Meeting the Orkney Wood Turner

A few months ago, I was told by Zoe Davidson (great jeweller) that Michael and Sara Sinclair, the couple behind Orkney Wood Turner, would be interested in someone to come and shoot some photos. I obviously got in touch with and, in the middle of a very windy and haily saturday of february, I headed out to the workshop, a couple miles off the main road between Kirkwall and Stromness with my car and my camera.

Directed by one of the classic Orkney Creative Trail sign, I arrived to a small car park, in front of a big red wooden house, flanked on the left by a small shop where the woodwork is displayed, and on the right the workshop. I quickly meet Michael, the woodturner, Sara, she manages the website, shop and social media, and Monty, their wee puppy. We head towards the workshop, surrounded by logs of different sizes and origin, some imported, but a lot obtained from trees cut in Orkney that was otherwise gonna get burnt (most likely). Around the workshop, there are also quite a lot of wood shavings, which tehy either burn, or add to their compost in the summer (awesome right!).

The workshop is a machine nerd palace, with three different lathes for different operations (hollowing, shaping, finer details). You can tell Michael loves the craft and it was such an amazing opportunity to get to see a few different steps of the making of a bowl. There is also a lot of history in that workshop, some of the tools in there are family heirloom, passed on by Michael’s father. Wood turning is obviously a historical and old craft, and it is amazing to see a mix of inherited tools and more modern ones, all contributing to bringing to life the infamous neolithic inspired wooden bowls the Sinclairs sell.

Neolithic you say? Indeed, a lot of the carvings and decorations that are found on the bowls are inspired by Orkney’s rich history and the archaeological discoveries of Skara Brae and Maeshowe. Each bowl is unique, from the wood grain and imperfections, to the shape and decorations, somehow linking us to the people that live on Orkney 5,000 years ago. Orkney seems to be a source of inspiration for many creatrives, including myself, and I cannot wait to meet more of them.

Thanks to Michael and Sara Sinclair for having me, give their website a visit, if just for the eye candy.