The Woodturner...
John Gillmoure is a entrepreneur, photographer, designer, wood worker and wood turner who simply enjoys creating stuff. For decades he has been using the medium of wood as his main construction material. He recently began turning wood on a lathe as a new form of creating something unique and special. Since then, he has managed to produce some extraordinary and stunning wooden bowls from salvaged tree logs which were most likely going to be used as firewood.
Many have described his wood turning pieces as remarkable in both design and presentation. His unique sense of balance and proportion makes it attractive for others to want to include his work as either decorative or functional pieces in their home.
John is a member of many different online wood turning groups and continues to regularly share his ideas and techniques with other wood turners from around the world. He considers this consistant shared information by other woodturners as one of his greatest forms of education in this field.
The Photographer...
As an "Artist" we could never neglect to mention John's photography and design skills which he used in his career as a Commercial Photographer for 30 years. In the early 1980's he completed a two year program in professional photography at the Dawson Institute of Photography in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His photography style began by creating strong, clean and graphic still life images which were tied to a concept. In the early 1990's he embraced and mastered Adobe Photoshop which would become an important creative tool to be used in his work. In 1988 his work was accepted to be represented by a major photography agency in New York City. The new agency would begin to market his high quality imagery into the global advertising and publishing industry. His photography ended up being published in over 40 countries. His work has been recognized and used by major corporations such as IBM, Microsoft, Polaroid, Sony, Toyota, Revlon, Scientific American, Time Life, State Farm Insurance, Fidelity Investments, Swiss Chalet, RBC, Bank National, The Financial Post, Readers Digest, Met Life, Spirit Cruises, and The Globe and Mail just to name a few. A small collection of his personal and published pieces can be found below.
John continues to exercise his design and photography skills by digitally capturing his turned pieces and using Adobe Photoshop to present them to you in this website.
The Craftsman...
These three photos below are great examples showing how John works on other projects away from the lathe. They were recently completed at the family cottage without any plans. He strongly believes in never cutting corners ensuring a quality process every step of the way.
The cottage bunkie sleeps 3 and has a custom built single and double bunk bed with a vaulted ceiling to enjoy Netflix on TV.
A new backyard deck and new cedar furniture.The old cedar deck boards were used to create the new cedar furniture.
With only one shower inside the cottage this new outdoor cedar shower has become a real favourite for everyone who visits.
My Wood Lathe...
In 2015 I was wondering if it would be possible to build a working lathe from scratch without any existing plans. This prototype evolved in a few weeks but needed many improvements.
Several months had passed with many new design improvements. By the spring of 2016 most of the changes were in place and it became very clear that this machine was going to work.
Nearly 3 years has passed and I have been able to turn and complete over 350 finished wooden bowls from tree logs. The lathe can start turning a 100 pound log. It has 10 different speeds, a 2 hp motor and can also make use of an industry standard One Way Manufacturing Coring System. I was so surprised in its performance that I constructed another portable version to take to our summer cottage where I was able to complete 150 finished wooden bowls.
A new modern high end lathe might have been an option however there is something really special about completing a beautiful wooden bowl on a machine I constructed by myself.
Ontario Wood is a provincial organization under the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests. Ontario Wood was introduced to raise awareness of locally-grown, locally-made wood products and encourage Ontarians to buy local. When consumers see the logo they can feel confident they are supporting local jobs and the wood products they are buying have been harvested under some of the highest environmental standards in the world.
JG Woodturning & Design is registered with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests as a responsible producer of Ontario wood. All wood logs have been previously cut from trees for reasons other than to be used in my wood turning products.
