Bill Housley is a wood worker and ornamental wood turner living, and creating art from his studio in Limerick Maine. No two items are ever alike, making each creation extremely special. His work can be found in several galleries, shows, and numerous stores around Maine and Northern New England. For a full list, please view the “Find His Work” page. ME Segmented Art
Segmented turning, also known a
s polychromatic turning, is woodturning on a lathe where the initial work piece is composed of multiple parts from a template of a single piece wood, to create patterns and visual effects. The size, grain orientation and colors of the wood, will frame how it can be turned into an object like a bowl, platter, or vase. With segmented turning, the size and patterns are limited only by imagination, skill and patience. Ornamental wood turning is a lost art form that found its origins among the very wealthy Europeans in the seventeenth, eighteenth, & nineteenth centuries. The lathes that were produced at the beginnings of the industrial age were outlandishly expensive and were only owned by royalty. The wood art was extremely expensive because of the difficulty and craftsmanship involved in the creation. Because of this the popularity of wood turning declined, until about 10 years ago when two gentlemen began to try to design and build a lathe that hadn’t been built since the mid 1800’s and created the “Rose Engine”. The Lindow White Rose Engine is a very complex machine with eccentric cutting heads and dozens of cams configured to produce cuts in wood that are hard to imagine came from a lathe. Bill uses this machine to embellish the unique pieces and segmented art that he creates. Rare pieces such as these are normally only found in high end galleries, but are available to you now at Bills Turningz! Limerick Maine Hand-Crafted Bowls
Please browse the photos in the portfolio to view different pieces of work. You can see from the Photos how intricate Bills’ craft of wood turning really is. From Limerick Maine hand-crafted bowls to boxes, ornaments, platters, timepieces and vases, these pieces are exquisite. Bill enjoys creating small pieces such as ME pens, tea candle holders, small bowls and bottle stoppers. Although Bill thoroughly enjoys his career as a professor of dentistry, wood turning is a passion he cannot get enough of. For more information about his work, please contact Bill by using the form on the contact page.
