Jovan,
Fun question. I am a pretty new turner as well. (turning about 2 years, but very little time to do it)
I also have lots of ideas, and to some extent I have the skills, but have not yet reached a point where I can translate what is in my head reliably to the wood.
I can control my tools well. I can make cuts that are smooth and don't tear. I don't catch often at all. I can make a curve that I see in my mind and can recognize when I am not quite there. In other words, I have a decent level of control over the mechanics of my tools. But I am very aware that I still think more about a tool's use and have not reached a point where that control has moved to what I like to think of as a lower level of conciousness, a control that involves active awareness less and less. As I reach that point I hope I can concentrate more on what combining what a piece of wood has to offer with what I would like to see from the wood and concentrate less on the mechanics. That will come with time.
A parallel step of course, is to be able to envision forms that are actually pleasing. I need to learn to visualize shapes that work well and make the best use of what a piece of wood has to offer. Again, a matter of time and practice and the development of my own creativity.
This analogy is a bit flawed, but it works for me. I remember when I was young and learning to drive a car or a motorcycle. At first my attention would focus on 1 thing to the exclusion of others. My eyes were tightly focused on a point of the road just a few feet in front of me. Breaking involved a complete shift of focus that took away from steering and turn signals. Beginners tunnel vision if you will. Thankfully I am well past that point in my turning and my driving.
Then I moved to a stage where I was coordinating all the steps of driving pretty well. I could relax a bit and have my eyes looking a bit further down the road. It took less focused attention to turn, brake, signal, avoid obstacles, etc. I was getting mechanically better at these skills but still had to focus on the mechanics to do it right. My skills were still largely controlled at a concious level. This is probably where I am at as a turner right now. Competant with my tools, but still very concious of what I am doing with the tools.
As I progressed as a driver the mechanical skills moved lower and lower in my conciousness until now I can negotiate a crowded highway at speed, relaxed yet alert. My attention is way down the road and out on the periphery of my vision, and on my latte of course. And all this without careening into other cars!! But, while my mechanical skills have now moved almost into subconcious control, I have still not achieved the epitomy of driving art. I haven't learned to subconciously do all this while executing graceful and sinuous curves in and out of my lane between other cars, speeding gracefully down the highway. This is the level of skill I might strive for in turning.....for my mechanical skills to be relegated largely to the subconcious, allowing my mind to focus on translating what my mind sees through my hands and into the wood, combining that vision with a keen sense of what the wood lends itself to.
At that point, hopefully I will have a developed a sense of shape and form that gives me intense satisfaction while attracting others helplessly to my pieces like moths to a flame. <really big grin> or at the very least I will hopefully have developed a sense of shape and form that makes me happy and doesn't trigger gag reflexes in others.
And for those of you who have developed great concern while reading this, I drive on the Big Island of Hawaii, and I have no desire to achieve the drivers art that I described. <grin>
It will be interesting to see how others see themselves in terms of their skills and their progression in turning.
Dave
