Matt Monaco was our feature demonstrator at the January member meeting and provided beginner-to-advanced tips & techniques on tool control, sharpening and cutting. He also demonstrates for national woodturning clubs of the AAW, and teaches hands-on & private workshops nationwide.

Matt operates a full-time woodturning studio in the Ozark region of Missouri where he makes dedicated collections & custom series vessels and containers for the interior design industry, regional craft shows, and for collectors using woods from the Ozark Mountain Range. He is on a very short list of younger woodturners, who early on in his stages of development, apprenticed with and assisted masters of the craft – turners like Richard Raffin and Mike Mahoney. Matt is trained in woodturning doing both trade work in furniture and artistic fields of production, and has translated this skill into being a fulltime working professional in the craft.

At the center of Matt’s work is his understanding & mastery of tool control, sharpening and cutting execution as an expression of traditionally crafted design as fine art — in producing forms & items that are to be as tactile as they are sublime, and created with intent & purpose. 

Check out Matt’s website at https://www.monacobowls.com/.