One good turn deserves another: Polson recycling wood, making works of art

(Photo by Kris Todd) Shavings fly in Perry Polson's lab at Wild Wood as he turns a piece of maple wood on his retrofitted 1946 Shopsmith, which he uses as a lathe. [Order this photo]

Perry Polson has made an art of making "something out of nothing."

The Spencer-based wood turner is also becoming known for his unique style of recycling wood.

Polson, a native of Hartley, recalls woodworking's appeal for him in high school shop class.

"Afterwards, I'd always see pieces I'd want to do things with, but never had time to do. I kind of thought I'd do this in my retirement," the 48-year-old recently said in his Wild Wood gallery located at 121 Grand Ave., Spencer.

That time came earlier than he'd expected, though.

Polson, who worked at Midstates Builders for 25 of his 30 years as a former construction worker, took a 12-foot step on Sept. 23, 2004 that changed his life. When Polson walked off the second-story floor of the Iowa Lakes Community College nursing building the company was erecting in Emmetsburg, he shattered his right heel.

"I couldn't do what I used to do anymore, so I decided to get a jump start on what I was going to do when I retired," Polson said with a smile.

After spending six months idle in recovery, Polson began woodworking in his garage shop area as soon as he could get on his feet.

The wood turner began displaying his handiworks at Spencer shows such as Farmers Market and Mainstreet Market, as well as at Arts on Grand soon after.

Notified on Sept. 21, 2006, two years after his construction accident, that he wouldn't be put back to work on the construction crew, Polson recalled "shifting gears full bore."

"I went to vocational rehabilitation and applied for a grant to start a small business. Gerald Rath (of Iowa Work Force Development) helped me out with that," Polson said. "That was a yearlong process in itself because I was lucky enough to get in on a changeover in programs. I applied for (the Entrepreneurs with Disabilities) program."

Polson, who opened his Wild Wood gallery and turning lab on May 10, 2008, was informed he'd been approved for a grant to start his business one week before the 2008 Clay County Fair. He'd already put his construction experience to use, spending seven months last winter extensively remodeling the building hosting his small business. Like Polson's works of art displayed and made in it, the building was crafted of materials recycled from area businesses.

The front desk at Wild Wood showcases the "One good turn deserves another" motto.

"That equates to the fact that everything's recycled," he explained. "When I turn a piece of wood, usually it's a piece of green wood. So I'm doing what they call green-wood turning."

"It's not your typical high school shop class woodworking: I break a lot of rules," he added with a chuckle, noting he encourages exploration and experimentation in wood turning at his lab.

Polson currently has one-of-a-kind necklace pendants, ink pens, memorial urns, wall pods, bowls and containers with lids, among other wood-turned items, in stock at the Wild Wood gallery.

"Your imagination is the limit. I experiment with a lot of different things," Polson said while handling a small wooden bowl with a copper liner on his business' front desk.

What to look for and the wood-turning process

A tree's bark will often tell a prospective wood turner what's underneath.

The ensuing wood-turning process, Polson explained, starts with a chainsaw and finding the right piece of wood. While he specifically looks for burrows and other irregularities, as well as pieces of wood that have interesting grains to them, Polson said he likes to have an idea of what he'll make from a tree before sawing a cube of wood from the side of it.

"I equate it to cutting diamonds," he said. "If you cut it wrong, it's not going to be what you saw when you initially looked at it. So, I try to cut things a little bigger than what I'm going to need, so I can trim down to what I'm going to want."

Many times, the trimmed piece goes right from the chainsaw to Polson's wood lathe. Once positioned on the lathe, he rounds the piece out and knocks its edges off.

"One of the first questions I get from people is, 'How do you keep it from cracking,'" Polson said. "You need to get the inside emptied out fast enough and get it thinned out enough so that the wood can move and give."

His finished pieces are not stained. Rather, Polson chooses to finish them with either a hand-rubbed or a spray lacquer.

"I've turned everything from lilac to black walnut. I'm recycling wood that's been discarded," he commented. "I like to be able to say that everything I make is from here in Iowa -- grown and made in Iowa."

As he held two turned items displayed in the Wild Wood gallery, Polson continued, "The first few projects I did were for people that were going to bulldoze a family farm near Ruthven. These two black walnut pieces are from one of the first projects I did, and I just recently finished them."

As the wood turner then took a few minutes to share a few of the works he's done for other people, all of which are displayed in a binder in his business' gallery, Polson talked of each project as if it were his own child. They included pieces from "Aunt Eleanor's" boxelder tree that stood in front of her Langdon home. This tree held many memories because her children and grandchildren all posed for pictures their first day of school in front of it.

(Photo by Kris Todd) Wood turner Perry Polson displays a piece he made called Heaven and Earth. It, which was made from the root ball of a lilac tree, forefront, was formerly half above the ground in a stump and half below the ground in its root. [Order this photo]

Other memorable pieces were crafted from the barn beams of Otto and Irene Polson, his parents.

"They had roman numerals chiseled into the sides of them, so I off-centered these pieces so I could keep the roman numerals on the sides of them. Then I inlaid a picture of the farm in the lids and on the bottoms of the wooden pieces," Polson explained.

When the VanderWilts retired and moved from their farm to Orange City, Polson was presented with a piece of wood that had been in their furnace room for 15 years.

"That was a fun one because when he brought me the block of wood, there was a spot of bark in the top where that hole in the lid was. That was the very bottom of the crotch of the tree. And, evidently at one time or another, a walnut fell into that crotch of the tree. I got a foot into that block of wood and found that walnut," Polson recalled. "They were as tickled to get that walnut as they were to pick up everything I had made for them. That was one of the very first ones I did for anybody outside of the area."

Polson's turnings usually include labels of where each piece came from on the bottom. Many others contain eyeballs.

"When I put an eye in a piece, it signifies what I saw was already in there. When I get just the right-sized hole or little void, I put an eye in it to signify that. I just helped it peek its eye out," Polson said.

"And aytime you see one of my pieces with a brass finial on it, it's a top," he revealed. "So if it's setting on somebody's desk, they have something to play with."

* To contact Polson about a potential wood-turning project or upcoming class, call (712) 363-3554. The Wild Wood Web site is www.wildwoodturning.com.