John Rockey

You just have to pick up a finished piece and touch it!  It was his fascination with the textures of this most basic of natural materials that first drew John to woodworking in 1998 after a career in telecommunications. Seeking to improve his understanding of turned shapes, and why some are more pleasing than others, he took a course in pottery, finding that using your fingers to form a clay vessel on the wheel is so different to working with a piece of wood.  He now sees turning as a more fluid movement, drawing the shape from out of the wood, and so is moving towards a more artistic use of his talent.

Taking part in the annual ‘Devon Open Studios’ since its inception has encouraged him to develop the different turning skills used in hollow vessels, and to explore the field of wall art, using texture and colour to enhance the natural figure of the wood.  Many of his pieces retain some characteristic of the growing, living tree: maybe some bark, a knot, hollow or some other deformity.  Part of the challenge is to take a piece of wood that seems unsuitable for anything, to see the possibilities that it holds and then to turn it into a thing of beauty – or rather to release the beauty that was always there.  And that’s the pleasure, too!

Commissions can always be discussed for that special occasion, or even something simple like the replacement of a handle or knob!