Sadly, this was the last time we got to see Joyce McCullough present; she passed away the following Friday after a struggle with cancer. Despite being tired, she came to the meeting to advertise the courses she planned to offer for our upcoming HOW program. The platters shown above give you just a glimpse of the very talented and generous artist she was. We will miss Joyce deeply.
Mike Conner disappeared kind of suddenly from our last meeting. But it was for good reason- to provide family moral support for the birth of his new grandchild! He was kind enough to share this picture of the baby and to bring in a couple of pieces of his work. He has been experimenting with pyrography, transferring images with graphite paper onto this bowl. He also tackled an old piece of maple burl he had gotten from another turn. Two nice challenges, well done.
Bob Crowe also brought in a couple of pieces- a finger joint box made from some "wormy" Chestnut and a bowl he decorated with the ShopBot, a CNC router in the Bucks Woodshop. Bob said it took only 20 minutes to make the grooves on the ShopBot, but hours to sand them smooth!
And talk about sanding! With all the pieces he's recently made, Bryan Richardson's sure had a lot of it to do even though it's not exactly his favorite activity! What an interesting set of pieces. He beautifully crafted these spoons, which included Bubinga and Pheasant Wood. Bryan also brought in a Bowl from a Board he made in Phil Hauser's HOW class.
Unfortunately, Phil Hauser is not doing that course this year. He is teaching "How to turn a lidded box" and brought along several examples including Coffee wood, Sycamore, Maple burl, Marcassar Ebony, and Colorwood.
Linford Sine brought in an inside out turning that was amazing in its detail. The tree inside was turned, carved with a Dremel, painted with watercolor pigment, and dusted with artificial snow after being sprayed with a fixative.
Andy DiPietro carved this sculpture from 1/4 sawn oak. He first resaws it with a curve on his bandsaw that has a 16 inch capacity! He then uses an Arbortech with a 3 cutter disc and sand blasting to create this beautiful texture. It is brought out by dyeing with dark blue dye and then sanding the surface through to the wood.
Nate Favors brought in this natural edge bowl made from a 200 pound Walnut crotch. He dries it by bagging it with shavings at night and taking it out during the day.
Using his newly invented Accu-Slice, John Manura made these two segmented vessels with 700 and 900 hundred pieces, respectively. He has been working on reducing the thickness of his slices from 50 thousandths to 10 thousandths. While he can make them that thin, he says they are a little weak and one would do well to stay above 20 thousandths. John will be demonstrating at the Somerset Woodworking Show.
Jane Sowden decorated this simple Sycamore bowl (made by R. Cannata) and elevated it to a piece of art. She used white and black gesso in combination with a Waterlox and bronze oil mix to create this graphic image. Jane also brought along a box she made for one the classes she has taken at Bucks County Community College. Everyone was impressed with the intricacy of its construction and colorful decoration.
Ward Stevens brought in a Walnut vessel and natural edge cherry bowl, both harvested from his yard. The shape of the Walnut vessel was dictated by what remained after chasing a crack on the lower half. The rope detail under the brim was created by pyrography- it is meant to hold the vessel together since the crack never went away.
Keith Nelson made this hollow sphere red cedar box using a jam chuck. Since he wanted to make it hang as an ornament, he cleverly used magnets and a ring holder stem to keep the box together. The finger grips allow his grandkids to easily take the box apart and find the prize inside.
Matt Overton made this beautiful Ebony on Maple necklace with an inlay of silver. He carefully laid out the spiral pattern using polar graph paper he downloaded from the web at http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/polar/, then drilled the holes with a small Dremel drill press. A lot of work with a great result.
One could arguably say the piece de resistance of the evening was Joe Seltzer's collection of his turnings. Joe gave a short tutorial on how to display small vessels and how he looks for stands that will do the job. Joe particularly likes the staggered shelves that are often seen with these snuff bottle cases. The 11 turnings made by Joe include (top to bottom and left to right) Chechen Burl (2001), Redbud (2003), Holly (2002), Buckeye Burl (2006), Olive (2004), Norfolk Island Pine (2000), Manzinitia Burl (2009), Maple Burl (ca 2000), Mexican Oak Burl (2007), Mesquite (2012), and Paela Burl (2012).