(upbeat guitar music) - Welcome to the "Volunteer Woodworker," I'm your host, Charles Brock.

Come with me as we drive the back roads, bringing you the story of American's finest woodworkers.

(upbeat guitar music) We're going to Centerville, Tennessee, to meet Myra Orton.

Myra found herself in need of healing after losing loved ones.

She found it in her shop turning beautiful pieces, all with a story and a purpose.

Let's meet Myra Orton.

- [Narrator] Volunteer Woodworker is funded in part by.

Since 1970, Whiteside Machine Company has been producing industrial-grade router bits in Clermont, North Carolina.

Whiteside makes carbide bits for edge forming, grooving, and CNC application.

Learn more at whitesiderouterbits.com.

Real Milk Paint Company makes VOC-free non-toxic milk paint available in 56 colors.

Milk Paint creates a matte wood finish that can distressed for an antique look.

Good Wood Nashville designed custom furniture and is a supplier of vintage hardwoods.

Keri Price will Keller Williams Realty has been assisting Middle Tennessee home buyers and sellers since 2013.

Mayfield Hardwood Lumber.

Supplying Appalachian hardwoods worldwide.

Anna's creative lens.

- Myra Orton.

- Hello.

- Pleasure to be here in your shop.

- Thank you.

- You've got art everywhere and evidence of the way you develop your art.

How did all of this start?

- Years ago, my dad had a workshop, very rustic, and I was the oldest and he would have me come out there and help him a lot of times with projects or work on his car.

He loved to tinker on cars and repair them.

And I enjoyed digging in his coffee cans of nuts and bolts and screws, and just putting things together.

And one day I was outside of his shop, he had a little landing coming out of it, and was cutting up a 1x12 piece of pine for a bird house, but I was using a large saw.

And he saw what I was doing and handed me a jigsaw, and said, just don't cut your finger off, your mom will kill me.

And from then on, I loved power tools.

- Yeah.

And I can see, where it's like a freedom all of a sudden.

You could cut in any direction with that jigsaw.

- Yes.

- And you could develop anything that you could envision.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- It was a lot of fun.

- Myra, how did building a bird house and working with some wood, and painting and pyrography, how did all that come together?

- I like the painting portion of being able to paint what I cut.

And then, whenever I started wood turning, I realized I could paint.

See, I started as a segmented wood turner, because I could put color together.

The purple heart in the walnut and the maple and all those colors.

I had color.

And then whenever I took my pyrography in wood turning class, that answered the what I needed to be able to put paint on a wooden form with combining all of that, but on something circular instead of it just being flat.

- Myra, I know you've been a teacher, and I've been a teacher too, public school teacher.

- Yes.

- And I want to hear about that experience and about the farm, and how it brought us here today really.

- Okay.

Well, Bobby and I married in 1976, and within a year or so, we bought the farm here, and we were expecting our first child.

And I was working at the local Health Department and he wanted me to stay at home with our daughter that was to be born in July.

That was in April.

And I told him we would starve to death, but we didn't, and so had her, had two more children.

And I've always wanted to be a teacher, and when I think back about it, even as a young lady in maybe 16, 17, 18, I felt like I was still teaching then.

I would teach at school how to bake a cake and decorate it, 'cause I had taken a course.

So I think teaching has always been in my heart.

But when I was about 36, I had always wanted to do that and decided, well, it's time, our children were older, and we talked and most of them were in agreement for me to do that.

So I went to college, it took me about five years to earn my degree, because I didn't go summers, because the children were still younger and.

- They were home.

- Mom wanted to be at home during the summer with them, 'cause that's always a special time too during the year.

So, by the time I was 41, I was teaching and I thought 5th grade first, and then taught 6th grade, taught for 21 years, and so 20 years in 6th grade teaching primarily English Language Arts, and loved it and the children were wonderful.

I would bring at the end of each year, once I started wood burning, I would bring my wood burner to the classroom and show them how to do some wood burning and painting, and even two or three years, showed them how to wood turn and ink panned.

