Allen W. Davis-Winchester Woodworks Winchester Woodworks

My wife, the quilter, says I quilt with wood. My woodturnings, "pieced" from precise cuts of hardwoods, have a geometric "quilt block" appearance, with the pattern running through the entire piece's thickness. Interest in creating my own blanks, instead of using one piece of solid wood, began when I assisted a workshop on “polychromatic segmented woodturning.” This interest shows no sign of waning.

My bowls, vases, lidded urns, oil candles, cutting boards, ikebana, and NEW vessel sinks use native hardwoods, (often cut from my own 10 acres) layered and assembled alternately with imported exotic hardwoods (recycled from cabinetmakers’ waste bins.) The large urns contain 450 or more cut shapes. My finishing process uses progressions of fine micromesh and grit papers, followed by food-grade oils and waxes to reveal the natural grain and color of these special woods. No dyes or stains are employed; all pieces are meant to be functional and are food-safe. Some of my favorite showy woods are osage orange, spalted maple, African iroka, dogwood, canary wood, South American purpleheart, cocobolo, zebrawood, and marblewood. More of my work can be seen at my own website: www.winchesterwoodworks.net I retired from the corporate life in Florida to the mountains of Western North Carolina. With leisure time to be filled, and a dormant woodcrafting interest leftover from high school Industrial Arts classes, I began to experiment with the lathe in 1997. Though largely self-taught, I have studied with recognized woodturning specialists-Nick Cook, Don Russell and the late Willard Baxter. Promoting my craft whenever possible, I’ve done workshops for at-risk teens at Eckerd Youth Alternatives Camp in Hendersonville, NC, and for Big Brother/Big Sister of Haywood County. In return for shopwork hours at Winchester Woodworks, I offer woodturning instruction. In addition to all the Guild Shops, my work can be seen at these galleries: New Morning Gallery, Asheville, NC deYoung Museum of Contemporary Art Museum Shop, San Francisco, CA By Hand South, Decatur, GA Textures, Waynesville, NC Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, TN Bellevue Arts Museum Shop, Bellevue, WA Daly Designs, Greenville, SC Hawthorne Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC Its By Nature, Sylva, NC Jarrett House Gift Shop, Dillsboro, NC Kitchen Decor, Waynesville, NC Hand in Hand, Flat Rock, NC The Design Gallery, Burnsville, NC Pixel Point Graphics, Anderson, SC Art Masters Gallery, Watkinsville, GA Fat Cat Limited, Madison, NC Tin Roof Studio, Highlands, NC Rice Furniture, Brevard, NC River Trail Mercantile, Advance, NC Oswego Lake Gallery, Oswego, OR Sabbath-Day Woods Gallery, Canton, NC Berea College Gift Shop, Berea, KY Carlton Gallery@ Creekside, Banner Elk, NC Craftsman House, St. Petersburg, FL Meadows Museum@Centenary College,Shreveport, LA The Prince and the Pauper, Rockport, ME Visarts-Metro Center for Visual Arts, Rockville, MD Wooden Stone Gallery, Davidson, NC 2009 Show and Demo Schedule---- American Craft Council Wholesale/Retail Show February 24-March 1 Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, MD American Craft Council Show March12-14 Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, GA Paradise City Arts Festival May 1-3 Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands July 16-19 Civic Center, Asheville, NC The Folk Art Center--- Demonstration August 17-18 Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville, NC The Folk Art Center---Demonstration September 1-2 Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville, NC The Folk Art Center---Demonstration October 4-6 Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville, NC Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands October 15-18 Civic Center, Asheville, NC Paradise City Arts Festival November 20-22 Royal Plaza Trade Center Marlborough, MA