One doesn’t need Merlin’s magic wand to shape shift objects, a fact proven by Walt Wager, Studio Coordinator and Resident Instructor for Camelot’s Woodworking Studio. The studio’s home inside King Arthur’s Tools is a castle of sorts, stocked full of woodworking instruments named for knights. It boasts a handcrafted round table with accompanying chairs and thrones and showcases craftsmen’s greatest treasures in Guinevere’s Gallery. But it’s upstairs, above it all, where Wager turns fantasy into reality.

Wood chips fly, creating piles of sawdust on Wager’s hands and shoes. He comments on how warm the wood becomes as the lathe, a woodturning machine, spins the block. He calls over the sound of the tools, noting leverage and how to keep the gauges parallel to the floor.

“Sometimes it’s just fun to make chips,” Wager laughs. Though he recommends safety goggles and aprons, as “woodchips in your underwear aren’t fun.”

He’s a knowledgeable teacher, holding a doctorate in Educational Psychology and Instructional Design, and focuses on facilitating environments where people feel empowered to learn.

“When they come into any workshop, we treat them as beginners,” explains Wager. “I start with no assumptions, and understanding how people learn is helpful.”

In 1972, Wager began his tenure at Florida State teaching computer-based instruction design. He retired after 37 years, and re-discovered his talent as a craftsman after watching woodturners at the city’s Saturday market. Afterwards, he bought a lathe and joined the North Florida Woodturners Association.

“Since I was an industrial arts teacher I know a lot of the techniques,” says Wager. “A lot of it is remembering what I learned.”

When the group had a meeting at King Arthur’s Tools, Wager inquired about the space and volunteered to run programming for the workshop. His role as coordinator includes organizing guest artists, as well as teaching in the studio.

One of his more unique experiences as a craftsman took place on a Norwegian woodturning cruise in 2014. The first floor of the ship was filled with tools and activities centered around demonstrations in wood burning, or pyrography, wood carving, and woodturning. Wager was among the 36 instructors working on his lathe while enjoying the expansive fjords and countryside.

When giving demonstrations, he puts out signs that say “Please Touch.” Unlike other artwork, the craftsmanship in woodturning is a tactile medium, similar to working with clay in ceramics.

“I get a lot of inspiration from the ceramic pieces that people do and translating the ceramics into wood is both technical and artistic,” says Wager.

He describes how wood moves, expanding and contracting with age. Wager prefers working with greener wood as its flexibility lends to more possibilities. He sees with his fingertips as he crafts, the feeling of pieces revealing much in how it was made.

“Wood has character and different woods have different characters,” says Wager. “There’s a lot of history in wood, and what makes it art is the person’s expression, or what they do with it.”

Among his favorite types of wood are area natives like Bradford Pear, Cherry, Walnut, and Dogwood, which fill his yard as well as home workshop. Wager enjoys making smaller pieces with decorated colorings and has shown work at the Lemoyne Center for the Visual Arts, Thomasville’s Wiregrass Gallery, and St. George Island’s Sea Oats Gallery.

Wager can hear when something goes awry in the woodturning process thanks to the lathe’s telltale buzz, but believes that anyone can woodwork. Getting used to the machine is often the biggest barrier, but once one learns the tools and techniques, creativity becomes the only limit.

“It’s like a riding a bicycle in a way,” says Wager. “Once you get the motor skill associated with it then you can do a lot more, faster.”

King Arthur’s Tools will open Camelot’s studio doors this fall where beginner classes will be offered to transform a block of wood into bowls, pens, spoons, cups, jewelry boxes and more. The class sizes are kept small at six students in order to facilitate one-on-one learning.

“You should have fun, if it’s not fun then you’re not doing something right,” says Wager.

The first workshop, given by Maverick Jaillet, will teach carving to create kitchen utensils, followed by Wager who will introduce Woodturning by crafting bowls.

Wager’s advice for beginners is to really think about what they want their end product to look like. He will often have attendees take inspiration from the gallery downstairs before working. For Wager, it’s a delicate balance between utilitarian craftsmanship and artistic vision.

“I’m probably more of a craftsperson than I am an artist because if you show me something I can make it,” says Wager. “I work at it, doing artistic things.

His work appears to be nothing more than smooth precision, the lathe calmly switching speeds. There’s a give and take, the tools an extension of himself. Wager wields gauges like Excalibur, dipping in and out of the wood like pulling a sword from stone. His deep admiration in working with wood is the diversity of the experience and final products.

“Everything is unique,” says Wager. “Even if you try to make the same thing twice it wouldn’t be exactly the same.”

Amanda Sieradzki is the feature writer for the Council on Culture & Arts. COCA is the capital area’s umbrella agency for arts and culture (cocanet.org)

What: Carving to Create a Spectacular Spoon & Learn to Turn – A Kick Start to Woodturning

When : 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 1. and 8

Where : 3645 Hartsfield Road, King Arthur’s Tools, Camelot Woodworking Studio

Cost : Tuition is $100 per class

Contact: For more information, call 850-321-8816 or visit www.woodturner.com