Rebecca started woodturning with her father at a very young age. Dad’s rule was
simple, if she could stand on the bucket and reach the lathe, he would teach her how to turn. That is exactly what he did, and at five years old Rebecca spent her evenings in the shop turning honey dippers with her father. Once she began school her efforts and energies were dedicated to her studies and woodworking took a back seat. Although she knew from a young age that art was her passion, it was during middle school that she realized that this fascination and enthusiasm could be pursued as a career in teaching.
After graduating high school Rebecca decided to go to college to turn her dream of teaching into a reality. While attending Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Rebecca found herself back in the school’s basement woodshop. Fifteen years had passed since she had spent any significant time in a woodshop, and she took back to it like reuniting with an old friend.
Since graduating in 2014 with two bachelor’s degrees in Art Education and Sculpture and Functional Art, Rebecca has spent the past eight years juggling her full-time career as an art educator and her passion for woodworking. The balance between real life and anyone’s true passion is always difficult and while Rebecca’s career in education is time-consuming, she always finds time to make her way to the lathe. After a difficult day in the classroom, she can’t think of a better way to relax and let off some steam.
Rebecca finds her inspiration in various living things and objects that she interacts with regularly. Simple things like insects or even coffee cups can send her scrambling for her notepad to transform her imagination into possible projects. She’s never far from sketching strange creatures or making lists of ideas she is longing to try. Her days of teaching Art 1, Sculpture, Ceramics, Jewelry, and AP 3D Studio Art are fulfilling and the passion she shares with her students is the same fuel that keeps her in her shop late into the evenings letting her imagination run wild.
Website: https://www.instagram.com/rebecca_degroot
Demonstrations:
Mini Aquifer.
This piece is a turned and sculpted illusion making the sprout appear as though it is drinking the “water” of the droplet from which it grows. In this demonstration, Rebecca will be showing her process to create a resin-wood hybrid blank with included root and sprout growing from the earth while the root “drinks” from the water from the aquifer. Rebecca will be sharing how she cast clear blanks without flaws, how she turns resin without chipping and shattering, creating and carving the sprout and root form, painting a gradient on the sprout, and assembling everything into the finished piece.
Walking Mushroom.
In this demonstration, Rebecca will walk you through the process of creating her signature walking mushrooms. She will begin by turning a simple mushroom cap, prepared for pyrography texture, followed by turning a body ready to be carved. Each mushroom has at least three turned legs, which are cut apart, and using spline joinery, reassembled into new forms. Once the lathe work is finished, Rebecca will show you how she carves the body to create a curved neck, use a wood burner to create texture underneath the cap, drill, and countersink holes in the body for the legs. Finally, after all the individual pieces have been carved, shaped, burned, and sanded, Rebecca shows you the assembly process and presents the finished piece!
Walking Bowl.
In this demonstration, Rebecca will be going over basic design concepts and walking you through the steps to create a three-legged Walking Bowl in my own style. She will work my way through the process of basic bowl turning, plotting an oversized foot, carving that foot into individual hips, turning spindle legs, cutting the legs apart at appropriate angles, reattaching them into a new form, then assembling all of the parts into a finished piece.
Three-Piece Thin-Stemmed Goblet.
In this demonstration, Rebecca will be going over her process of completing a thin-stemmed goblet that will incorporate multiple pieces of contrasting wood. This process will give you the ability to create stems as long as you’d like without the challenge of hollowing a cup at the end of such a long piece. With this process, the proportions, wood combinations, and design opportunities are endless for creating a unique goblet. If time permits, Rebecca might even be able to show you how to create an alternate base to transform your thin-stemmed goblet into a walking goblet!
