Father Dear Father, Large Turned Beech Vessel

Handmade to order, typically ready in 100 days.

A beech vessel three quarters of a metre tall, pale and unstained, with two hands gripping it from either side. They are plaster casts of Greg's own hands, fingers spread and holding on, and they are the only part of the piece that is not turned wood. It started as a log a tree surgeon was going to burn. Greg turned it wet, straight off the tree, which is what turners mean by turning green: a log that size would take years to season and would split as he cut it. The wall comes down to a centimetre or two, then it dries for two or three months before going back on the lathe to be finished. Seventy-five centimetres tall by thirty-five across. There were no drawings at any stage. He holds the piece in his head and lets the grain, the burrs and the rot argue with it. It is the first of the Narratives series, and it is about breaking free of a dominant influence, in a life and in a craft. It took the Curator's Choice award at the WHISPERer exhibition during London Craft Week in 2026.

Opens a message to Greg Kent Art in Wood. Enquiring is free.