"Kevin Miller" wrote in message
...

I've always felt that woodturners are a bit of an anachronism to some
extent. We want to earn our living doing something that is more at home
in the 18th or 19th century. Mass production has effectively stripped
away the ability of the common woodturner to realistically make a living
at turning. Some will manage to, but they won't ever be rich. Even the
'names' do things on the side like teach, make books/videos, sell lathes
or signature tools, etc. The average household just isn't going to pay
us what we need to charge to make a living.


Consider the chair bodgers working in the woods for what, even in their day,
was a meager wage. Yet their work was the only kind which could pay the
bills - production, not creation. The turning as "art," where what's sold
is sizzle, not steak, is a relatively new phenomenon, and its success, like
all other non-necessities, is due more to the pocketbook of the purchaser
than the ability of the artist. Wood pleases the eye, but must also remain
in competition for that eye and dollar with a long-established art -
pottery, and another which fascinates me personally - glass.