Dan is fascinated by how simple turned forms reveal the stunning beauty in the grain, color, and pattern of local hardwoods. His projects use trees felled by storms that might otherwise be destined for the burn-pile. He likes to think of this as “re-turning” as it presents a chance to re-purpose that wood in celebration of the beauty of the wonderful place where he lives. Working with wood is a partnership with your material as each piece is unique. While the cherry, maple, beech, and walnut Dan works with comes from trees that look similar, revealing and responding to the unique character of what’s beneath the bark is an adventure of discovery.

As an Industrial Design student at RISD, Dan learned to work toward an envisioned result while being patient with the process and learning from it as you go. That lesson served him well in his career as an exhibit designer and is essential to his work as a wood turner. Preparing a living tree for the lathe takes time, often up to a year, for the wood to dry and stabilize. Even then, wood turners are working with a dynamic material that continues to absorb and lose moisture and changes shape as it does so. Warping and cracking are material issues to be managed but are also present design opportunities. Sometimes, even after many hours of work, a flaw reveals itself to either change the design intent or defeat it entirely. Turners try to shape the wood, but it also shapes our intent; it is a living, breathing partner in design.

When Dan puts a harvested tree section on the lathe, the process of discovery begins. Dan usually starts with a classic form in mind – thank you RISD Museum and the ceramics and glass departments for lessons in the timeless beauty of traditional vessel forms – but once he learns the grain and pattern of a particular piece, his vision surrenders to the character of the wood. If the grain has a dynamic beauty, he tends to do less shaping and let the wood pattern define the character of the piece. With less figured wood, Dan experiments with texturing and carving, sometimes getting lucky and finding that additional shaping brings out a previously unseen beauty of the wood grain.

There is a marvelous world of wood enhancements but having had his fill of the chemicals inherent in the artist’s world, Dan tends toward simple natural finishes. Tung oil and beeswax for anything to be used with food, shellac for display pieces, and sometimes water-based varnishes for vases and lamps. He strives with his finishes to enhance and protect the wood’s natural beauty, not overwhelm it. Dan’s pieces are meant to be lived with, used, and periodically refreshed with beeswax polish. The color will deepen and the shape may adjust in response to the humidity of your home. This is the beauty of wood, each unique piece is a bit of nature brought indoors.

Dan’s shop is Shamrock Studio, named to recognize the good fortune he has enjoyed in life. Among those gifts, he counts as one of the greatest the opportunity to learn at RISD.