Workshop Films and Ask Martin: Two Formats, One Workshop

There are two things happening on my YouTube channel, and they work quite differently. One is slow and considered, running to around twelve or fifteen minutes. The other is short and direct, rarely more than a couple. Here's what each one is, and why I make them the way I do.

The Workshop Films

The long videos are what I call workshop films. They aren't step-by-step tutorials, though you'll pick up plenty of technique, finishing ideas and design thinking along the way. They're closer to a record of a project as it actually happens, narrated as I go.

Each one follows a single piece from start to finish, but the turning isn't really the subject. The thinking behind it is: why I chose that particular blank, what I was after with the form, where things didn't go to plan and what I did about it. That's where the interesting material lives.

They're shot across several cameras in my Hampshire workshop and cut down to the essence of the process rather than every minute of it. The narration isn't scripted. I just talk through the decisions as they come up. You're not watching a demonstration so much as standing in the workshop while something is made.

The pieces vary widely. British hardwoods like ash, elm, oak and cherry sit alongside more unusual burrs and exotic timbers, and each has a character that shapes how I work it.

If you turn yourself, there's plenty here to chew on around approach, proportion and finishing. And if you don't turn but you're drawn to making, or to the wood itself, or simply to watching a craft practised with some care, these are made for you too. Best watched on a big screen, unhurried.

Ask Martin

The other format is Ask Martin, a short series that lives in the Workshop Extras playlist. The questions come in from all over: YouTube comments, Instagram, Facebook, email, and sometimes from students standing right next to me. I pick the ones I think will be genuinely useful, or the ones I've heard more than once.

Each answer runs to about sixty seconds. That's deliberate. No preamble, no padding, just a straight answer to a real question, the way I'd give it if you were beside me at the lathe. An episode covers two or three questions and comes in around two minutes.

The topics range across technique, tools, finishing, design, and now and then how I teach. They aren't polished the way the workshop films are, and that's the point. They're meant to be useful and quick, not cinematic.

If you've a question of your own, leave it in the comments, drop me a message on Instagram or Facebook, or send it by email. I can't get to everything, but I do read them all.

Where to Start

If you're new here, start with the workshop films. Pick a piece that appeals and watch it through. The Ask Martin episodes work well alongside them once you've got a feel for how I think and work.

Both are free, and both are made with the same intention: to share the craft as honestly and as usefully as I can.