T.J. Thrasher started turning wood as a way to tap into his creative side; he has now been honing his craft for 15 years, creating items like bowls, serving vessels and cases. Photo courtesy of T.J. Thrasher.

T.J. Thrasher sought out wood-turning as a way to tap into his creative side, which had been laying dormant due to a job shift. The Steamboat Springs native had transitioned from landscape design to owning a company that focused solely on tree maintenance, and he was looking for a new way to express himself. He discovered wood-turning, creating his first small piece under the tutelage of his uncle, Clarence Fivecoate, an accomplished craftsman who once called Steamboat home but now lives in Cedaredge.

“A lot of my techniques were adopted from his teachings,” T.J. says.

T.J. turns wood in a workshop he created inside a detached garage at his home west of Steamboat. The shop is divided into two parts – a wood storage area, home to a massive pile of wood that takes at least a year to cure, and the space where he turns wood, which houses his lathes and large collection of tools.

With a chunk of handpicked wood mounted on the lathe, T.J. uses hand-held chisels and other cutting tools to shape the raw wood into one-of-a-kind hollow vessels. He coaxes out the
imperfections and interesting grains and lets the wood speak to him.

“A lot of people will go into a project with a specific outcome in mind whereas I’ll look at the piece of wood and it will almost tell me what it wants to become,” T.J. says. “The shape of it, the grain of the wood, any imperfections or interesting characteristics can help steer the end product. Each piece of wood kind of has its tells.”

T.J. enjoys experimenting with different kinds of wood, but it’s almost always wood given to him by friends or harvested himself from private land. In particular he loves working with Aspen burls and pistachio with a grain marked by sharp contrasts in color. He also likes Canadian red choke cherry wood, which is easy to turn and creates a nice finish.

After 15 years of honing his craft, T.J. says he now considers himself an artist. He says finishing the piece takes the most time, requiring multiple applications of clear polyurethane followed by more rounds of sanding, buffing and polishing to obtain a uniform, smooth finish that meets his high standards. For more functional pieces, like salad bowls or serving vessels, T.J. uses a food-safe finish.

“The finish will make the grain pop,” T.J. explains. He also likes to play with imperfections in the wood, filling cracks with inlays of turquoise, copper or brass or leaving a natural edge on the piece to add character.

T.J. also loves the challenge of mastering new tools and techniques.

“To get a piece from the woods to a finished product, there’s countless tools involved. So, mastering each of those is kind of fun, particularly on the lathe. And as you learn new things, your expectations continue to rise above the basics of shape and dimension, so at this point, I naturally want to try and elevate each piece, and hopefully, I’ll continue to learn and explore new techniques.”

To purchase one of T.J.’s creations, visit the store at Steamboat Art Museum, where he has sold his pieces for eight years.