Over 50 avid wood turners from across the province attended the Turned and Transformed symposium held August 8th and 9th at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.
The symposium featured Derek Weidman and Heather Marusiak.
Derek showed how he uses his lathe as a multi axis tool to create amazing sculptures from a seemingly simple block of wood. He took suggestions from the audience for any specific animal we wanted to see created, and proceeded to rough out an amazing likeness in a short period of time. He finishes his pieces using a hand carver. It was simply amazing and somewhat baffling at times to watch an animal appear bit by bit by rotating the wood in between centres. On Saturday he created half of a moose's face; On Sunday he created an horned owl...
Heather has a unique intellect for taking a simple design form and creating almost fluid like sweeping creations. She showed examples of how a simple bowl, bisected into parts became a fluidic shape with sweeping tendrils that formed an almost lifelike appearance.
Heather explained colour theory and how shading, different texturing and pyrography methods could completely change the appearance and feeling of a piece of art. She demonstrated power carving, pyrography, airbrushing and dry brushing. Simply amazing and inspiring work.
Both Derek Weidman and Heather Marusiak's work are featured in the August 2026 AAW American Woodturner Magazine
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Symposium Organization
Mark Noete
Robin Reynolds
Randy Sawchyn
Photo Credits:
Robin Reynolds
Trent Watts
Peter Downing