Colorado-based turner Cindy Drozda had her first professional encounter with woodworking when she took a job at age 19 in a player piano factory. This factory was "the hobby of a California lawyer who loved machinery. He had a large building full of 19th century woodworking machines driven by a working steam engine that he fired up once a year to put all of the antique machines through their paces. There were modern machines there, too, and I was encouraged to learn about any and all of them that inspired me."
She worked there for five years and "got a good basic understanding of woodworking, metal machining, brazing, plastics, adhesives, fasteners, engineering, and manufacturing."
After working in small cabinet shops for several years, she turned to full time self-employment in 1992. She explored several options, including making hang gliding equipment and building airplanes, before realizing that working with wood was her true passion.

The piece at left and below is a lidded container in Australian jarrah burl with African blackwood accents, 23k gold leaf, and a gold/rhodium bead . It is 5.7" in diameter x 4.2" tall.

She uses a variety of drying techniques on green blanks, since each type of wood reacts differently during the drying process. The rough turned piece may be boiled for a couple of hours in a big pot of water, or dried slowly in a paper bag, before completing the process in a specially made kiln. As the wood dries it shrinks, distorts, and sometimes cracks. At this point some of the rough pieces don't survive. After it is completely dry, the vessel is remounted to the lathe, turned to its final shape, and sanded to a high polish.
"I finish the completed vessel with hand rubbed linseed oil and wax for waterproof protection. Ê Because the wood is completely seasoned in ColoradoÕs dry climate, and the vessel is turned with a consistently thin wall, the piece should not crack or change its shape even if it is taken to live in a wetter or drier environment."

"My lidded containers are made using similar techniques to the larger vessels, but with smaller tools. Usually a container will have the inside finished to the same high polish as the outside, requiring more care in the hollowing. The lid is cut from the same piece of wood, or from a contrasting species, and the finial, foot and decorative inlay rings are fitted to the body of the container with tight-fitting joinery such as is used in building furniture.

Her Space Station Boxes (at left) are turned from Australian banksia seed pod with 23k gold leaf and are 3.5" in diameter x 4.5" tall.

Below right is Lidded Vessel 216 in jarrah burl and African blackwood. It is 5.1"diameter x 10.5" tall.

"When creating a lidded container, I often will decorate the piece with precious metals, gemstones, or 23k gold leaf gilding. I use a traditional gilding technique of applying a gold size varnish, which the gold leaf adheres to, and finish with a burnishing style referred to as engine turning. Since pure gold doesn't tarnish, there is no protective coating to impair its brilliance. The gilded surfaces will not withstand heavy use. Despite my best efforts to control it, wood remains a living material with its own personality!"

Above is Vessel 4242, a natural edged turning that is 11.3" in diameter and 7.4" tall.

At left is Cindy's Miniature Box, executed in Colorado boxelder burl with Indonesian Amboyna burl inlay. It is 3" diameter x 2.5" high.

Cindy will be presenting at the American Association Of Woodturners' National Symposium in Orlando Florida, from July 23 through the 25th. She also will have a booth at the American Craft Exposition at Northwestern University (2379 N. Campus Dr, Evanston IL) from August 27 through the 29th.