More 2011 Woodturning Symposiums

I have posted here about this year’s symposiums, including the AAW 25th Anniversary symposium held last month, the Woodturners of Olympia symposium featuring Mike Mahoney and Stephen Hatcher this month, the Great Falls Woodturners symposium featuring Jimmy Clewes in September, and the Yellowstone Woodturners symposium featuring Stuart Batty in October. Here are a couple more upcoming symposiums.

SWAT

The SouthWest Association of Turners are holding their annual symposium from August 26th to 28th in Waco, Texas. It looks like they have a great lineup of demonstrators, including:

  • Nick Arnull on decoration and color
  • Kip Christensen on fast projects and Christmas ornament box and stand
  • Nick Cook on production turning and peppermills
  • Doug Fisher on surface texture, carving and off-axis turning
  • David Hout on metal spinning and basic bowl turning
  • Alan Lacer on hooks loops and boxed, and befriending the skew
  • Robert Rosand on small containers and ornaments
  • Curt Theobald on segmenting

They also have a nice lineup of regional demonstrators.

You can get more in formation on the SWAT Symposium webpage.

RMW

The Rocky Mountain Woodturners are holding their 13th annual symposium on September 10th and 11th in Loveland, Colorado. They, too, have what looks to be a great list of presenters including:

  • David Ellsworth will be turning an open bowl, a natural edge bowl and a hollow form
  • Dixie Biggs will demonstrate simple surface embellishments, relief carving and woodburning
  • Al Hockenbery will demonstrate suspended spherical forms, ball in a ball, a natural edge hollow form and turning triangles
  • Bradley R. McCalister will present coloring and finishing and working with Colorado Aspen
  • Christian Brisepierre will demonstrate oval turning
  • David Nittmann will present complete color control and airbrush ideas
  • Tom Worsing will demonstrate turning a perfect platter
  • Katherine Kowalski will present small platter & decoration, color rim bowl and end-grain hollowing
  • Rick Orr will be turning rainsticks and fly rod tubes
  • Larry Fox will lead everyone in completing a turquoise edge bowl and a simple turquoise inlay
  • John Giem will discuss vacuum chucking systems and demonstrate turning a jewelry organizer
  • Rex Burningham will demonstrate sharpening jigs and all wood twist pens

You can get more in formation on the Rocky Mountain Woodturners Symposium website.

symposiums / woodturning events

Turning Candlesticks

The Northeast Florida Woodturners Association (Jaxturners) have posted video of their latest meeting demonstration on YouTube. This month Ed Malesky demonstrates how to turn several different types of candlesticks including a pedestal, weighted base, colonial and bottle stopper.

You can watch the latest videos on the Jaxturners YouTube Channel.

AAW / chapter profile / video / woodturners

Annual Picnic and Wood Auction

Sunday, July 17th 2:00pm

It is that time of year again. The sun is out. The weather is beautiful. (Well today anyway.) And, it is PICNIC AND WOOD AUCTION TIME.

This year we have a new venue (fancy word for place). The picnic will be held at the North Lake Improvement Club. It is located at 33228 38th Ave South, Federal Way (actually Auburn).

Remember, this is a family event and is also a Potluck affair. It is also a wood auction. So bring your favorite dish(es) and join us for a day of fun.

Here are a few words about the wood from our esteemed president.

” After returning home (from the AAW Convention, ed.)seven of us gathered at Harry Lincoln’s home and then caravanned to “The LOG”. With seven Stihl saws with sharp blades going we harvested and cleaned the whole thing in two and a half hours. Though this is written before the Annual Potluck Picnic / Auction I know that everyone will be pleased with the wood this year. ”

Directions to Picnic:

From the South on I-5: Take Exit 142A, WA18-Auburn, take the Weyerhaeuser Way S exit. Turn left on Weyerhaeuser Way S (go 0.4 mi). Turn right on 33rd Pl S (go 0.3 mi). Continue on 334th St (go 0.1 mi). Bear left on 38th Ave S (go 0.1 mi). You have arrived.

From the North on I-5: Take Exit 142A, WA18-Auburn, take the Weyerhaeuser Way S exit. Turn left on Weyerhaeuser Way S (go 0.4 mi). Turn right on 33rd Pl S (go 0.3 mi). Continue on 334th St (go 0.1 mi). Bear left on 38th Ave S (go 0.1 mi). You have arrived.

