Eyeworld

73 EW IN OTHER NEWS January 2019 by Ellen Stodola EyeWorld Senior Staff Writer/Digital Editor Dr. Stallman has cultivated hobbies of woodworking and aikido over the years W hen he's not working at his busy retina practice, Jay Stall- man, MD, Georgia Retina, Lawrenceville, Georgia, uses his free time to pursue a number of different hobbies. He spoke to EyeWorld about creating furniture and the Japanese martial art aikido, which are two areas of interest that he has been involved in for many years. Woodworking Dr. Stallman's interest in woodwork- ing began as a child. "I think I had a natural tendency to like doing things with my hands," he said, not- ing that there is an overlap of some of the same aptitudes and interests that lead people to do surgery. "It's something that I gradually got into from the time I was 7 or 8 years old," he said. "I started playing with wood and tools and got pro- gressively more interested." Eventually, Dr. Stallman became involved in the Society of Ameri- can Period Furniture Makers. This organization meets a couple of times a year and has outside speakers and workshops. It focuses on the mechanics of doing the woodwork and in particular building American period furniture, which is typically Ophthalmologist shares interests in furniture making and martial arts Outside the OR A Sheraton secretary/bookcase with glass doors that Dr. Stallman made using several different woods (mahogany, white pine, and polar). The piece also includes glass and embellishments added by Dr. Stallman. Dr. Stallman poses with a clock of his own design (in the Newport style). He used both walnut wood and pine. continued on page 74 18th century furniture from around the Revolutionary period, he said. This historically focused group looks at different styles and trends, what was going on in the colonies, and the different tools used at that time. Much of Dr. Stallman's wood- working is with hand tools. Though he uses some machines, he primarily works with hand tools including an- tique tools he has refurbished. The details of the furniture from that pe- riod are very intricate and involve a lot of hand carving and inlay work, Dr. Stallman said. "For someone who does retinal surgery, it's some of the same personality traits that attract me to one that are consis- tent with the other." The furniture making requires a lot of attention to detail and meticulous work, as does retinal surgery, he added. "The surfaces of furniture made by hand have a certain texture and qualities that are distinctly different from machine-made pieces," he said, and if you're aware of the details and furniture-making pro- cess, you can tell the difference. Dr. Stallman added that in the time these pieces were originally made, it often wasn't one person who would make the whole piece. There were specialists in different areas. As people had to make a living from it, they had to produce things efficient- ly in order to make money. "But as a hobbyist, I'm trying to learn all of these skills and do everything from start to finish," he said. Working mostly on weekends or in the evenings, it could take Dr. Stallman from 6 to 9 months or even more than a year to finish a piece. Most of his finished pieces are featured in his home, though he has given some to family or friends. Aikido Dr. Stallman also enjoys practicing aikido, the Japanese martial art, in his free time. This interest goes back to Dr. Stallman's internship in med- icine when he began doing karate. He transitioned to aikido after about 5–7 years of practicing karate. Aikido is focused on coopera- tive practice, where techniques are demonstrated, and you pair up with someone and practice techniques to try to help each other improve, as opposed to it being a competi- tion, Dr. Stallman said. There are no tournaments, competitions, or colored belts. "Everyone is a white belt until they become a black belt, and it typically takes 5–7 years to get the first-degree black belt," he said. This is a marker that the person has enough of a foundation to begin to learn more seriously, not as an expert but as a serious student. Dr. Stallman is currently a sixth-degree black belt but noted that there are "always more nuanc- es and subtleties to appreciate and develop." It's another one of those long-term pursuits that takes many years to master, he said. "The more

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