WHEN you’re travelling at 2,000 revolutions per minute you’ve got to have your wits about you. One false move and – disaster. One slip of the hand and it’s all over.
That’s the challenge facing Bruce Switzer every time he puts a piece of precious timber on his lathe and as it revolves at high speeds he carefully shapes bowls, candlesticks, plates, even pens – you name it and he will fashion it. Most recently he has been working on exquisite pieces from a 100-year-old monkey puzzle tree which fell during a gale in the grounds of a gentleman’s mansion in Kells, Co Meath.
“It’s not easy to get more unusual pieces these days because all round the world forests are being devastated and the timber is just not available so to get this magnificent piece so close to home was a great pleasure.”
He went on to tell me that the monkey puzzle is the national tree of Chile, “and was named as an endangered species in 2013 so I value this very much and obviously a great deal of care has to be taken to do it justice.”
When I saw one of the bowls for some reason I immediately thought of the Sistine Chapel, the colours and the pattern, the richness of the wood, the silky smooth texture.
When he finds or buys a rare log Bruce is at his happiest in his workshop in Kesh. A few weeks ago he turned a protected tree from Africa, the pink ivory, into a delicate picture frame. In fact it was during a visit to Zambia that he began to notice the variety of trees and in Canada the red cedars took his fancy. But the local oak, ash, beech and cherry all turn and polish into works of art. His favourite is yew – and so he named his creative enterprise Wood4Yew.
He gave me a quick lesson on successful turning: “There are two types, wet turning and kiln or natural-dried wood. When the sap is still in the wood there are weaknesses and as you turn it, cracks might well appear and the planned item just doesn’t work. But with wood which has dried over a period of time there is a great pleasure setting it on to the lathe, centring the piece and spinning it using hand-held tungsten carbide chisels and ‘gouges’ and the rest of the equipment to gradually form the finished piece.”
Change of life
July 2006 marked a complete change in this creative man’s life. Once, over dinner at home, he had admitted to Janet that he loved wood and some time later she took him up on the remark and presented him with a large box and wished him a happy birthday. She couldn’t have known the impact that thoughtful gift would have.
Bruce had just retired from Ulster Television where he was a sound supervisor working on the top programmes and meeting fascinating people.
“My favourites were John Denver and Gareth Brooks and the Highway programme with Harry Secombe. In those days artists mimed to their songs so I spent a lot of time in London studios recording the performers. Every day was exciting.”
Leaving the heady atmosphere of television to contemplate retirement could have been a problem had it not been for Janet remembering his chance remark years before – his birthday present turned out to be a wood-turning lathe.
“It sat in the garden shed for a couple of months before I decided to clear the shed, make a workshop and take a three-day course at The Wood Shed in Templepatrick.”
Now he’s working on one of the rarest timbers you can turn. His monkey-puzzle bowls are the heaviest he’s ever made and probably the most beautiful. The story too is fascinating; no wonder there aren’t more of these trees around as the male and female cones are usually on separate trees and pollination is wind powered or courtesy of small animals and birds.
It’s a sacred tree among some of the Mapuche Native American people and the popular name derives from 1850 when a specimen was brought to Cornwall to the garden of Sir William Molesworth. As he was showing off the sapling to a group of friends, one of them remarked, “It would puzzle a monkey to climb that.”
If you would like to grow a monkey-puzzle tree, no problem. Jim Bradley at Mid Ulster Garden Centre in Maghera is your man. He has some in stock, about two and a half foot in height, costing around £75 – although he can provide bigger trees. Incidentally, takes 10 years to grow to maturity. You can get in touch at midulster.co.uk
To contact Bruce Switzer email lakelandlucy@btinternet.com
Beauty and Heritage
FOUR and a half minutes just might make all the difference when it comes to protecting our natural heritage. Following on from the campaign to save the ancient oak forest in Rostrevor and repel the threat from developers who would ride roughshod over this historic ground, rich and rare, Colum Sands, founder member of Rostrevor Action Respecting our Environment, has produced a short film, Rhyme for Justice?
It’s raising a voice in defence of nature, opening an eye to the "wilful blindness" of some in positions of power and encouraging the enforcement of environmental and planning law in Northern Ireland and beyond.
“It’s a letter in verse addressed to Justice Minister Naomi Long and Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan,” Colum explained. “The letter is based on a plan to impose inner-city-style development on the edge of Rostrevor’s ancient oak forest where the Invisible Tree – strangely it has disappeared from developers' maps – actually won the Woodland Trust Tree the Year award in 2019.”
The oak is the king of trees; hopefully it will defeat the planners and remain to rule Rostrevor’s unique and sacred forest.
See the film at https://ejni.net/films/#
