Lathe Turning Workshops in Portland, Maine

Length: 9 hours over 3 weeks
Times: 6-9 pm
Class Fee: $420

Bowls: June 2, 9, & 16
Bowls: August 4, 11, & 18

We offer two beginner level workshops:

1. Bowl turning: Learn how to turn small (8-10 inch) bowls. You'll start with material preparation and sharpening, and then do some activities to challenge your cutting touch. The core of the workshop is learning to turn bowls using bowl gouges and negative rake scrapers. You'll end with sanding and finishing techniques.

2. Spindle turning: Learn how to turn between centers, focusing on turning spindles from rough stock, and turning coves and beads. These are the skills needed to make furniture parts for chairs, stools, and tables. The exercises will include activities to challenge your cutting touch, sharpen lathe edge tools, and start to explore bowls.

For both workshops, the class fee includes materials.

About the instructor:

Paloma Díaz-Dickson (bowls) is a Portland-based illustrator, artist, and woodworker. She was born in Houston, TX, and grew up in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, in a home where play, work, and making things were inextricably and happily linked together. Her educational background is in illustration, but she decided to dive into woodworking as part of her MFA thesis project and has never looked back. Moving away from digital and 2D illustration, her work has become more three-dimensional and she enjoys straddling the line between fine arts, craft, and design. Plainly put, she just likes making objects and is at the moment focusing on hand turned wooden objects.