When I started turning wood in 1992 I had built furniture for our house for ~15 years. For me, woodturning is to enhance the beauty of the nature. However, as pretty as most wood, stunning beauty such as that in a burl is hard to come by. In addition, when one hollows out a burl, >95% of the natural beauty ends up in the trash as shavings or dust. Therefore, my preferred style of turning when I started was segmented in which very little wood is wasted. I also like to explore alternative turning materials, the favorite one being Corian®. One can create beautiful patterns in turnings with Corian and a great advantage of Corian® over wood is that it is stable and will not shrink or expand with ambient moisture. Corian® is also amenable to inlaying and I can use my Corian® turning as a canvas on which to put my artistic creation.
- Andy Chen