From SR167: Take WA18 West (go 3.1 mi). Take the Weyerhaeuser Way S exit. Turn right on Weyerhaeuser Way S (go 0.3 mi). Turn right on 33rd Pl S (go 0.3 mi). Continue on 334th St (go 0.1 mi). Bear left on 38th Ave S (go 0.1 mi). You have arrived.

Better yet, type this address into your GPS: 33228 38th Ave S, Federal Way, WA and listen to the lovely lady tell you how to get there.

Looking forward to seeing all of you there. Bring your family and lots of food. I especially like desserts, the rest of it is overrated.

Membership / woodturning events

Turning Tool Series

There are four woodturning magazines I am aware of: Fred Holder’s More Woodturning, Woodturning Design, The AAW’s American Woodturner and Woodturning out of the U.K.

Woodturning has several tutorials for different types of turning, tools, materials and interviews with Woodturners. They have been running a series on basic use of various woodturning tools so if you have prior issues or access to them through your club you may want to take a look. These are from the last 18 months:

April 2010 Using Scrapers Effectively, Part 1
May 2010 Using Scrapers Effectively, Part 2
October 2010 Spindle Roughing Gouge
December 2010 Skew Chisel, Part 1
January 2011 Skew Chisel, Part 2
February 2011 Bowl Gouge, Part 1
March 2011 Bowl Gouge, Part 2
April 2011 Parting Tool
May 2011 Flat Gouge
June 2011 Spindle Gouge
tools

What’s Happening at Other Chapters

northwest washington woodturners logoThe Northwest Washington Woodturners in Mt. Vernon have a busy month planned. SPSW member Eric Lofstrom will be demonstrating at their regular membership meeting on July 21st. They will also be turning tops for kids at Hillcrest Park on the 16th. On top of that is the Camping and Turning Rendezvous in Ellensburg the 10th through the 23rd.

The Cascade Woodturners in Portland, OR will be meeting on July 23 for the annual picnic.

The Northwest Woodturners in Portland will be meeting on July 7th with a demonstration by Jim Hall on carving. Jim will also have an all day demo on Saturday the 9th.

olympic peninsula woodturnersThe Olympic Peninsula Woodturners calendar shows that they are having their annual show-and-tell and wood auction at their meeting on July 27th. They will also be holding the summer all-day turning event on the 17th. The club is also looking for people willing to demonstrate at the Festival by the Bay Craft Show. OPCAAW will pay for the booth space and demonstrators will be allowed to sell their wares in the booth.

The Seattle Woodturners meeting on July 14th will feature Seattle WT and SPSW member Jack Wayne who will be demonstrating techniques to build a 3-legged stool.

 

soodturners of olympia logoThe Woodturners of Olympia are holding their annual woodturning symposium on July 23rd. Featured demonstrators are Mike Mahoney and Stephen Hatcher. There is still time to register to attend this event.

The Greater Vancouver Woodturning Guild in Vancouver, B.C. is on their summer hiatus, but they do have an all day class on July 9th with Art Liestman demonstrating pyrography and acrylic coloring. The class will be held in Art’s Coquitlam studio. Cost and equipment requirements are listed in the chapter’s June newsletter. The GVWG is also holding their summer BBQ on July 17th.

AAW / woodturning events

Invention and Innovation, Part 2

I often wonder how anything beyond a basic bowl shape was turned twenty years ago or more. There have been a significant number of new tools and jigs invented that allow for an amazing array of designs. Several of those have been demonstrated at SPSW meetings.

klein threading jigBonnie Klein was our demonstrator at the April membership meeting. Bonnie is well known for small turnings and especially threaded lid boxes. Bonnie has developed a jig for cutting threads on the boxes.

SPSW member Dave Schweitzer is producing his own line of turning tools. One of those is a diamond beading tool. Those who are skilled with a skew can turn beads of any size with ease, but for those of us that don’t have that touch down yet, the Schweitzer beading tool is great. Dave has a video on the use of the diamond beading tool on our website in the learning center.

Another SPSW member, Paul Crabtree, has developed a line of tools for hollowing, especially long neck hollow forms. Paul has conducted demonstrations in both the monthly membership meetings and at the mini-symposiums. The tools allow for measuring the wall thickness of the vessell while it is being turned.

springett ball toolsFred Holder demonstrated another unique set of tools at the January 2009 membership meeting. Fred demonstrated tools used to turn Chinese balls. These tools were developed by David Springett and carry his name.

What other unique tools or jigs have you seen/used? Leave comments below.

Jigs / tools