Ring Master Expert Jim Staley - Jim Staley - Ring Master Tool | Ring Master Lathes - Turn out something beautiful

Although educated as an engineer, Jim Staley has always enjoyed arts and crafts. After dabbling in wood carving, oil painting and mosaics, Jim turned to stained glass. He made panels and windows using both copper foil and lead. Later, he began inlaying stained glass into wooden objects. This led him to making things completely out of wood. He made furniture for his home, as well as for his children and grandchildren. Lately, Jim has concentrated on wooden segmented vessels. He either makes the entire vessel from Ring Master® rings or makes “feature” rings on a lathe. 

When he began making the vessels, Jim found that the available computer for designing with Ring Master® was difficult to learn and didn’t emphasize the critical angle. At one time he owned a software company and won first prize in a national contest to write the best educational software. So, it was natural for him to use this background to write Protoshaper, a computer program to design vessels made using Ring Master® rings. The current version contains worksheets for 24 “Protoshapes” and enables anyone familiar with Microsoft Excel to quickly design any vessel.

Jim entered two segmented vessels in the Durham Heritage Arts Festival in May, 2007 and won both first and second prizes. He has also exhibited his work at Green-Rice Galleries in Charlotte, NC and The Design Gallery near Asheville, NC. Jim is an adjunct Professor at N.C. State University and leading a team of students who are using Ring Master® to do a scientific evaluation of various steels used in woodturning.