Steve & Gina
I am Steve Stover, a “Juried and Award Winning” professional woodturning artist. My studio is located in the Village of Midlothian, on the Swift Creek Reservoir, just southwest of Richmond, Virginia.
I take trees destined for the landfill, salvage them, and turn them into one-of-a-kind pieces of collectible wood turned art…giving them a new life and purpose for generations.
I, along with the creative eye of Gina, my wife of 44 years, strive to create works of art that reveals the natural beauty hidden inside of the wood.
Dad & Grandpa
I have been working with wood, starting as a young man with my father, for the better part of fifty years. He, as his father before him, were Master Gunsmiths in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania. They would take locally harvested Black Walnut trees, sort out the premium Grade A pieces, and turn them into their own works of art.
My father taught me at a very young age that life is too short to work with ugly wood.
After becoming disabled due to a degenerative back disease, this inherited passion for wood became my salvation.
At the Lathe…
The first step in my process is to pick only premium wood to begin with. Because of this you will find that none of my creations, whether turned or carved, is not done with plain boring wood.
I mainly work with wood from salvaged or distressed trees. No matter where I might be at any given time the sound of a running chainsaw gets me very excited. Most of what I create starts out with a log from a freshly cut tree. A log from a freshly cut tree is what we call “green” or “wet” and can weigh in excess of 100 pounds when they first go on the lathe.
Once on the lathe, the creative process starts. As you begin peeling back the layers and you allow the wood to “speak” to you, it will reveal to you what form it wants to take on in its new life.