Ah, turning! Wood turning is my passion, although admittedly I am still very much a beginner. I hoped to do 2 things in Italy and I’ve been fortunate to do both. First, I got to visit the Sistine chapel. Yesterday we found the little alabaster workshop in Volterra that I hoped to visit. It was magical. I’m sure my traveling companions thought I was overcome by the alabaster dust, but what do they know about turning!
I somehow managed to communicate to the shopkeeper and artist that I turn wood on a lathe. He lit up and took me on a little tour of his shop with Peggy and Rosemary in tow. He showed me how he turns, his tools, alabaster before it has been cut (and we think logs are heavy), and some of his works in progress. I learned that there are 4 natural colors of alabaster: opaque white, milky white, brown and nero (black). Sometimes the brown is lighter in color and looks a little golden, and sometimes the black is lighter and appears gray. If you get a piece made from alabaster that is any other color, it has been painted or dyed. I had no idea. I believe he was going to let me try turning but he realized that I was dressed in dark navy blue and that I’d be a mess if I tried (who cares, right). He gave me a piece of alabaster, safely wrapped in bubble wrap, to bring home to my shop to try my hand at turning it. I can hardly wait.
I finally realized that Rosemary was suffering from what I figured was the alabaster dust, so we said our arriveidercis and headed back into the fresh air.
It turns out Rosemary was not nauseated from the alabaster dust, but rather was still suffering from an “incident” we had a few hours before in San Gimignano.
--Kathy
Note the large boulders of uncut alabaster!
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