An Educator’s Heart: Watson Always Willing to Share Knowledge
From music to woodworking, the Wilkes Co. resident loves to teach
NORTH WILKESBORO-Keegan Watson is an educator, one willing to teach anyone wanting to learn.
You see it in his music. The Wilkes County resident, who graduated from Appalachian State with a music degree, plays tuba in The Unifour Brass Ensemble. Beyond that, even though he’s a Habitat for Humanity employee and a married man, Watson finds time to tutor a student in music.
You also see it in his wood shop. When the woodworking bug bit, it bit hard, Watson said, adding that he’s in the shop 15 to 20 hours a week. You see evidence of his work around northwest NC. He made the business card holder at Wilkes County Hardware, tuba stands for kids in middle school bands and some of his platters can be found in cabinets and kitchen tables. He refers to his knowledge of woodworking as “limited”, but is happy to teach those who want to learn.
“It’s important to share even the limited knowledge I have, because we need people that are interested in it,” Watson said. “We need people that are capable and interested in trade work.”
Watson has always been interested in carpentry and woodworking. He moved back to northwest North Carolina after grad school at Butler University. While working for the post office in Todd, Watson used his lunch break and time after hours to help a friend build a log cabin. Seeing his home projects, a co-worker said he had a lathe and invited Keegan over to use it. When you take a look at Handcrafted by Keegan Watson, it’s hard to believe that he ‘turned’ his first cherry cup only 2.5 to 3 years ago.
A week after that first cherry cup, he had bought a multi-functional woodworking machine with which he turned out everything from honey dippers to Latin American percussion instruments, even a stop-mute for his wife’s French Horn. Soon enough, he was upgrading his vintage 1950’s equipment and “has been turning as much wood [as he can] get his hands on since.”
Working With a Variety of Wood
Keegan finds special satisfaction in his tables and bowls. He waxes poetic about the heartwood and sapwood of walnut and cherry and the interplay with the grain. He talks about the smell of the wood (a unique cologne his wife doesn’t always fully appreciate), and he discusses the feel of the wood as he sands it smooth.
“It’s a full experience,” Watson said.
He especially enjoys turning bowls, larger the better. The large bowls “draw you in,” Watson said. “You can see so much of the tree.”
While 24 inch diameter bowls are impractical for salad and cereal, they are beautiful and useful for storage next to a bed or sofa. The all-encompassing nature of his large pieces are beautiful to look at, to touch, and has even a unique sound when moved; they are a delight in every sense and to every sense.
This is obviously an artist in love with his medium. He generally stays away from staining wood, preferring to “get out of the way of the wood” and letting the natural beauty of the grain striations take center stage. His tone takes on an almost pious tone as he discusses West Penn Hardwoods in Conover, where wood from all over the world is stocked. They have more than 200,000 covered square feet of nothing but wood. By comparison, one Lowe’s Hardware store is roughly 100,000 square feet. He describes his pilgrimages there in glowing terms, explaining that it’s “a meditative kind of place” for him to go. As Watson points out, one wouldn’t look at a glass and metal table and wonder about its history. Not so with his beloved wooden creations.
“I can look at a 100 year old wooden table and think, man if this thing could only talk,” Watson said.
Looking For Material
Watson tries not to cut any living trees. Much of his material comes from trees that have come down by nature or necessity and most of the remainder is sourced from Wilkes County and surrounding mills. Where the rest of us see only firewood, Keegan can see the potential beauty of a timeless piece of functional art. So if you see Keegan lugging a 200 pound downed tree across a field and ravine, and that has happened, maybe help him out. It will be in good hands.
Michael Absher is a reporter for NWNC.
