My Woodturning Journey

My woodturning journey began in May 2019, I attended Makers Central hosted at the NEC in Birmingham. I had been interested in woodturning but never had the opportunity to try my hand at it. I was fortunate enough to make a simple wooden pen on one of the stalls and from that moment I was hooked.

As soon as I got back to Jersey I immediately ordered my first lathe, tools, chucks and a large volume of wooden blanks. I then started to watch videos on YouTube by some of the makers that attended Makers Central such as Bobby Duke, Jimmy Diresta and Nick Zametti but to name three.

It was while watching their content that I began to look into the concept of using materials other than wood for my products. Over the following months I started to make giftware with the view of taking part in some of the craft fairs that where planned for the end of the year. This included wooden pens, resin pens with encased stamps, bottle stoppers, keyrings, Christmas decorations etc. These were a big hit and it also opened to door to having some of my items stocked by a local retailer.

Then the worldwide pandemic struck in March 2020 and this basically decimated all of my plans for the year as it did with many other makers, However, from the dismay, a phoenix rose from the ashes as I began creating content for YouTube, I started with a simple project which was a wooden pen and over the coming months I started making more and more projects using unusual materials such as coffee beans, pine cones, matchsticks, burr walnut, LEGO etc. This is a very difficult field to break into and for every success there are multiple failures.

During my whole journey, the one thing I have been really passionate about is ESG and the impact I am having on the planet through my turning.

I am reducing my impact by ensuring where possible I am cutting wooden blanks to the correct size and re-purposing as many of the offcuts as possible into usable blanks or within other projects.

The laminated coloured wood that I use is dyed with environmentally friendly dyes.

Ensuring that as little resin is wasted as possible, sometimes I use small key-ring or pendent moulds to ensure this waste is made into something functionable rather than going straight into the bin.

My packaging and branding has also been carefully considered, All of my boxes are branded with wax seals rather than stickers or printed ink, not only does this give a nice look to the piece but it also avoids any glues or inks which might be bad for the environment.

All of my items come within a card gift box, these can be fully recycled, this prevents them going into landfill/incineration. Some of my boxes are also made from partially recycled card as well.

I am really excited to see how my woodturning journey develops over the coming months and years and I hope we can watch this journey develop together.

Thank You & All The Best.

Dominic Le Huquet