Pete Wade - Woodturner

Growing up my dad loved woodworking...so I loved woodworking.   My dad taught me how to do just about everything with wood from sanding to cutting to the all important measuring twice.  We built kitchen cabinets and worked on finish carpentry and furniture building.  But it wasn't until junior high school where the woodturning addiction started...

I was fascinated by the ability to make something round. All of the woodworking I had done previously was square, but now I could take a piece of wood and make any curve I wanted. It was totally amazing and I was hooked.

After graduating from High School I followed in my fathers footsteps into the family business (www.wadedynamics.com).  Once I had my own place I used my machinist skills I learned in the family business to build my own woodlathe.   It was pretty simple, but I was able to turn my first small bowl. Soon after that I began really practicing to build up some skill. 

I got married to my high school sweetheart Beth, who would later start her own company(www.bethwadedesign.com).  Beth was and is very inspirational to me, and really helps me tune into my creative side. She says to me "...Just let the wood speak to you as your turning it...", and sure enough, it does. Well, it doesn't actually say anything, but each piece gives you some amount of inspiration.   Sometimes you can see the grain has a little curve to it, so you just follow that. Other times, when I buy the wood or take down a tree in our yard, the color or texture of the bark just sparks a shape in my head and a few hours later a bowl emerges.

The big inspiration for my little company comes from my fur-kids, Smiley, Peanut, Oliver & Gus, the best greyhounds on the planet!  Originally I was just making bowls, round boxes and other things that I could burn my little cave drawing designs into.  But then we lost both Smiley & Peanut to bone cancer.  That was the nudge I needed to learn the skill of hollow form turning.  So that I could make urns that would reflect the personality of the pet they were for.  And so The Barking Tree was born. Thanks for stopping by!