And I would have a friend come and make sure everybody stayed where they were supposed to and just did that, and that was just wonderful to get to do it.

Then started doing the segmented work I talked about and then started doing the regular wood turning, and I would carry my things that I always made to show the children and inspire them.

And I can show you some things that they gave me that the children actually, I had a few that went home and did some wood burning in different ways.

One even used a magnifying glass.

- That's great when you pass it on.

- Yes, inspired, inspired.

- Yeah.

So, what inspired you to get into segmented turning?

- Because of the colors.

You could actually take walnut, purple heart, maple, just even the center part of poplar, which is green, and cut up all those little segments and put 'em together and come up with something colorful.

- You're kinda painting with colors there.

- You're painting with colors there.

And then of course the pyrography really was like, oh wow.

That opened up a whole new world.

- So, your work started to develop, and wood turning became a way to have a canvas.

- Yes, exactly.

And that's what it is, it's a blank canvas.

For a lot of people, they'd like to wood turn and whatever they turn, whether it's a platter or just a bowl, that's what they want and they let the wood speak for itself.

For me, that's the beginning, when I get that off the lathe, I'm like, yes, and I come over here and I sit down at my work bench where I have my carving and pyrography going on and paints, and that is so much fun to be able to do that.

It's just like, it just flows.

- I understand.

When I'm doing a chair and I'm sculpting it, once I have all the parts together, then hopefully the magic can begin.

- Yes, exactly.

- And that's something very inspiring.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

Myra, what kind of pushed you, what helped you develop and keep going, and who mentored you as you delved more and more into your art?

- Being part of wood turning clubs really helped a lot, because you carry and show what you've made.

They do demonstrations, you gain ideas.

And if you have a question, usually all you gotta do is pick up the phone and call one of them and say, hey I'm stuck on this, and I need help with that.

And to me, that's just what really, if you're part of a group, then they become your people.

They do what you do and it just helps you keep it all together and going, and it also keeps that love of what you do going to.

I'm a people person and I like to share and most of them like to share what they're doing too, so that's just a really good thing.

- And having the group to share with is wonderful because you couldn't just share with everybody, people really might not be interested or whatever.

- Exactly, right.

- But somebody that just kinda lights up when you talk about what is important to you and you listen to what's important to them, that's a great feeling when you find those people or that person.

- Yes, they become your people.

- Myra, I love your thematic work, but it's very personal to you, and it's not just a name of a group of objects.

What was your first offering?

- My mom passed away in '98 with brain cancer.

I've always had that on my heart hoping for a cure for cancer, so I developed a series called "Rainforest Treasures," and the first ones include the Blue Morpho Butterfly, and then a Pink Madagascar Rosy Periwinkle that are within the same habitat.

And the Rosy Periwinkle was used to fight two types of cancer.

- Really?

Wow.

- So, it just to me, any place we can find a cure for cancer, whether it's in the United States or any place else, but the rainforest is what we think a lot of about them finding cures for things, for diseases that, or pharmaceuticals that we need.

So, I just started this series, "Rainforest Treasures," hoping for that cure of cancer and it just blossom into a whole thing.

- I understand that cancer entered your life again.

- Yes.

- Can you share that with us.

- Yes.

My husband, Bobby, we were married almost 45 years, and he developed cancer, didn't live very long after he was diagnosed with it.

And just a very hard, tough time.

And so, I would come to my workshop once he passed away, and just kinda tinker around, do a little bit of cleaning, but I just didn't wood turn, I just didn't have the heart to have fun again.

And so, he passed away March the 8th of '21, and in October, Beth Ireland with American Association of Wood Turners did an online demonstration of how to wood turn a stringed instrument.

And that's something I'd had in my mind for several years to do, and thought it was very interesting.

So after a time, I kept thinking about it, so late December, early January, I came up here to my workshop and decided, okay, it's time, you need to get back to it and start having some fun with your art again.

