VETERAN ARTISAN'S NO DEADWOOD.

Byline: BETTIE RENCORET Senior columnist

QUARTZ HILL - Martin Littleton is a true woodturner artisan, but he first worked many years as a carpenter, general contractor, custom cabinetmaker and furniture craftsman.

In the construction business for some 40 years, he built just about every kind of structure. That gave him a basic knowledge and love of wood before he was introduced to woodturning.

But when he discovered the beauty to be found and modeled with the turning lathe, he was completely hooked.

``I soon discovered the almost unbelievable satisfaction and wonder in what can be hidden beneath and within the substructure of the bark of an ordinary tree,'' Littletone said.

``I'm almost entirely self-taught, with the help of books, Internet sources and my own knowledge of woodworking and finishing. I really fell in love with this art. So many beautiful things can be created from selected pieces of wood,'' he said.

On display in the Quartz Hill home he shares with Carolyn Dunham are numerous pieces of his creativity, including a vessel made of oak he ebonized using a coating made from vinegar and iron. The finished product resembles thin, glazed pottery but with qualities sometimes found in finished pieces of petrified wood.

Another sample is a tall, brown, vaselike piece with lacy looking cutouts, made from a manzanita burl.

A buckeye burl was turned and then decorated with crushed turquoise rubbed into the crevices. The result is a beautiful, colorful piece that might be taken for Southwest Native American art.

He's used the same technique with pearwood and crushed coral. Sometimes he uses brass and different stones.

The shine on the pieces, he said, is the result of multiple coats of wood lacquer, or sometimes a specialty oil used to finish gun stocks.

The high polish is on both the interior and exterior because he likes them that way. He also keeps the bark intact on most of his pieces, with a natural edge on the rims.

All his materials come from domestic sources, either trees indigenous to the United States or a species that was imported long ago and became established.

``All of my wood comes from trees that have been harvested or taken out for reasons such as disease, damage from their roots, construction sites and things like that,'' he said. ``They are almost always destined for a landfill or a fireplace.''

Littleton said he gets ``a lot of satisfaction out of creating something from material that would otherwise be lost forever.''

His artwork has taken prizes in juried art shows and ribbons at the Antelope Valley Fair. They've also been shown as fine art in Palm Springs and Palm Desert galleries.

Littleton was born in Tulsa, Okla., and served a peacetime hitch in the U.S. Navy as a medical corpsman from 1958 to 1960. After boot camp and medical corps school in San Diego, he served in Hawaii, rising to the rank of petty officer third class.

He was widowed several years ago; he and his wife, Dixie Lee, had three daughters, Cherrie Lee Scheid of San Jose, and Cindy Lee Scott and Lori Lee Scott, both of Palmdale.

He and Dunham, who was widowed three months before he was, both belong to the J & J Social and Travel Club.

Littletone is also a member of the High Desert Art Association, which meets in the Palmdale Cultural Center, and the Antelope Valley Woodturners Association (AVWA).

The AVWA is open to anyone interested in joining, and meetings are held once a month, usually on a month-end Saturday morning.

``Emphasis is on learning,'' he said, ``so we have demonstrations sometimes with distinguished guests as teachers. In order to accommodate the guests' time schedules, we schedule the meetings around them. We're pretty flexible. Everything is announced through the newsletter.''

Anyone interested in attending the next meeting or joining the group can call AVWA President Brad Staves at [phone].

Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster, Palmdale and South Valley have been announced. All meals include bread, margarine and coffee, tea or milk, for a suggested donation of $2.

Monday: Pork chop, au gratin potatoes, spinach, tossed salad, apple juice, chocolate cake.

Tuesday: Tangy topped tuna loaf, baked potato, peas and carrots, marinated beets, citrus cup.

Wednesday: Roast beef, mashed potatoes, beets, garden salad, pineapple juice, gelatin with peaches.

Thursday: Fourth of July holiday.

Friday: Swedish meatballs, parsleyed noodles, Normandy vegetables, lettuce and tomato salad, tapioca pudding.

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Photo:

Woodturner Martin Littleton displays some of the items he's made using hunks of trees felled because of disease or damage.

Bettie Rencoret/Special to the Daily News