Phenomenal. It is a word misused and overused. It has three definitions and to save you having to consult your Oxford English Dictionary, let me tell you, that the definition you will need on first seeing Paddy Murphy’s creation is the second: ‘extraordinary, remarkable, prodigious.’ (‘Prodigious’ also has three meanings and the one you are looking for this time is the first: ‘marvellous or amazing.’)
Paddy, sitting in an armchair in his home near Thomastown, does not have the air of a man who has created a phenomenal example of woodturning and it is his fellow-members of the South-East Chapter of the Irish Woodturners’ Guild, PJ Ryan and Brendan Hogg, sitting on either side of him, who tirelessly try to convey to him the level of his achievement.
Arranged on the table in front of the three men are 35 cylindrical boxes, each of which fits into the other. The biggest is 10” high and 5” in diameter. 34 boxes later, a tiny, tiny box sits at the end of the spiral defying belief.
“Every year, the Irish Woodturners’ Guild holds a weekend seminar,” says Paddy. “This year, we were celebrating our 25th anniversary and it was held in Enniscorne in Co. Sligo. Every year too, they hold a competition between the country’s 18 Chapters. This year, it was the Nesting Boxes Competition and the brief was that your biggest box was to be 10” high and 5” in diameter. After that, it was up to you to see how many you could make to fit into each other; just like Russian Dolls.”
The judges took their time in delivering news of the winner, paying no mind to Paddy’s delicate state.
“The rumours were flying around all day,” says Brendan Hogg, chairman of the South-East Chapter. “We heard that someone had made 36.”
“I couldn’t enjoy my dinner,” says Paddy and the three men dissolve into laughter.
The rumour of the 36 boxes proved foundless and the nearest anyone got to Paddy’s magic number, was some poor unfortunate who managed 30 and probably thought he had the trophy in the bag.
“Each entrant’s full box was on a table,” says Brendan, “and when they started taking Paddy’s out, they had to go for more tables.”
“I started on the boxes in mid-March,” says Paddy, “and I was at it on and off all over the Summer. I suppose it took about 140 hours. Someone made me an offer for it at the seminar but I turned them down.”
PJ Ryan, the South-East Chapter’s secretary, does a quick bit of mental arithmetic and decides that if anyone wanted it, they should be willing to part with about €10,000 but Paddy shakes his head. He’s not for selling.
“Ray Key, who is a world-renowned woodturner, came over to Paddy the night he won and shook his hand and said, ‘They are a phenomenal achievement,’” says Brendan, who is perhaps the proudest chairman of any chapter in any guild in any land. “There were people there from all over; some of the best woodturners in the world and all agreed that Paddy’s boxes were an incredible achievement. A photograph of the boxes was sent to Richard Raffan in Australia who is one of the world’s leading woodturners and he sent an e-mail back saying that he has never seen anything like them.”
The boxes were made from local Cherry trees which have been in Paddy’s workshop for many years.
“You’d have to leave the wood for about 10 years before it would be dry enough to work on,” says Paddy, who worked the wood until it was quite thin. “Cherry is a medium wood and it’s lovely to work with. I use Laburnum too,” he says, reaching for a small cantaloupe melon made from the dark wood.
The little cantaloupe’s top comes off; this too is a box. All along the dresser are examples of Paddy’s work in Cherry, Laburnum, Yew and Portuguese Laurel.
“This is a rocking bowl made from Portuguese Laurel,” says Paddy, placing the dark-brown, half-solid and half-lattice, off-centre bowl, on the table and watching it rock back and forth. “And this is called a ‘drunken box’” he adds, placing a globe-like box, with unevenly weighted sides, on the table and we watch as it rocks and rolls its way along the table under the reproachful gaze of the award-winning boxes.
In a just world, Paddy would have made his living from his craft, but craftsmanship is not always sufficiently remunerated.
“I’ve been a carpenter all my life and I have a small building contractor business,” says Paddy. “I only took up the woodturning in 1992. I have two daughters and a son and my son is also in the building trade but he’s not into the woodturning.”
“There are women woodturners,” says Brendan, “but mostly we’re older men. Unfortunately, there aren’t many young people taking it up.”
Out in the workshop, where Paddy spent long hours with his Cherry boxes, he attaches the bottom of a beechwood bowl to the grip on the lathe, chooses a chisel from the row of tools behind him, flips the switch and the bowl starts to spin. Paddy eases the chisel into the body of the bowl and beech shavings fly off in all directions joining the many spirals of dark and light wood strewn about under the workbench.
“I had to take the centre out of each of the 35 boxes and then I measured the insides with these calipers,” says Paddy, producing, what look like sprung, rounded pincers of varying sizes.
My assumption that Paddy had started with the largest of the boxes and worked his way down proves false.
“No, I started with the smallest one,” says Paddy, “and worked my way up.”
PJ and Brendan also express surprise. Paddy pauses. There’s a glint in his eye.
“Actually, I started with the second-smallest one and when I had 34 of them done I thought, ah sure, I’ll go for a smaller one,” he says smiling.
The smallest box measures about 4mm x 4mm. It’s difficult to see where the top ends and the bottom begins.
“You can pick it up,” says Paddy, sensing my trepidation. “You can open it.”
I hold the speck of wood between finger and thumb. It defies my searching fingernails for a moment and then yields its top. Inside, is a gleaming, dark-blue jewel. Paddy laughs.
“I found that tiny, little jewel and thought, ‘That’s the only thing that will fit into the smallest box, so I put it in there,” he says.
“We’re going to enter Paddy’s boxes in the Guinness Book of Records,” says Brendan, “and see how they get on.”
“Yes, they just told me that today,” says Paddy. “I don’t mind. If they want to enter the boxes, that’s fine with me. You know, we get together in each others’ workshops once a month and we’d have a demonstration or whatever and then the cup of tea; it’s a social occasion as much as anything. I used to bring the boxes with me when I had made eight, nine or ten of them and there was no fuss about them then. It was only when I had all 35 made, that people took notice. I suppose I am proud of them now that they’re all finished and I can see them all standing there and I know the work that went into them.”
Paddy’s wife, Anne, appears at the door. There’s tea, sandwiches and homemade apple tart in the kitchen. The smallest of the boxes is carefully returned to its place at the end of the spiralling Cherry Tree tail. Later, around the kitchen table, speculation about the brief for next year’s Chapter Challenge begins.
The South-East Chpater of the Irish Woodturners’ Guild currently has 40 members. For further information, contact, PJ Ryan on 087 126 5540. www.irishwoodturnersguild.com
