Matt Monaco
July 28 – August 1
In this workshop, participants refine their mastery of traditional turning tools while designing and creating elegantly proportioned lidded containers. Through demonstrations and hands-on practice, students focus on developing advanced tool control, exploring both side and end grain turning, and building confidence in producing clean, precise surfaces.
Instruction topics include external shape and form, hollowing the containers, foot details, and fitting a tenoned lid. Emphasis is placed on fine details that elevate each piece and serve as a foundation for designing individual containers or working in a series.
The class will also delve into the art and theory of sharpening traditional tools, including spindle and bowl gouges, to achieve optimal cutting performance. Additionally, techniques for effective practice at the lathe will be taught to ensure consistent, high-quality results. By the end of the course, participants will have a deeper understanding of refined turning methods and the skills needed to craft gracefully finished, custom-designed containers.
Matt Monaco operates a full-time woodturning studio in the Ozark region of MO, making dedicated collections, signature series vessels, lidded containers, and spindle-turned items for industries of craft, interior design, and the high-end furniture trade. Matt is a Fine Woodworking contributor and is supportive of U.S. craft organizations & environments that desire to integrate woodturning further into wider demographics and wish to see the craft thrive into the future.
As a full-time professional turner with 20 years’ experience, one of Matt’s missions is to make the highest quality products, that reflect both the mastery of the tools and the functionality and timeless beauty of wooden decor in others’ lives. Matt is one of very few modern traditional woodturners having apprenticed and trained as a trade professional and worked closely within a high-end furniture production landscape — Shackleton Thomas Furniture and Pottery.
At the center of Matt’s work is his understanding and mastery of tool control as an expression of traditionally crafted design as fine art — in producing forms & items that are as tactile as they are sublime and made with intent and purpose. Matt’s website is monacobowls.com.
Open to intermediate turners, including anyone who has taken Matt’s introductory course.
