John O’Sullivan
From a early age John O Sullivan had a fascination with wood. This developed from watching his father and uncles who were all very skilled in woodwork. As a young boy growing up on a farm in Co Westmeath times were hard with not many luxuries but John made his own toys to play with from wood left over from his fathers woodworking projects.
In 1980 he moved to Sligo and over time he built a large well equipped workshop for his hobbies. In ’93 he came across a book on woodturning by Peter Child called “The Craftsman Wood turner” he soon had his own lathe and was keen to try out different projects. In ’94 he attended his first National seminar where he met with fellow wood turners some of whom were from Sligo. He was at the first meeting of the Sligo chapter in ’95 and is involved with the chapter since.
John attended a woodturning course organised by Danny McGeever at the VEC Sligo. He has been to Utah and Loughborough as well as all the Irish events to fine tune his skills and learn new techniques.
John’s favourite timber is Elm with it’s many different features however he uses most Irish hardwoods which he gets from local farmers. In his workshop he has a few lathes including a large Wadkin but for most of his work he uses a General which he finds handy and robust. His tool collection includes a lot of homemade hollowing ones as well as Sorby, Henry Taylor, and Hamlet. Probably the most influential turners John has met are David Ellswort, Stuart Batty, and Liam O Neill.
Mountain hiking is another passion, he has been to Kilimanjaro and Everest raising money for Childaid.
