We were lucky to catch up with Matt Monaco recently and have shared our conversation below.

Matt , appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Learning the craft of woodturning for 20 years, and as a trade has been extremely beneficial; As being someone who values the importance of knowing that the level of rigor, training, and focus needed to develop an advanced enough level of skillset to survive as a retail & wholesale maker, and is also directly tied to experiencing and appreciating the level of vulnerability & honesty in learning from the many mistakes made along the way, gaining understanding & vision as a maker, aiming for improvement in order to master a trade, and being able to pass it on to anyone who wishes to know that learning something from a professional has honest merit due to the years of many hours, time, and retail experience spent; and that to a student, what can then be experienced is a quality of training & learning that can be a catalyst for their, or others genuine improvement as maker/hobbyists, and those looking to develop professionally, or perhaps simply gain a new skill to enjoy with others. I’ve had the fortunate to learn early on that my inspiration as a maker has been at the forefront of my being naturally & continually motivated by a true love of nature, it’s diversity, and being able to share a craft with those who appreciate the same, or who perhaps are on a path to discovering this.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have no generational backround of either woodworking, woodturning, or craft in my family — That said, being of a mindset to pursue working with natural elements and craft always seemed my true calling, even though my backround was geared towards the study of modal jazz drumming and music. Either way, somehow music has always remained a part of my journey in wood. My fortunate accident of discovering the lathe happened when initially learning to create a desk in a community college course, and the need to produce hand turned wooden legs out of white oak got me hooked by age 18.

Currently, I make, sell, teach, and demonstrate a wide range of bowls turned with both paper thin & thick walls, pots and utilitarian vessels, containers & boxes, and spindle turned items — Some made to emulate the many traditions of design found in ceramics, some sketched by and strictly made for businesses with a need for items as fixtures, or needs of production.

I also find that being true to my roots as a maker of traditionally turned craft, having been apprenticed as a trade turner mirrors the foundational elements of mastery found in traditional fine art that is often nowadays overlooked within the heavily & widely covered threads of highly artistic wood-craft & woodturning; yet in my eyes traditional craft and learning to efficiently & effortlessly create well made, and well designed items using traditional tools with finesse & effectiveness, represents much of the backbone in how I see the craft & art of woodturning as a medium in the modern day. Nonetheless — Time spent sharing with others willing to learn, watch, apply, improve, and grow is a treat that reinforces my own inspiration and motivation to improve whether teaching, making, or demonstrating.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

To inspire others to find both the confidence needed to uplift the creative spirit, and that by sharing information and training which fosters this, is in my view what allows for professional environments, classrooms and any self study taken place to either then educate, learn, develop skill, or simply gain a sense of community and belonging so that all parties become further enriched for purposes both communal and personal.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Thinking that because I have no traditional backround in woodworking I could not pursue woodturning or develop the skill to master an aspect of a trade. Luck never found me, I had to work very hard to master the usage of handtools effectively, and thus chose to stay true to my roots in traditional craft in order to make opportunities for myself as a maker, which eventually brought me the work I was ready for and preferred as a maker.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.monacobowls.com
• Instagram: @monaco_bowls