Monroe Resident Creates Beautiful and Functional Wood Items [VIDEO]

Many of us enjoy escaping to a spare bedroom or basement to enjoy a hobby, perhaps scrapbooking or building model planes. But for Monroe resident Joshua Friend, his hobby has grown into much more. Joshua started woodturning in high school and took it up again years later, building a woodshop in his basement. After years of honing his craft, Joshua has turned his talent into a small business.

Joshua started J. Friend Woodworks, creating handturned items, including bowls, platters, salt and pepper shakers, wine and champagne glasses, wine stoppers, pens, lidded boxes, urns, and more. He mostly uses woods native to Connecticut, favoring American hardwoods like black walnut, butternut (also known as white walnut), ash, maple, and cherry. He’s also worked with exotic woods like rosewood, zebrawood, and padauk.

Joshua sells a wide variety of wood items both online and at area fairs, including the Monroe Congregational Church’s Strawberry Festival on the Monroe Green.  He will be returning to the Strawberry Festival June 16^th and 17^th and will have a lathe for demonstrations this year.

Joshua also writes about woodworking for American Woodturner magazine and pieces from J. Friend Woodworks have been featured in gallery exhibitions. 

For more on Joshua’s work, visit his website at www.jfriendwoodworks.com.