what I could do to my work off the lathe. As a result I began

burning, branding, and carving my pieces. What joy!

When exploring a source of inspiration for my surface enhancements, I looked to my interests in Native American and prehistoric art. Since

childhood I have been fascinated by the creative expression of native

North American cultures, petroglyphs of the Columbia Plateau of the

Northwest, as well as the cave art of Lascaux, France and Altimira,

Spain. My artwork reflects their influences. For more information visit

Molly’s web site www.turningmaven.com.

Excellent John, I also noticed you entered the details of this event in the "Events" page. Great job!

Looks like it would be interesting. My grandkids are in Nashville so it could make a worth while trip. I talked to my daughter last night and she said they went to the Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas lights and the place is all fixed up and redone since the flood.

Be a good reason to attend. I learned so much last year about turning just watching these demonstrators show how they do it. Great setup.

I think the Hotel re-opened after the flood last spring this past week. It is a beautiful place and I hear the light and ice show this year are really great.

Let me know if you decide to come. I plan on being there.

Roy Boomershine said:

Looks like it would be interesting. My grandkids are in Nashville so it could make a worth while trip. I talked to my daughter last night and she said they went to the Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas lights and the place is all fixed up and redone since the flood.

I am going to do my level best to attend at least one day. I have never been but have heard great things about them. I am really interested in seeing Bill Grumbine. He just sounds like my kind of guy.

Good deal, Greg. Let me know which day I am going to do my best to make both. Last year it was snowing on the Friday and we left Florence and it took me 5 hours to get to Nashville and it is usually a two hour drive. So I missed all most all of the first day.

Greg Coleman said:

I am going to do my level best to attend at least one day. I have never been but have heard great things about them. I am really interested in seeing Bill Grumbine. He just sounds like my kind of guy.