The American Association of Woodturners
Presents
Woodturning Masters Series
Volume 2

    It's hard for most 21st century woodturners to imagine it, but just 50 years ago there were only a small handful of avid craftsmen practicing what would emerge today as contemporary turned art.

   Ed Moulthrop of Atlanta, Georgia was one of those rare artisans who had very little to go on when it came to tools and techniques. He says that back in the 1950s, the only other men he knew of involved in this same craft, were Bob Stocksdale and Rude Osolnik.

    Ed had to build his own massive lathe from odds and ends at the scrapyard. He rapidly became known for his large, overpowering pieces made from huge treee trunks and soaked in polyethelene glycol. Today his work is acclaimed and exhibited in major galleries and museums around the world.

    In this biographical video, we see Ed in his Atlanta home and studio. We see him mount a log section on his big lathe and demonstrate the method of turning he developed many decades ago. We meet his wife, Mae, and his son Philip who has followed his Ed's footsteps and has become a highly respected contemporary woodturner in his own right.

    In this second of AAW's Woodturning Masters Series, we see one of the giants of the field, and we begin to understand how this wonderful medium of woodturning took root and blossomed into what it is today.