• Shop the Store
  • Best Sellers
  • eBooks
  • Books
  • Plans

  • Videos
  • Tools & Workshops
  • SketchUp

  • Finishing
  • Turning
  • Joinery
• Books
• Plans
• Videos
• Magazine
  • Subscribe
  • Renew
  • Give a gift

  • Current Issue
  • Digital Issue
  • Online Extras

  • Magazine Index
  • Contact Us
• Subscribe
• Renew

• Blogs
• Knots
• Gallery

Masters of the Craft

Liam Flynn: Virtuoso Vessel Maker

Jon Binzen, senior editor

70 users recommend

Add Comment
Print

Working in the woodshop where both his father and grandfather worked before him, a shop which is attached to the house where he grew up in the small town of Abbeyfeale in County Limerick, Ireland, Liam Flynn has established an international reputation turning vessels from green wood. Flynn's turnings are arrestingly beautiful in their overall shapes, but the stamp of his authorship is also evident in the freehand fluting he often applies to them off the lathe, and in the asymmetrical double-lip he often creates at a vessel's mouth.  

Despite having at least three generations of carpenters and joiners in his family tree, Flynn never had a teacher in turning. He bought his first small lathe when he was just into his teens and learned to use it by trial and error and through reading magazines and books. While other turners may employ highly figured wood or complex techniques to distinguish their work, Flynn hews to a simpler path. Using plain-grained, local oak and a handful of straightforward turning and carving techniques, he relies on his well-trained eye and hand to elevate his work.

More Masters of the Craft Slideshows

• John Reed Fox: The Uncompromising Craftsman
• Jere Osgood: Modesty and Mastery
• Ulrika Scriba's Marquetry: Risk and Reward
• Adrian McCurdy: Furniture Riven from the Log
• Geoffrey Warner: Assembling a Life
• Peter Shepard Turns the Page
• Curve It Like König
• Partners in Craft: Harold Wood and John O'Brien
• Tool Chest with an Arts & Crafts Legacy
• Adrian Potter: Thinking Furniture
• Hank Gilpin: Exploring the American Forest
• Doug Mooberry: Kinloch Woodworking
• Michael Hurwitz: Planks into Poetry
• Brad Smith: Story of a Stool
• Hank Holzer and Judith Ames: Labor of Love
• Michael Fortune: The Clever Chair
• John Cameron: A Musician in the Woodshop
• Allan Breed: The Past Recaptured
• Kintaro Yazawa: Joint Wizardry
• Grant Vaughan: Subtropical Virtuoso
• William R. Robertson: Micro Maestro

Add Comment Print

Peter Sandback Nails His Designs

Back to List

John Reed Fox: The Uncompromising Craftsman

Comments (6)

Paul_David writes: The openness with which he expresses the process of discovery is inspiring. His work is a lesson in seeing.
Posted: 3:10 am on February 24th

Rick2 writes: What a terrific piece. Thanks very much, we don't get to see such treasures often!
Posted: 8:01 am on January 2nd

Shavins writes: Well done Liam, brilliant work! I love the way he has developed his work from scratch with trial and error being the main method of learning. Some brilliant pieces there.
Posted: 5:27 pm on June 26th

61A writes: Very inspirational , just shows you don't need loads of fancy kit and expensive timber to make fabulous turnings.
Posted: 2:42 am on June 21st

Krayol writes: What lovely workmanship - just aesthetically perfect.

Such a practical and unassuming chap. I love the approach of seeing something in a piece of wood that others would dismiss as only suitable for utilitarian purposes.

Truly inspiring.
Posted: 7:18 am on June 16th

TurnerOfTruro writes: This video of Liam Flynn's woodturning is magnificent! It's so refreshing to see a contemporary artisan who is true to the wood media while pushing the lines in his profiles to ever more captivating profiles. Bravo!
Posted: 9:13 pm on June 15th

You must be logged in to post comments. Log in.