Trish Worron

trishinparis@gmail.com

After renovating a circa-1850s cottage in Wellington 20 years ago,
Worron was left with piles of the old wooden lathe used to make the house’s
lathe-and-plaster walls. She was struck by the craftsmanship and effort that
went into creating the hardwood lathe, a strictly utilitarian object, never
meant to be seen. The wood is remarkably straight and strong. It clearly 
bears the marks of the primitive saws used to cut it.

Worron started creating her distinctive artworks with this lathe, colouring it with hand-mixed dyes, ink and paints. Over the years, she has collected lathe from other early County homes. It is possible to roughly determine the age of a house based on the saw marks left on the wood: the older the house, the more primitive the saw marks.

Worron has expanded to use other reclaimed wood, including red cedar from British Columbia and pine pillars from local Victorian homes. She mixes this vintage wood with newer spruce and pine, individually milled by her husband, Kevin Scanlon. 

Before turning to working with vintage wood, Worron had a
long and happy career as a reporter and editor with the Toronto Star,
Globe and Mail, CTV News and Canadian Press.