Steve Noggle

"The work I produce on my lathe starts with finding the perfect piece of wood for the form I intend to produce. I see the form in my mind when studying a log paying close attention to the grain pattern that will be revealed after turning is complete."

A lifelong love of wood and trees led to Noggle's training as a forester, a career in the furniture industry and finally to woodturning. Uncloaking the beauty of the wood grain and forming a shape worthy of the tree it comes from are the goals for each piece created.

His work is lathe-turned using local hardwoods and exotic burl wood from Australia, Africa, and South America. He often uses the natural edge of the burl, bark included, for the open edge of the finished piece. Many of the hollow forms as well as the natural-edge pieces often have openings and voids created by insects or are figured with patterns created by spalting fungi or ambrosia beetles.

Noggle has been working with trees and with wood since well before completing a Forestry degree in 1976. After a few years as a timber cruiser in the Pacific Northwest, he returned home to North Carolina and began a 25-year career as an engineer in the furniture industry. Self taught, his discovery of woodturning and a pastime of woodworking turned into a passion.