Bill Tyndale Turned Wood

My goal as a wood-turner is the ongoing exploration of design and technique as it applies to the art form itself. The wood, the tree, teaches me, and I can only take what it's willing to give. From the aggression of the roughing stages to the tranquility of the finishing touches, the journey, the dance is what it's all about. In the learning process, hopefully some of my work has an appeal, and has made it's way to someone's mantle or coffee table.
I've worked with wood and trees for many years, but I've found that turning and sculpting get to the essence of what I truly enjoy about creating objects from wood.The limitations are only the structural limits of the material and my imagination.
Much of my work begins on the lathe, and is often finished there, although shaping and sculpting off the lathe is also a rewarding venture.
I use both power and hand tools in my work, from chain saws, grinders, carvers, rasps, gouges on to sandpaper. I am self taught and all work is done by me alone. Most of the wood I use is local and comes from arborists, storm damaged trees and trees that are cut down due to old age, development, etc. Much of it is considered waste.
Bill Tyndale

As a native Atlantan, Bill was fortunate to have always been surrounded by an abundance of some of the world’s most beautiful trees. While building a fort or daydreaming in a roughly made tree house, Bill knew, even as a child, that lying within their trunks and branches were stories of years gone by. He never ceased daydreaming. Maybe it was the siren’s song of southern trees that brought him safely home from Vietnam and into a career with BellSouth, raising two children and settling in Woodstock, Georgia, with his wife Cheryl. However, the magic of trees discovered as a child, unfurled an artist’s heart in adulthood. When he reconnected with wood it ignited a passion of creativity. He sees each piece of wood as beautifully unique. Bill feels that the process of unlocking this beauty with a lathe as a tool is truly inspirational and rewarding. In his own words, “there's something magical about taking a dull, square lump of rough cut wood, and transforming it into something as functional as door handle or as artistic as a gallery showpiece.”

One of his first pieces was a bowl he gave his sister – which immediately warped. The “perfectionist” in him went crazy and he was desperate to fix it. However his sister refused to give it back stating that it reminded her of imperfections in all of us and how it does not detract from its beauty or appreciation for the artist hand’s who created it. She now has more “perfect” Bill Tyndale pieces but treasures the imperfect one she will never replace.

Each piece tells a story. It may be story of a sturdy oak branch supporting a child’s swing or the beauty of a dogwood blossom in spring. Bill’s hands extract stories from trees and transform them into everlasting gifts to those who own a Bill Tyndale work of art.