William Leigh

Media: Woodwork & woodturning

Biography

A self trained wood turner – there’s nothing you can’t learn from a YouTube video! I started to restore old tools during lockdown, this led to me buying a lathe to make parts, which led to me making some bowls for fun, which led to bigger lathes and bigger bowls.

A chef by trade I have made my living by utilising scraps and less appealing cuts and making them beautiful, an ideal I have carried on to my woodturning. I like to use foraged timber (my ears prick at the sound of a chainsaw in the distance) and reclaimed wood wherever possible. I would never buy fresh exotic timber, only using native hardwoods, but I have acquired exotics from estate sales and the like. This has led me into a world of little boxes and smaller desk objects so I waste as little as possible of these valuable gems.

I use natural finishes, mostly a mix of shellac, natural oils and beeswax. So, whilst the pieces are intended to be decorative, they are all food safe, for light dry use – a fruit bowl or breadbasket or such.

always happy to have a chat about woodturning or cooking, and if there’s something in particular you’d like making, let’s have a chat.

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