Ever want to, but didn't know what to?

[Roger Chandler]

Turning time seems to come in intermittent spurts for me.......sometimes shop time is hard to come by, and when it is available, i want to take full advantage of it!

That being said, there are times [like today] when the schedule is light and shop time is available [not always the case for sure]..........now I want to turn, but have no plan or something in particular I want to accomplish, so I have a case of the want-to's but don't know what to!!! :confused:

What do you do in cases like this? Just go out and turn something, anything, or do you hit the old sketch pad or begin looking at archives to find a suitable piece of inspiration?

[Bob Bergstrom]

I have pictures on my Ipad of things that I see and would like to try turning. When I see something good I save the pic or sometimes take a picture with the Ipad.

[Paul Engle]

Sometimes, in the last 8 years or so , I will look around the scrap pile in the shop and see if there is something I can come up with that is out of the normal realm ... one year I took some cherry and sliced the limbs that were dry and sandwiched them between some walnut slabs and turned a 12 inch bowl out of it and gave it to the couple that I got the cherry from , I wish I had taken some photos of it cause it looked pretty cool. Another time I glued up some scraps and made a small lidded box that ended up in a charity auction. And then there was the time I just tossed all scraps in the burn pile and started over .....

[Jim Underwood]

Never had that problem. I have so many projects started that I end up paralyzed because I can't decide on one....

[Dan Hintz]

I have a number of books specifically for ideas (yes, dear, I get it just for the pictures ;) )... if those fail me, Google is always at hand. I also keep a stock of interesting woods with ideas in mind for each. For example, I got a nice piece of Osage from Baxter about a year ago... I know (almost) exactly what I want to do with it. It's an artsy-fartsy piece mixing Osage, Walnut and a bit o' brass. But I haven't had an extended period of time to work on it yet. Take now, for example... was off last week, off this week, my new laser arrived last week, but all I've done is work on putting up insulation in a corner of the basement, a couple of stud walls, throwing some electrical in, and building an entertainment center there. It should be nice enough, but no turning time :(

[Peter Blair]

Hey Roger!
This happens to me too especially when I only have a little time between jobs. I really like to get involved and have a chance to do something special which usually takes time for me. I do have a semi-contract to supply honey dippers to a bee keeper and I can usually find a few blocks that are ready for that. I am lucky in that I have about 3 tons of wood blocks and about 200 rough outs so if all else fails is I can grab one of those and finish what I started.
Happy New Year to all!!!!!

[Doug Herzberg]

I usually just sweep the shop floor or make a shop jig or sharpen plane irons and bench chisels until something to do occurs to me.

[Reed Gray]

I generally have an idea of what I want to do. If not, I sort through the 'odds and ends' pile till I find some thing interesting...

robo hippy

[Richard Coers]

I've never had any trouble thinking what to turn. The best place for lots of inspiration is a Google image search. Search for wood turnings, pottery, ceramics, raku, etc.................

[Eric Gourieux]

I have a stack of pictures and drawings of what I want to make in the future. So, I either go to the stack and pick something out or put an interesting blank on the lathe and just start turning and see what "flows".

[Mike Peace]

I am with Doug. I putter around in my shop and the inspiration to turn eventually comes to me.

[Robert Henrickson]

I have a couple approaches when inspiration seems to be on holiday. I have an entirely too large collection of drawings and sketches lying around in several places, for all sorts of things (plates and bowls to spindle lattice screens). Sometimes I'll pick up one of those and see what I can do -- at least some of the time something else altogether results, but turning has happened. Another approach is simply to put a piece of wood on the lathe and start cutting. After things start to get round, I'll suddenly notice that something in the grain or whatever is worth trying to highlight though the shape, or the rough shape will remind me of some pottery I have handled over the years. Since in the course of my career I've handled 1-2 million sherds, thousands of partial or complete vessels, done perhaps 10,000 drawings, from half the Near East and covering 5000 years, there is a fair library of shapes to draw on.

[Brad Adams]

I usually just grab a blank and start to turn, I let the wood show me what it wants to be.

[Doug Herzberg]

I'm going to go sweep the shop floor before SWMBO notices I'm not doing anything.

[Roger Chandler]

I'm going to go sweep the shop floor before SWMBO notices I'm not doing anything.

Now there is a man who know to stay out of trouble! :D

[George Conklin]

I'm going to go sweep the shop floor before SWMBO notices I'm not doing anything.

Hah! Now that right there is the perfect signature line!:D