My name is Brian Witt and I reside in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I'm a retired chemical engineer and research manager but I currently have four part time jobs which severely limits how much time I get to spend in my shop. The picture shows me in my role as a docent at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. When I was in my mid 20’s my younger brothers were award-winning woodworkers in high school, and they inspired me to do some woodworking and specifically to try something on the lathe. I really enjoyed it and I've now been turning for about 45 years.
In the 1980’s I attended a few Utah Woodturning Symposiums and was exposed to the work of Ray Allen. I was amazed and thought “I’d like to try making something like that one day.” For the most part, that day is still off in the future! When it comes to segmented turning, I consider myself a sub-novice, but I hope to do more in the coming years. I’ve attended perhaps a dozen woodturning symposiums over the years, and taken about a dozen week-long classes, at either the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina or the Craft Supplies facility in Utah. My most extensive segmenting work was done at a folk school class in 2015, and is shown in the attached picture. Thankfully our instructors helped out and did some pre-work for us which enabled us to finish a project in a week. I’ve attended one SWT symposium, the 2016 event at Quincy, near Boston.
In addition to being a member of SWT, I belong to Ornamental Woodturners, Richmond Woodturners (my local AAW chapter), and of course the AAW. Woodturning has brought a great deal of joy and satisfaction into my life, and I hope to continue doing this kind of work for many years.
