Fresh Wood Student Woodworking Competition Call for Entries; Special Theme Announced for 2017

ANAHEIM, CA – September 8, 2016 – The Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers® (AWFS®) will continue the Special Theme Category for the Fresh Wood student woodworking competition. The competition, which will be showcased at the 2017 AWFS®Fair, July 19-22, in Las Vegas, is open to high school and post-secondary students in accredited woodworking or related programs. Entry applications will be accepted until May 1, 2017.

The 2017 Special Theme category topic will be “Lighting”. “This theme offers students the chance to do something really unique and spectacular, and will hopefully encourage students to take a step outside of their comfort zone”, says AWFS Assistant Education Director Adria Torrez. “We cannot wait to see what the students enter into this year’s special theme category!” Any type of lamp, task light, accent light, hanging light, or outdoor light will be accepted. Projects in this category must be at least 50% wood or wood composite and need to plug in to a standard 100/120-volt North American electrical outlet.

Five other entry categories round out the Fresh Wood competition: Case Goods, Seating, Tables, Design for Production, and Open. Entries will be rated by a panel of judges that represent different aspects of the industry. Judges’ scores will determine the finalist pieces that will be on display at the AWFS®Fair. AWFS® covers shipping and the majority of costs to bring students and their teachers to the Fair for the final round.

The Fresh Wood competition will once again be hosted alongside the American Association of Woodturner’s Turning to the Future competition, showcasing turned student work. The entry deadline for both competitions will be May 1, 2017. This year, