Posted January 17, 2009
Herm has loved making things as far back as he can remember. Wood has long been his preferred medium. Junior High shop classes were his favourite – actually the only ones he really enjoyed. Here he was introduced to the lathe, and although many years passed before he bought his own, it was the first major tool he invested in.
Trained as a teacher, he introduced many young minds to the pleasures of wood working in the shop classes he taught for 18 years. Eventually he decided that doing woodwork was more fun than continually showing others how to do it, and he quit to make shavings full time under the trade name “Herm’s Turn”. At this stage in his career, he primarily does custom turning and furniture repair. When time permits, he turns a variety of bowls and vases out of locally sourced trees.
Herm is mostly self taught, while most thankful to the other good members of the Southern Alberta Woodworkers Society (www.saws.ca ) who have helped him learn so much. Herm is a founding member of SAWS and has served on its board in various capacities, including President. He is also an active member of the International Wood Collectors Society (www.woodcollectors.org), an organization of fellow wood lovers, as well as the Calgary Woodturners Guild.
Other interests include wood collecting and wood identification, viewing the wood both macroscopically and microscopically. If he ever went back to school, it would be to study wood anatomy. He has been a member of IWCS since the early ’90’s and has attended Annual Meetings in his home city of Calgary, (2000), Soest, Netherlands, (2009), Huntsville, (2014), and Penn State, (2015).