Emma Cook WIW25

At the age of 40, Emma Cook is the youngest Chair of the Register of Professional Turners, and one of the growing number of professional female woodturners working within the UK, Europe and America. She became a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Turners in 2024 and is a very proactive and enthusiastic member of the wider woodturning community.

After initially being introduced to woodturning at the age of 16 by her uncle and her younger brother, James, she soon caught the bug that was to drive her ambition towards having her own business which could reflect her devotion to becoming a professional wood artist. In 2013, Emma established her brand and founded ‘The Tiny Turner’. The creativity she had always shown, could now be channelled into the production of singular artistic pieces of work combining all her skills of turning, painting and carving.

A few years later she formed her company Emma Elizabeth Ltd after the online webshop she created as a way of sharing the components to make the projects she demonstrates become unexpectedly successful. In recent years, the webshop along with her demonstrating and teaching have taken up the majority of Emma’s time but have enabled her to become a full-time woodturner.

In addition to her carving and colouring skills which she often combines with her woodturning, Emma also enjoys trying to find ways to combine other mediums with wood, such as glass, crystals and minerals. She also enjoys calling on her science background from when she worked as a Laboratory Technician to bring unusual and exciting aspects to her work.