In the spring of 2009, this author asked the director of North Carolina State's Crafts Center to help him find people who might be willing to participate in a project about skill. Bill Wallace, an occasional teacher at the Crafts Center, was one of the people recommended to him. Bill Wallace is a man who can look at a tree and instinctively know how to reveal its beauty by turning it into a bowl or a vase. The author interviewed Bill about his work process and shares what he learned about the nature of skill by examining it in various crafts and trades. He also discusses the concept of skill and the distinction between "workmanship of risk" and "workmanship of certainty" that is taken from "The Nature and Art of Workmanship" by David Pye. (Contains 4 footnotes.)