Everyone Has a Family Tree

Everyone has a family tree. Our genealogical tree can lead to unexpected people and places. Let Neil Super, wood turner and teacher of the craft, be your guide as an unexpected time traveler.  Recently, a fellow walked across a field with Neil with his chainsaw in hand, to a knurly old apple tree that has fallen to the earth. Neil’s companion told him, “My Grand Papa planted that tree before I was born.” The fallen tree held family connections, memories of pies, apple sauce and cider, of comfort time spent in a grandparent’s kitchen.

Before a bowl is turned from the trunk of the apple tree, Neil selects the right place to cut. “The most important decision is made by the chain saw,” he says. With a good size chunk of old tree, the two men transport their selection to the wood turner’s studio, Two Rivers Turnings.

Neil has become known for his gift of turning historic trees and orphan trees into tangible memorials of community and family life.  “The bowl is the connection for family,” he says. It is not uncommon for someone to tell him a bit of history of the family tree. In Shepherdstown, the great oak at Rosebrake was named ‘The Lordly Oak’ by an enslaved woman. Neil tells stories about trees from Happy Retreat, Charles Town, more trees from Oatlands in nearby Virginia, or the large maple tree that became many bowls to commemorate Shepherd College. Each bowl comes with a card to document its provenance, now numbering more than forty locations in Jefferson County.

“I became interested in trees when I started tapping maple trees for syrup.” he says. In addition to his history-based turning, Neil now divides his work among architectural designs, furniture columns, balustrades, and porch posts, to fun kitchen implements, ice cream scoops, rolling pins, and writing pens.

“I love teaching,” Neils says, leaving his years spent as an attorney happily behind him. He teaches turning at Woodcraft, Winchester and Shenandoah Planing  Mill, Charles Town. Neil says his participation in The Over the Mountain Studio Tour gives him information, support, and camaraderie shared with other creative professionals. “The Studio Tour became an important part of my life at a fortuitous time, when I discovered the satisfaction of working with my hands, of turning.”   He said that the bowls can tell us forgotten details of our life, remind us of who we are, a bowl to hold memories of our family tree.

Visit Neil Super’s website: www.tworiversturnings.com and www.overthemountainstudiotour.com