Peggy Farrington is a woodturning artist who lives and works in Scarborough, Maine. A native of Lubec, Maine, her woodturning often reflects Maine itself. Most of the wood used in her work is sourced locally, with much of it from family land in Lubec. Her style is distinctive, using stain, dye, or epoxy combinations with wood.

The wood speaks for itself, Peggy says “it [the wood] tells me what to do, not the other way around.” Starting a bowl with one idea and ending up with something different, depending on what the wood dictates. While some woodturners shy away from color, Peggy has a talent for highlighting the natural beauty of the wood with color in various forms.

With no background in woodworking, Peggy’s career path led her to choose woodturning as a way to find balance. Earning a Master’s degree in Health Administration from the University of New Hampshire and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of New England, Peggy’s career has been in aging services. Serving in areas such as nursing homes and Life Plan communities.

With no woodworking experience or training, Peggy turned to woodturning as a way to decompress from a stressful job in healthcare. “I needed a creative outlet and I needed to find balance,” Peggy explains. After stumbling across a social media video of someone woodturning, “I was mesmerized, I couldn’t stop watching.” After that Peggy bought a lathe and a few tools, signed up for a pen and bowl turning class, and progressed from there.

Throughout her life, Peggy has always been fascinated with finding things (think metal detecting). Peggy explains that woodturning is like finding treasure from seemingly nothing. “You see an ugly log in the woods and most people see an ugly log.” Peggy sees that same log and sees a figured maple pedestal bowl.

Peggy continues her love of making through woodturning and woodworking. You can see more of her work on her YouTube Channel