Earle McNeil

Although I had an Industrial Arts major in high school that included some wood working - mostly furniture design - I did not continue it until recovering from brain tumor surgery in 1975. For several years I had been a college teacher, teaching social sciences and felt the need to return to some more physically creative work to balance the intellectual activities of my career. I taught myself how to use a wood lathe and had my first sale in 1983 when a piece was accepted for a turning conference in Philadelphia. As a result of that, my piece (Moon Spirit I) became part of a year long traveling show. Since then my turned Kaleidoscopes have been featured in publications by the national kaleidoscope society and sold in galleries throughout the United States. More recently my bowls and turned sculptures have been sold privately or made for social service fund raising auctions .For the most part I try to make my lathe turnings from "wind fall" wood collected from around the Olympia area.