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Woodturner Clint Stevens Reveals 'Mystery' Studio on North Broadway

 Clint Stevens has created wooden bowls, figurines and toys inside his nondescript storefront studio on North Broadway since 2004.
Clint Stevens
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EDGEWATER — Nothing smells better than freshly cut oak, said woodturner Clint Stevens as he grabbed a handful of fresh shavings from his shop's floor and raised it to his nose.

"Here," said the 63-year-old, passing the still-warm wad of oak, as a mentor would, teaching the philosophy of his trade.

For years, Stevens has been turning wood inside the unmarked storefront at 6224 N. Broadway. Passers-by, peering through the front windows, can make out a lone, mostly decorative woodworking lathe and a few wooden bowls lining the south wall of the building's small front room.

Other than that, there's not much to look at. But behind the back wall is Stevens' sanctuary.

"Nobody knows," he said of his woodworking studio. "It's sort of a mystery."

The space is cluttered with blocks of wood harvested from places like New Zealand and Hawaii. Wooden bowls, figurines and toys created with Stevens' lathe and sharp tools fill a table. The walls are decorated with pin-ups.

The retiree says he's in paradise, having "about as much fun as I can have without getting arrested."

Ben Woodard details woodturning and the man who says it sends him to paradise:

Stevens first got into woodworking when enrolled at Utah State University.

He said he was "too poor to go to college" at the time, so to make it work would bunk with girlfriends, eat their food and do odd jobs on the side, like making bookcases for his professors' messy offices.

After school, he was as an engineer and worked on hydroelectric dam projects throughout the world.

"I spent my whole career using my right brain, being very logical and analytical," he said. But after moving to Chicago with his wife, then retiring in 2004, it was time for a change.

He moved into the storefront on North Broadway, which were the offices for a real estate management company on its way out of the business, and started turning wood on a lathe.

"This is an opportunity to just let that artistic side out," he said, while working the bit of his turning tool into a block of oak, shaving away layer after layer. "My artistic side is having a freaking ball. And I have no deadlines. I have no expectations. I don't take orders. I'm probably one of the happiest guys you're going to run across."

To put it another way, he said, "Now I'm making jack, but very much happier."

The piece of oak on the lathe began to take shape as a bowl with a high, flat rim.

"You have to let your inner-Zen monk out when you do this," Stevens said, edging the bit closer and closer to the fragile rim of the bowl. "Frankly, your best work comes when you skate on the edge of disaster.

Stevens explained the finished product would look great with a blood-red dye along the rim and a decent finish.

"The bottom line is," he said, "this is me having a good time."