Woodturning: Art and Science
Article originally published in the Picayune Living magazine, 2018.
Woodturning is a unique art that has been practiced for centuries. It is described in ‘The Art of Turning’ as “the art of giving a circular form to a variety of materials. It is employed in manufacturing articles of wood, bone, ivory, horn, marble, albata, stone, diamond, glass, steel, and all metals.”
Laura Ousset became fascinated with the art when she and her husband came across a booth filled with beautiful wood turned items at Jazz Fest in 2001. After speaking with the artist, Tom Dunne, she signed up for lessons and began learning the trade the following fall. The discovery led to a newfound passion and the creation of her business, Turned Style Studios.
A mathematician by trade, Ousset said she quickly found herself drawn to the mathematical side of the craft and over the years has developed her art into a science.
Ousset begins her process of woodturning by sketching a diagram of the bowl’s curve. Each line in her diagram corresponds to a layer of wood, so she can determine exactly how large or small she wants the bowl to be. Ousset uses a wide variety of woods — the majority of which were given to her by friends and neighbors. Some start as nothing more than logs, while others can be cut into lumber.
Once she has finished designing the bowl, she plugs the data from her diagram into a spreadsheet, which helps her determine the exact length, width, and angle to cut each block of wood. While spreadsheets allow for more accuracy than can actually be achieved, Ousset said she still prefers to be as precise as possible.
“I love the planning and problem solving,” she says.
Once the blocks of wood have been cut into trapezoidal pieces, Ousset sands the edges and glues them together. The angle of each cut has to be perfect, or they won’t fit together to make a circle.
Since the glue acts as a lubricant when it is first applied, Ousset carefully uses small chips of wood to hold the pieces of the bowl in place until the glue dries. Once the pieces are arranged and glued, they are left overnight to dry.
Once the glue has set, the bowl is then attached to a base, which is screwed into the headstock of the lathe. Various gauges are used in combination with the machine to form the bowl into its desired shape.
Woodturning is a beautiful, but often-dangerous craft.
Each tool’s sharp edge has to be maintained and must be used precisely for the process to work. If the angle or pressure of the tool is thrown off by even a little bit, the result could be disastrous. Ousset said that recently, a bowl one of her family members was working on burst under the pressure, spraying wooden shards in every direction of her private shop.
“It can get real exciting sometimes,” she said.
Ousset said she typically shaves the bowl down to the width of approximately one-quarter of an inch. Some artisans exceed this, but the thinner the bowl, the more fragile it becomes. As a result, Ousset prefers to keep her bowls at a quarter of an inch thick to ensure they are both elegant and sturdy.
Ousset often uses heavy equipment when cutting and shaping her bowls. In addition to the dangers associated with the equipment, wood shavings can be a harmful element to those creating woodturnings. The fine dust from some wood, when sanded, can enter the lungs, while other woods have been treated with herbicides that can cause allergic reactions in certain individuals.
Taking proper safety measures into consideration is important when working with wood.
When she began woodturning, Ousset joined the Southern Bayou Woodturners, a group based out of New Orleans that consists of about 100 other artisans. Ousset said belonging to a group is both fun and beneficial, as members can share ideas and techniques with each other.
At times her work can be seen in the Crosby Arboretum, or she can be contacted by calling 601–590–1980 or by emailing her at lwogcy@yahoo.com.