I didn't have a pattern, but I decided this is what I wanted to do, so I made a ukulele called, "Fluttering Blues Hawaiian Style."

It has the Koa Butterfly that is only found in Hawaii.

And then in the fret board, there is iron weed.

That has been studied some for research in the cure for cancer, and that's my take on what iron weed looks like.

It has a ambrosia maple on the top, has an ebony fret board, and this down here is ebony.

The neck is mahogany.

I bought the neck, I bought the fret board, it was not, it was slided but did not have the frets in it.

And then I did my segmented work that I knew how to do with poplar.

- So, this was turned.

- This was turned.

This was turned separate.

It was the last thing that went on.

The hardest part was putting the neck on it.

- And so, this is a collection of all those skills that you had been accruing.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- And I never dreamed that I would ever make, actually make a wood turned instrument, and it was a wonderful day whenever it played.

And it does play and it stays in tune too.

(strumming ukulele) - All right.

It is so beautiful.

- Thank you.

- And it means so much.

- Yes.

- Yeah, it got you going again, got you inspired.

- Right.

- And you just kind of exploded into the world of wood turning and using all of your various skills to develop some new series.

Would you like to show us that new series you've been working on?

- Yes, I would.

These are all called, that we're talking about, are called, "Autumn's Whispering Melody," because in the fall, there are so many leaves that fall off the trees and are so colorful, and I wanted to do something to remember Bobby by.

I used his belt, his leather belt, and cut leaves out of it and inlaid those.

I had been thinking about, can I inlay leather, and I actually did.

It worked.

- So, you cut some pieces out of his belt, and I think you told me it represents the suntan or the tough skin he would get from the life of a farmer.

- Yes, he would a lot of times say his skin looked like leather from being out in the sun so much, 'cause he was a fourth generation farmer.

And so, I titled this piece, "Farmer's Leather" for him.

I think about him being in the field in the fall, working with the hay, getting the hay crop in.

And on here, I have the leaves in metallic, and it's a piece of cherry that is off of our property.

And whenever I was doing this one, I started thinking about, well I'm inlaying purfling on the in grain, can I inlay purfling on the side grain?

And so, I did, and that was a whole new experience doing that.

And as I turned, a couple of these boxes, the lid was a little loose and I didn't really know what to do, so on this one, I used the copper foil.

And I wanted to make it sparkle a little bit more, so I used my carver and a little bitty bit and just textured the top of that.

Did some stippling on the top of the copper to make that lid really fit as it should.

So, on the side, the reason there are leaves, they are covering where the purfling seam is.

- That's wonderful.

Yes.

That's making lemonade out of lemons.

- Yes.

Let's do zebra's passion.

Now, I did not include a, I included the passionflower on here, because the zebra long wing is found in the rainforest, and the female lays her eggs on the passionflower, and I just thought it was a sweet piece because the zebra butterfly is within the rainforest and the passionflower is in the rainforest.

So, I included it as part of my "Rainforest Treasures."

I got to thinking about what it would it be like if there was that cure for cancer, what a celebration, so many tears of joy, whenever there would be the cure for cancer.

So, I made this piece, and I called it, "Glistening Moon Series," because it has a moon, and I made it all dark.

But this is not black paint, it is once again all pyrography to make the darkness.

It's on the inside and it's also on the outside.

And you can see how the moon changes, like you can see crescent moon with it.

As we look around it, you can see the celebration with the streamers going, the Blue Morpho Butterfly, once again, that's found in the Rainforest, is on there, and that's "Rainforest Celebration."

- So many of those elements play a part in this celebration of the cure of cancer.

- Yes.

- Wow.

What a commemorative piece here.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music) - Well, it looks like you've got a box lid here, all chucked up and kind of ready to go and show us how you turned it, and placed that nice recess in it for the purfling.

- Mkay, I would be glad to.

- I'm gonna step aside a little bit, that's the safe thing to do.

- Okay, yes, definitely.

To smooth out the edge.

(machine whirring) So as I cut the recess, I want to make sure that I keep this absolutely straight, because the width of my purfling is the same width as this tool that I have sharpened to this point.

