Les Howard Fine Woodcrafts

Following several years as a petrochemist with Dino the dinosaur, Les migrated into the area of information technology. After a short stint in the U.S. Navy Les moved to Colorado where he enjoyed a “Rocky Mountain high in the summer of his 27th year”. In 1971 Les moved to Alaska and has been in Juneau since 1975. He took early retirement form the State of Alaska in 1990.

Soon after retirement Les came across an article in a woodworking magazine that presented a “ball within a ball” wood ornament. “How do I do this?” Les managed to create the ornament from a combination of backyard cottonwood and red alder, managing to avoid serious injury while cutting components on a table saw, fine-tuning the cuts with a totally inadequate tabletop jointer and finally turning the ball on a mini-lathe. Thus began the world of fine woodcrafts and woodturning.

The mini-lathe grew to a midi and now to a full-size lathe but still not the ultimate large lathe which, given space constraints, will likely never happen. A natural progression of woodturning was adding the natural beauty of woods to functional devices such as pens and pencils. Source catalogs for the base components provided a plethora of other applications such as compact mirrors, key rings, peppermills and wine glasses. The transformation of a piece of wood into shaped forms like bowls and vases was also advanced with the larger lathes. As an aside but having the tools anyway, Les produces custom picture frames from rough cut woods, nothing elaborate just featuring the wood.

Les feels that the art in his wood crafting is the transformation of wood from that tree in your own backyard, the neighbor’s yard or cabin site, to a finely turned, finished product that reveals the natural grains and features of the wood itself. All creations have a clear finish, most often tung oil, which enhances the natural beauty. While there are many books, videos and even formal courses in woodturning, Les has undertaken no formal training and uses the books mainly as a quick reference.

Les concentrates on Alaskan woods for his work, either native to the State or locally grown. The sound of a chainsaw in the neighborhood peaks Les’ wood gathering appetite and has yielded woods such as Mountain Ash, Silver Willow, Higan (flowering) Cherry, Lilac and Rhododendron. Two woods are his personal premier woods. Douglas Maple is the only maple native to Alaska. He harvests it from his cabin property at Hood Bay, Alaska. The other, Algerita, is native to the SW USA. It is a strikingly contrasted wood with yellow sapwood and deep brown heartwood. He harvests it from a brother’s property in New Mexico.

Contact:
Hopper Limited Studios
5890 Mountain Ave.
Juneau, AK 99801
(907)780-4735
hopperltd@gci.net