Meet the Maker - Axminster Woodturning Ambassador, Colwin Way

Meet our Axminster Woodturning ambassador, Colwin Way! 

Colwin is a world renowned woodturner, who has travelled around the world demonstrating and teaching the art of woodturning. Currently based at Millers Farm Shop in Axminster, Devon, Colwin turns many different pieces to sell in his shop. He also runs courses for beginners, up to advanced.  

Colwin's woodturning journey began in 1986 with an apprenticeship in production woodturning. After completing his apprenticeship, he became self-employed, creating pieces for galleries and local shops, and showcasing his work at craft shows. His career continued to flourish, and in 1998, he joined Axminster Tools as a trainer. Colwin has travelled the world, demonstrating his skills in the USA, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, and many other countries. Many may recognize Colwin as a former presenter on Woodworking Wisdom and a woodturning expert. Today, he runs his own woodturning business in Axminster, Devon, and we are proud to have him as our Axminster Woodturning Brand Ambassador! 

In this ambassador edition of Meet the Maker, we delve into learning more about Colwin's practice. We'll look at his creative flow, favourite tools, a typical day in the workshop and more. Get to know what 'behind the scenes' looks like for Colwin!

YouTube         Instagram

We asked...

Introduce yourself, what you do and where you do it! 

I’m a woodturner of 40 years, currently at my own workshop at Millers Farm Shop in Kilmington, Axminster. We run full time courses and have a shop selling everything we make! 

What does a typical day in the life look like for you? 

A normal day here would either consist of a course, manning or making pieces for the shop. If it’s a course, from beginner, to fruit or nutcracker making and more, we’d be up at the shop at 8:30am, getting the workshop warm, putting the kettle on and welcoming the students in. We begin at around 9:30am. If it’s a day where we don’t have a course, we’re usually making pieces to supply the shop, or fulfilling orders. It could consist of anything; wooden bowls, coat racks, mirrors, vases and more.  

What are your main inspirations? 

My main inspirations come from the people I see, other turners and other demonstrators, videos, books and nature. I’ve been doing a series of bird forms recently and they’ve inspired me. Forms in nature are quite fluid and are easily replicated on the lathe. Inspiration comes from lots of different things, all over the world, people and other turned pieces. 

What have been your recent challenges? 

One of my most recent challenges has been starting a new business and making sure it runs well. Even though I’ve been turning and teaching for many years, doing the same thing for your own business has its own challenges. It's silly things, like making sure you’re there on time and doing a full week! Also, working with my wife; I’m sure she finds that as a challenge in itself! However, that’s also very rewarding as you’re being with the person you want to be with and making a success of something that you’re both working toward.  

Talk us through your creative process...

The creative process for me really comes back to my inspirations. I see something, or a form that I like and that leads me to start thinking. It starts from a rough idea in my head, or something I’ve seen and then I go straight to the lathe. Usually, the first couple of things I make after that spark of inspiration aren’t quite right. So, you tweak things, and then it’s something you improve on. One of my big inspirations was my trip to Germany that I made back in 2017. I was so inspired by the nutcrackers, German smokers and carousels, that led me on to create my own versions of the same thing which are now out there on the internet when you search for those products!  

More recently, I’ve been making bird forms which have taken off well, the Hummingbirds have sparked a real interest. 

What are your current projects? 

The projects that we’re working on now are very varied; we’ve just come out of the Christmas spell so that’s been extremely busy. Now we’re looking at a period where we need to restock the shop. So, we have a few big projects; a couple of tables that I’m working on using resin and branch timber. We then have our production turned pieces; things like bottle stoppers, light pulls, vase shapes, wooden fruit. We need to restock the shop so that’s my big goal now as we make big batches for Vicky to then sell. In amongst that, the courses are 3-4 days a week.  

Every fortnight, we’re also doing our YouTube lives which is an hour-long how-to video. We’ve developed quite a nice group of people that follow and have regular conversations with, so that’s on every other Thursday.  

So we’re just creating lots of turned pieces and that for me is where I want to be and what I want to be doing! 

What are your staple tools? 

On all the courses I talk about the right tool for the right job and carbide tools are a big thing at the moment. I do have some carbide tools, but I’m very much about the traditional tool side of things. I’ll use carbide tools when needed, but most of my day to day turning is with the basic 6. Things like the skew chisel, roughing gouge, spindle gouge, bowl gouge, scrapers, parting tools. One of my visits to Germany has allowed me to create and start selling my own range of skew chisels, made by Crown. Between the skew chisel and the bowl gouge, they’re both in my hand for probably 50% of the day. To that end, we’ve created courses where we masterclass in skews for instance and I’ve taught that lesson all over the world, from America to Australia, France, Spain and back to the UK.  

There are lots of tools I couldn’t be without as well as my traditional turning tools. Chucks are a big part of my life and I’m very lucky to have worked with Axminster Tools for 28 years. Along the way I have seen and been involved in the chuck and centre development that they now make.

A big part of my day is using the SK100 and SK114 and the jaws associated with those. I’m really into the O’Donnell jaws; probably one of my favourite jaws. Also wood plate jaws, nylon jaws and the C jaw family gets used an awful lot on the SK114 and SK100. The C jaws really mean I can use so many other things; I can create sanding discs with faceplate rings to attach to the C jaws, use the screw chucks and eccentric chucks. There are so many things that we can use those jaws for. For me, it’s an essential part and an extension of the lathe and something I use all the time. 

Tell us about your most recent project... 

One of the most recent projects that I have done, has been to do shop windows for one of the major London retailers at Christmas. There were 20 windows to decorate in total. The scene was to make puppets; shepherds, goats and sheep! My job was to turn all the heads, feet, arms to decorate the shop windows. Roughly 1,500 pieces were turned and shipped up to London to be dressed in the window. We had to follow some very detailed digital drawings, but they looked really nice. All made out of white oak with coloured pieces made elsewhere and joined together, so that was a really exciting project for me.  

What advice would you give to those wanting to enhance their skills? 

Anybody wanting to further their skills in turning, really, it’s all about the practice. It’s about seeing as many turners as you can, taking inspiration from wherever. Don’t start too big, start nice and small and practice, practice, practice. Certainly, the skew will not let you just pick it up and use it; you need to play, roll beads and keep doing it repeatedly. Don’t be too linear, keep looking at different things and demonstrators. Take advice from as many different people as possible and enjoy it, that’s the main thing! 

Follow Colwin

You can keep up to date with Colwin through the following platforms:

YouTube         Instagram

Or visit Colwin's website www.colwinwaywoodturner.com