Revealing the inner beauty

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Press Photos by Linda Sailer Leroy Boespflug holds a spalted birch plate in his study on Nov. 12. The study is filled with miscellaneous turnings he created.

Talk about it

Leroy Boespflug looks for the beauty embedded in a block of wood. Using his skill as a wood turner, the block emerges into a bowl, lamp or hollow form.

“Everything I turn is in the mind’s eye. I don’t do patterns. I think if you start doing patterns, it becomes sterile,” he said from his home in Dickinson.

Analyzing a piece of wood, Boespflug said, “I try to maximize what’s in the wood. You bring out the life within the grain in the wood, and therefore, the wood has another life.”

As a young man, he was drawn to wood and art. Through the years, he dabbled in photography, furniture construction and wood turning. He credits his initial exposure to wood turning and art while a student at Dickinson High School.

As a college student, he studied industrial arts and art, and yet didn’t reconnect with wood turning until the mid-1980s, he said.

“I consider myself a self-taught wood turner and built my knowledge and experience by reading everything I could find on the topic, and attending several workshops led by well-known wood turners,” he said.

As an educator, he taught a variety of classes in the public schools and at Dickinson State University.

Toward the end of his career, he worked as an administrative assistant for the Dickinson Public Schools. At one time or another, his portfolios included transportation, adult education, vocational education, physical plant and capital projects.

“I had 42 years in education. It was a real good run,” he said.

Working as an administrative assistant, Boespflug said wood turning was a way to relieve the stress of the job.

“Whenever I had a moment to turn, I turned, and the more I turned, the more I learned,” he said.

Today, Boespflug prefers working with wood indigenous to North Dakota — cedar, ash, elm, boxelder, maple, Ponderosa pine, birch and cherry.

“I’ve turned elm, but I don’t like the smell of elm,” he said.

He said cedar is tough to turn because it’s not round.

“Sometimes, I take a chain saw and take off the knobby irregularities, so it fits in the bed of my lathe,” he said.

With the wood secured in the swirling lathe, he uses a variety of chisels to gradually create the shape.

“You have to have a sharp tool and that wears down,” he said. “The better you are at cutting the wood, the less you have to sand.”

He likes working with burls — the growths on trees that are formed by environmental stress, insects or fungi. He likes working with spalted wood — wood that is in the process of deterioration.

“It typically forms black lines in it and gives it some character. If you leave it too long, it rots,” he said.

He also works with a variety of exotic woods, including ebony or mahogany.

Boespflug has a cache of wood stored in his shop and two sheds outside his home.

“The hard thing about wood turning is to dry the wood properly. There’s no guarantee it won’t crack anyway,” he said.

Looking at a finished product, Boespflug said, “It’s that sense of accomplishment. I think that’s why I do it. I feel good when I get done. It looks like I’ve done something,” he said.

His wife, Jean, has a few favorite pieces displayed in their family room, including one special lamp.

“I made a desk in high school and it was getting older and older. I took the desk apart, cut it into a bunch of pieces and made a lamp with it,” said Boespflug.

He doesn’t actively market his work, but has shown at Dickinson State University’s Art in the Park.

“There was a lot of interest and a lot of buyers. It was great,” he said.

For the shopper, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

“If they pick up a piece, they just like it. Somebody may see a lamp and can envision it in the family room or office, wherever,” he said.

He plans to resume woodturning this winter.

“There’s been a lot of interest in my cedar lamps. I use a special gloss finish on them that people like,” he said.

“I have a bunch of green-turned bowls and hollow forms that have dried and are ready to turn,” he said. “Some of these have dried for years. I’ve got some cedar that has dried, I’d say for 15 years out in my shed. It’s ready, I’m sure.”

Boespflug enjoyed the variety of jobs in his educational career, and the same is true for his hobbies. If he’s not turning wood, he might be making knives or figuring out a way to use the pheasant feathers that are collecting in his shop.

“I must say as the years have passed, I haven’t approached wood turning with a passion that I had before. I still love turning, but pheasant hunting has to be in there,” he said.

“One thing about being retired for me, it’s the best full time job I ever had. I think you need to cultivate your interests before you retire,” he said. “When you retire, you do the fun things have had an interest in.”

“Sometimes, I take a chain saw and take off the knobby irregularities, so it fits in the bed of my lathe,” he said.

With the wood secured in the swirling lathe, he uses a variety of chisels to gradually create the shape.

“You have to have a sharp tool and that wears down,” he said. “The better you are at cutting the wood, the less you have to sand.”

He likes working with burls — the growths on trees that are formed by environmental stress, insects or fungi. He likes working with spalted wood — wood that is in the process of deterioration.

“It typically forms black lines in it and gives it some character. If you leave it too long, it rots,” he said.

He also works with a variety of exotic woods, including ebony or mahogany.

Boespflug has a cache of wood stored in his shop and two sheds outside his home.

“The hard thing about wood turning is to dry the wood properly. There’s no guarantee it won’t crack anyway,” he said.

Looking at a finished product, Boespflug said, “It’s that sense of accomplishment. I think that’s why I do it. I feel good when I get done. It looks like I’ve done something,” he said.

His wife, Jean, has a great appreciation for his work.

“I look at when he does the turning and it amazes me that an actual piece of art can be a final result,” she said. “You have to be so very steady. Those tools are so sharp they can go right through a piece of wood.”

Her favorite pieces are displayed in their family room, including the lamps and vases with burls.

“I made a desk in high school and it was getting older and older. I took the desk apart, cut it into a bunch of pieces and made a lamp with it,” said Boespflug.

He doesn’t actively market his work, but has shown it at Dickinson State University’s Art in the Park.

“There was a lot of interest and a lot of buyers. It was great,” he said.

For the shopper, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

“If they pick up a piece, they just like it. Somebody may see a lamp and can envision it in the family room or office, wherever,” he said.

He plans to resume wood turning this winter.

“There’s been a lot of interest in my cedar lamps. I use a special gloss finish on them that people like,” he said.

“I have a bunch of green-turned bowls and hollow forms that have dried and are ready to turn,” he said. “Some of these have dried for years. I’ve got some cedar that has dried, I’d say for 15 years out in my shed. It’s ready, I’m sure.”

Boespflug enjoyed the variety of jobs in his educational career, and the same is true for his hobbies. If he’s not turning wood, he might be making knives or figuring out a way to use the pheasant feathers that are collecting in his shop.

“I must say as the years have passed, I haven’t approached wood turning with a passion that I had before. I still love turning, but pheasant hunting has to be in there,” he said.

“One thing about being retired for me, it’s the best full-time job I ever had. I think you need to cultivate your interests before you retire,” he said. “When you retire, you do the fun things you have had an interest in.”

Tags: lifestyle, features, leroboesplug, wood, cedar, elm, pine