Jimmy DiResta

THE ARTIST 

Since I was a little kid in my dad’s shop I have been experimenting with tools and materials. Learning how to use and implement them. Now 40+ years later that’s all I have been doing: Making things and teaching how to make things involving metal, wood, plastic and more.

I have been making things ever since I was able to hold a hammer and likely longer than that. I grew up working around, and alongside my dad, a Long Island handyman.  He put me in an environment to keep experimenting and learning, so my early education involved a wide array of problem solving using all manner of tools, skills and materials… and that is my philosophy in the shop; learn all you can about anything and everything so it becomes a part of your problem solving arsenal.

How did you get into woodworking?

My dad was the driving force.  Always had a wood shop in the house making stuff.

What inspires your creations?

Mostly the need for something. Either a tool, a household item, to the need to learn something new.

What made you decide to add power carving to your repertoire?

Power carving is faster a means to a vision! Getting rid of everything that’s not the sculpture.

What is your favorite power carving tool and why?

The TURBOPlane because of the speed at which you get to the heart of a project.

What impact has power carving had on your art/passion/livelihood?

I now consider making thing I assumed would take too long.

What advice would you give to people who are thinking of getting into power carving?

Start with the smaller tools and get comfortable and graduate to the bigger stuff.