Roger Bennett

Drawn to the magic of woodturning

• Roger taught English and French before discovering woodturning
• His vessels are dyed and inlaid with silver
• He designs patterns for his inlay using a computer programme

When Roger Bennett took a year’s sabbatical from his career as a secondary school teacher in Dublin, he was always intending to go back. But one day he was mesmerised by a woodturning demonstration and the experience changed his life. That very day, he decided he had to try woodturning for himself. He joined an evening class, bought a lathe and set up a workshop in his garden, and soon was selling pieces in a local market. One year turned into four, before Roger finally told his school he wasn’t going back. He now specialises in making woodturned bowls, vessels and wall pieces, turned very thin, coloured with water-based dyes and inlaid with silver.

Interview

©Lafayette Photography, courtesy of Design & Crafts Council of Ireland

©Roger Bennett

Why were you so attracted to woodturning when you saw it that day?

Within what seemed like a few minutes I saw a lump of wood being transformed into a bowl, a vase or a platter, and I just thought: this is magic. I felt like a child in a sweet shop for the first time. I just watched and watched and watched.

Why do you turn your pieces so thin?

I love the look of surprise on people’s faces when they pick up a piece and are taken aback by the lightness of it. I also find inspiration in ceramics. Lucie Rie was a huge inspiration to me when I was starting out. I love the delicacy and the apparent fragility of her pieces, and I love trying to capture that in my work.

How does colour affect your work?

Certain woods lend themselves very well to colouring. The colouring techniques that I use actually enhance what is inherent in the wood, the grain patterns and so on. When the turning is absolutely finished, I paint the dye on very quickly and wipe off the excess with tissue.

What are the challenges of using dyes?

Because I am using water-based dye, the pieces can go out of shape, which is quite scary. I carefully dry them with a hairdryer and keep my fingers crossed they will come back into shape. Sometimes it goes out of shape in an interesting way and you can make that a feature, but sometimes it just goes wrong, and then you have a very expensive piece of firewood!

Roger Bennett is an expert artisan he began his career in 1995

Works

©Jonathon Cuff

©Estelle Barrett-Morgan

©Roland Paschhoff

©Trevor Hart

©Trevor Hart

Where