While sitting smoking on the footpath of the Uarts building and with my friend Derek, he asked me « Luc, why do you start with multi axis turning ? ». So…I begin to tell the story and he enjoy that so much that he convince me to write about that on this blog…
But please, forgive me my very basic English…
It was about seven or eight years ago. On that time I was renting a workshop in Brussels and have to ask to the authority the permission to use my lathe and have some bits of woods in my own workshop…And, they didn’t allow me to make such a dangerous and disturbing activity as woodturning because some unemployed person complain and argument that it could disturb him….
On the road again…
I decided to look for a workshop out of Brussels and after a long quest, I finally find “the workshop”, close to the forest in the small, beautiful and friendly village of” Hoeilaart”.
I felt like the most Fortunate guy in the world, it was a wonderful place close to my vision of the paradise, a small awesome workshop in stone in the back garden of the large property of some landlords, far from any human being, just sheep, horses and nature around me, the owner want to rent for a good price but only to an artist…And some of my most creative years where starting in that surrealist place.
The lady that own the place have four children, four artists…and all, the lady included are very “special” people…
One of the sons call Nicolas. He is something like a crazy inventor and live with his own life ethics, for example, he don’t have the sense of the property, if you have something that he need and that you don’t use, he just take it…but he argument that you can do the same and often offer me found objects or tools that can be usefull for me… I’m not quiet sure he is the guy that is wrong…
Probably, I was not happy to find out that my bicycle wheel disappear some days…but I still smile when thinking on him…
To understand the context, you must know that Nicolas never work, I mean he never work to earn some money because he is working very hard all day long on some crazy ecological invention…
To eat, he collect food that people no longer want…And yes, he is still very healthy…
When needing some materials for a project, he never go to home depot, he just visit containers and most of the time find what he is looking for…And if he don’t, make sure you use all your things on a regular basis…
So…I don’t remember the exact day I start my first multi axis but I know it was during the summer, probably 2003. Nicolas was carrying pipes since a few days, dozen after dozen of old pipes about 20 feet long and 3 inch thick…with a handcart…
I forgot to say that Nicolas has also a horse, a horse that always escape…after many trials to park his horse for the night with others horses in some meadow from the neighborhood, he finally find out, after a wild boxing match, that meadow and horses owner do not like to share…( I could tell you a lot about Nicolas horse and how he decide to become a capitalist and make money with transporting people in his cab, but that’s an other story…)
After so much trouble to just use a small part of those large meadows, he finally decide to make fences and meadow on the familial ground…A fence with pipes…He spent a lot of days cutting the pipes in three parts and pushing them in the ground, and after all kind of trials and errors to bind the horizontal pipes of the top to the vertical one, he decide to ask my help. I must say I really love helping Nicolas to find solutions for some silly problem he come with…
And yes… it was the very beginning of my first multi axis…making pieces of wood that insert inside the vertical pipes and allow the horizontal one to sit in a half circle…
The next year I make a more sophisticated version of the pipes binding piece and won the golden award at Axminster, a major competition in the UK…
The piece is now part of a prestigious collection, The Daniel Collection in the UK.
You can see the piece on that link
You are an artist in writing as well,no matter what you think about your english.I can’t wait to hear more storries from you…..subject dosn’t matter….
Irene
Hi Luc,
Much gratitude to you, Jay, Derek, Wonjoo, Dave, and Karl for opening up the studio and giving us a glimpse into your ITE world. Your work is beautiful. Also thanks for the good conversation and laughter amongst the philly mosquitoes and burnt eggplant Looking forward to the show!
Hey Luc,
It is so nice to see a Belgian in the ITE program. Congratulations!
Ronny Eelen
Belgium
While sitting smoking on the footpath of the Uarts building and with my friend Derek, he asked me « Luc, why do you start with multi axis turning ? ». So…I begin to tell the story and he enjoy that so much that he convince me to write about that on this blog…
But please, forgive me my very basic English…
It was about seven or eight years ago. On that time I was renting a workshop in Brussels and have to ask to the authority the permission to use my lathe and have some bits of woods in my own workshop…And, they didn’t allow me to make such a dangerous and disturbing activity as woodturning because some unemployed person complain and argument that it could disturb him….
On the road again…
I decided to look for a workshop out of Brussels and after a long quest, I finally find “the workshop”, close to the forest in the small, beautiful and friendly village of” Hoeilaart”.
I felt like the most Fortunate guy in the world, it was a wonderful place close to my vision of the paradise, a small awesome workshop in stone in the back garden of the large property of some landlords, far from any human being, just sheep, horses and nature around me, the owner want to rent for a good price but only to an artist…And some of my most creative years where starting in that surrealist place.
The lady that own the place have four children, four artists…and all, the lady included are very “special” people…
One of the sons call Nicolas. He is something like a crazy inventor and live with his own life ethics, for example, he don’t have the sense of the property, if you have something that he need and that you don’t use, he just take it…but he argument that you can do the same and often offer me found objects or tools that can be usefull for me… I’m not quiet sure he is the guy that is wrong…
Probably, I was not happy to find out that my bicycle wheel disappear some days…but I still smile when thinking on him…
To understand the context, you must know that Nicolas never work, I mean he never work to earn some money because he is working very hard all day long on some crazy ecological invention…
To eat, he collect food that people no longer want…And yes, he is still very healthy…
When needing some materials for a project, he never go to home depot, he just visit containers and most of the time find what he is looking for…And if he don’t, make sure you use all your things on a regular basis…
So…I don’t remember the exact day I start my first multi axis but I know it was during the summer, probably 2003. Nicolas was carrying pipes since a few days, dozen after dozen of old pipes about 20 feet long and 3 inch thick…with a handcart…
I forgot to say that Nicolas has also a horse, a horse that always escape…after many trials to park his horse for the night with others horses in some meadow from the neighborhood, he finally find out, after a wild boxing match, that meadow and horses owner do not like to share…( I could tell you a lot about Nicolas horse and how he decide to become a capitalist and make money with transporting people in his cab, but that’s an other story…)
After so much trouble to just use a small part of those large meadows, he finally decide to make fences and meadow on the familial ground…A fence with pipes…He spent a lot of days cutting the pipes in three parts and pushing them in the ground, and after all kind of trials and errors to bind the horizontal pipes of the top to the vertical one, he decide to ask my help. I must say I really love helping Nicolas to find solutions for some silly problem he come with…
And yes… it was the very beginning of my first multi axis…making pieces of wood that insert inside the vertical pipes and allow the horizontal one to sit in a half circle…
The next year I make a more sophisticated version of the pipes binding piece and won the golden award at Axminster, a major competition in the UK…
The piece is now part of a prestigious collection, The Daniel Collection in the UK.
You can see the piece on that link
http://www.thedanielcollection.com/GalleryDetail.php?artwork_id=228
Many thanks to Nicolas, My very special friend …
What a great story Luc.
…and look who shows up on the front page of the Daniel collection website… nice!
Dear Luc,
There is absolutely no need to make any apology for your English! A wonderful story, wonderfully written. (Just like your artwork).
j x
Dear Luc,
You are an artist in writing as well,no matter what you think about your english.I can’t wait to hear more storries from you…..subject dosn’t matter….
Irene
Hello Luc,
How are U, nice reading about your startings in the early days, the sky is the limit…
keep on turnin’
Robby
Hi Luc,
Looking forward to the show!
Much gratitude to you, Jay, Derek, Wonjoo, Dave, and Karl for opening up the studio and giving us a glimpse into your ITE world. Your work is beautiful. Also thanks for the good conversation and laughter amongst the philly mosquitoes and burnt eggplant