The best part of learning is sharing it with others

For 40 plus years, I’ve been a professional woodworker/woodturner, teacher and artist who is passionate about the whys of making Craft/Art. I love helping my students find their personal voice– their passion(s). And I love working in and building community.

You may remember my year-long community art project Turning Around America where I drove my converted van around the country teaching woodturning to young and old, empowering people through the art of hand-making.

Because at heart, I’m an artist and I follow my curiosities, I am passionate about so many subjects. Over the past 10 years, my curiosities have brought me to crossbow making, instrument making, a deep dive into printmaking, and most recently, digital animation. Often these skills morph into something new, like Turn/Tings, where turning and printing collide! The best part of learning something new is sharing it with others.

Being in motion is how I think and do my best work. I’m always looking ahead at what I can learn/explore/make today--rarely looking back. I’m realizing it’s now time to slow down a bit and take stock to both organize and archive my work, and create an online platform to share the skills, tools, techniques and experiences I’ve developed. And this is why I’m starting Beth Ireland Studio.

This was published in the Studio newsletter. You can read more here.