Hello John, this is a good question. Sadly I don’t think there’s a definitive answer.
But I think there are clues which we can follow.
As you mentioned Jo, I’ll use him as an example and hope he doesn’t take offence. Of course he could come on and tell me I’m a million miles from the facts!
Jo is clearly not just a woodturner; he has other skills with wood which he is able to use in combination with turning to great and possibly unique ends. But that doesn’t tell us where he gets the ideas from, only that having had them he is able to bring them to fruition. If I had to guess at where Jo gets his ideas from I’d say the answer is a question he asks…”what if I did this?”
It’s an important question to ask if your aim is to find something new, or at least a new take on an existing idea, but it hides another important approach in the guise of a question, “what if I didn’t do this?” Not clear?
Take a bowl blank. Most of us take a bowl blank (and this is more apparent in individuals who have to buy the blank pre-prepared), look at it and say to ourselves, “I know, I’ll make a bowl”. I don’t think Jo Winter would do that; he’d say, “what if I don’t make a bowl? What could I do with this round blank of wood that won’t result in a bowl?” And from this attitude lots of innovative ideas have evolved.
There’s another (many others, in fact) approach, and that’s the one you’ve alluded to – the “look and be inspired” approach. Many turners quote references such as shells, flowers, seed pods, textures, feathers Etc., as being the foundation from which they build an idea and subsequent turning. They see a shape, a texture, a combination, and then go and replicate it, alter it, combine it in some more conventional piece of turnery, and the result is something apparently new and fresh. There are those that claim an idea is the basis – peace, fear, grief, joy, sanity, insanity, death, socialism, tyranny Etc., etc., and that the work produced is a reflection, representation, expression of this idea. Which in my humble and unqualified view is the only time you can ever call the resulting object “art”. Being different simply isn’t enough.
But as you say, not everybody has the facility to see and adapt in that manner.
So what can these people do if they do fancy a couple of hours not making bowls, candlesticks, or balusters, and don’t feel they have that “something” to spark an idea?
Firstly, they can forget utility. Don’t aim at making a “something” with an obvious use. Look at making something purely aesthetic, just an object that you hope you, and if you’re lucky, others, will find attractive. Or not. Because the other factor is not worrying what others think about what you make. Make it for you, not other turners, because if you do you’re almost guaranteed to be disappointed. Do it for yourself and the chances are you’ll enjoy the process, learn a few things along the way, maybe even have further ideas on other potentials which you can explore later.
So why not begin with a conventional bowl blank, forget the rules, forget convention, forget that you need something to put the Christmas nuts into, and just play with the blank. You might even sketch a few doodles first, play the “what if game” with pencil and paper first before you cut into the blank.
I suspect that for every one of these wonderful new ideas you see in magazines and online, there were half a dozen that never made it to the photograph stage – they ended up burnt or dumped, or put on a shelf to “think about” (I do this and then burn them later when the agony of the wasted wood has eased a little).
But whatever you do or think, don’t think you can’t. Because you can. It may mean that you have to discover new techniques and methods of doing things, it may mean that you get frustrated and dispirited, it may mean you toss the resulting down the bottom of the garden and swear a lot. But I’d bet that after a few days something clicks and you’ll want to try again.
And don’t forget, you’ve already mastered the turning techniques so you’re streets ahead of somebody with all the ideas but none of the skills to realise the idea.
So go on…take a bowl blank and think out of the box and stun us all. Or not. It doesn't matter actually. It's the doing that's important.
