Exploring Form

Stephen Gleasner and Jacques Vesery

Rhapsody in Denim by Stephen GleasnerMidessential Moonlight by Jacques Vesery, cherry, ebony, palladium leaf, and acrylic, 2003

June 11-15

This workshop is for wood turners who are familiar with the basic mechanics of turning and want to explore the aesthetics more deeply. It is about applying familiar techniques successfully, not about learning new ones. Students learn to "sketch" freely in wood—by quickly turning lots of horizontal and vertical exterior forms for items such as salad bowls and vases—and then to "edit" with the lathes off. Discussion centers on what makes a form sing and what makes it flat. Then there is more turning and more critique, as participants practice switching gears from right brain to left and back again. Stephen says, “We will have fun learning from each other how to be verbal about a non-verbal thing.”

Through practice and repetition participants attune themselves to observe subtleties and to register their own aesthetic responses. Finally, they distill their research into one or more finely executed pieces.

Stephen Gleasner is an Appleton, Maine artist/turner with extensive experience in faceplate and spindle work, gained over a 20-plus-year woodworking career. Currently, he specializes in carved and dyed wall pieces that explore the patterning possibilities of Baltic birch plywood. Stephen’s work has been featured in Wood Art Today by Dona Meilach (Schiffer Publishing, 2003) and 500 Wood Bowls (Lark Books, 2004), as well as in numerous periodicals, including Woodwork and American Woodturner. He demonstrates turning nationally and was a featured presenter at the 24th annual symposium of the American Association of Woodturners in 2010. His website is www.stephengleasner.com.

Jacques Vesery is an artist/sculptor from Damariscotta, Maine with an international reputation for texture and coloring techniques on turned forms.  He has taught and lectured on design in France, Italy, England, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and 28 US states. His work is in the permanent collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, among others. The Maine Arts Commission awarded Jacques an Individual Artist Fellowship in 2000 and the Maine Crafts Association named him a “Master Craft Artist” in 2011. His website is www.jacquesvesery.com.

Open to intermediate turners.

Tuition: $695

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