About

Blue Ridge Turnery

Dave Robinson loves to teach.

He’s taught 4th, 5th & 6th grade, navigation in the Navy and as a building contractor he was licensed and taught roofing, air conditioning, insulation, and energy efficient remodeling and still teaches Sunday School.   

So when he and Luelle, his wife of 47 years followed grand babies to Northern Virginia in 2010 it was only natural that Dave would start sharing his new hobby and craft, wood turning.   After joining Catoctin Area Turners, Dave started opening up his studio weekly for TNT…Thursday Night Turning. Hundreds of new turners have now gotten their start on Thursday evenings in the studio of Blue Ridge Turnery, (which shares the basement with Luelle’s quilting studio) and many more come for the fellowship and to sharpen their skills and pass them on.

In addition to sharing his passion for the art and craft, Dave also likes the challenge of creating heirlooms:  special pieces from special wood and inscribing the provenance on the piece…telling the story that goes with the wood.

Dave doesn’t make many pieces from kits, preferring to make custom, one of a kind art pieces.   He’s also not the one to learn from for small, intricate work and embellishment, preferring to Go Big.  But many of the TNT Turners love intricate work and embellishment and their work is also available in the Gallery and Marketplace at our Blue Ridge Turnery Facebook Group.  Please visit.

Classes

INDIVIDUAL & GROUP

Date Night

Dave will customize the experience to include as much participation  and learning as the couple desires. The Ultimate Heirloom Creation Date  can include: 

  • Harvesting the timber with a Chainsaw
  • Processing into a bowl blank ready to go on the lathe in the studio in Round Hill.
  • Turning the blank into near it’s final design, roughed out and ready to cure.
  • Now, Date Night can take a break for 2 months while the green wood cures….

…or  

The rough turned bowl can be exchanged for a similar cured piece…selecting from over 100 that are ready to finish.

  • Turn to finish and sand smooth
  • Apply finish with luster of choice
  • Woodburn the artist’s names, date, species of wood and a favorite quote on the back.

Heirlooms

Heirloom pieces have special connection to the owner’s life.  This can be because they created it themselves, or because the piece was created from special wood that has meaning to the owner… such as the tree at Grandpa’s farm with the tire swing from their childhood.

Provenence is the story of the specialness of the timber and the item.   We work together to distill the story to words and diagrams that are inscribed permanently on the back of the piece.

Heirlooms can be commissioned from any wood that is already special, or Dave can build in the specialness from new timber of your choice.

Classes

Dave has taught children as young a 6 as well as their grandparents.    

Blue Ridge Turnery has 12 lathes so if a larger group is learning together, we will have a team of qualified instructors to ensure a low teacher-student ratio.

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