So now I have my depth, I'm going to get my piece of purfling, that is now dry, and see if it will fit, and it does.

Start putting my purfling in.

(upbeat guitar music) I would always have a face mask on whenever I wood turn, but for this, I'm not so that you can hear me, but a face mask, face shield, definitely two important things.

To clean up the excess purfling that is higher than the lid of the box, I'm going to use a scraper.

I'm going to use it on the downward position.

(machine whirring) And take off the purfling.

And you will get these nice little shavings that will come off.

That was so much fun the first time that I did it, I was like, ooh, that's nice.

And that is that for that part, for that part of it.

- Yeah, you've got a pattern here that you can use to trace those leaves and cover up the seam.

That's a great idea.

- Thank you.

I have a piece of transfer paper that I drew my design on for my flower, and underneath here, I have a piece of sorrel transfer paper.

And when you use a transfer paper, you want to put the dark side down, the light side is up.

And I'm just gonna do a little bit of this to show you, I'm gonna use pencil and go over what I already have drawn.

And my main emphasis here is to cover the seam.

So, when you wood burn, don't put your wood burner on high, keep it on a low heat.

And since this is just a test piece, I'm gonna turn it over and I'm going to test how it's burning.

And I think that will be okay, 'cause I don't want to burn too dark, so we'll start here, and I'm gonna drag it down to the tip, and then turn it around and do this again.

So in order to protect my lungs, whenever I do this, I need to have my little fan on and my big fan on, and my window up, and that way all of that is, all that smoke is going out and I have protected my lungs.

I would also wear my face mask whenever I did this.

- Always safety first.

- Safety first.

Those little things mean a whole lot.

But today, for just this short demonstration, I'm gonna use my little fan.

I don't want the fan blowing toward me, because that would just cool my tip and it would be putting what little bit of smoke I have on me, I want it going away.

I also don't want a lot of paper around what I'm doing, I want to make sure my surface is clear of paper.

Let's do another one.

I don't have to hit the line exactly.

I'm just gliding over the wood.

A carver and a very small bird within my carver, and on high speed, I'm gonna go around everything that I would have done.

Like this.

(carver whirring) And that highlights all of those areas.

I like to use a makeup brush to get rid of those little shavings that fall down in there.

And then I would use paint, and come in and add just a pop of color, and those clean up any wood burning that I have that.

- I can see on a beautiful day looking out this window, enjoying the breeze, enjoying the wood, and enjoy seeing that come to life.

- Oh, definitely.

It's a lot of fun.

- Wow.

You've really been blessed, Myra.

This has been fun.

- Well, thank you.

- I can't wait to get my wood burner out and see what I can do.

I probably should call the fire marshal first.

(Mrya laughs) Thank you for having us.

- Thank you.

- I'm gonna be heading down the road to find a story of another great woodworker.

See ya next time on the "Volunteer Woodworker."

(upbeat guitar music) - [Narrator] "Volunteer Woodworker" is funded in part by.

Since 1970, Whiteside Machine Company has been producing industrial-grade router bits in Clermont, North Carolina.

Whiteside makes carbide bits for edge forming, grooving and CNC application.

Learn more at whitesiderouterbits.com.

Real Milk Paint Company makes VOC-free non-toxic milk paint available in 56 colors.

Milk Paint creates a matte wood finish that can be distressed for an antique look.

Good Wood Nashville designs custom furniture and is a supplier of vintage hardwoods.

Keri Price with Keller Williams Realty has been assisting Middle Tennessee home buyers and sellers since 2013.

Mayfield Hardwood Lumber.

Supplying Appalachian hardwoods worldwide.

Anna's Creative Lens.

Crafters of resin on wood decorative arts.

Visit charlesbrockchairmaker.com for all you need to know about woodworking.

If you'd like to learn even more, free classes in a variety of subjects are available for streaming from charlesbrockchairmaker.com.

(gentle music) (bright music)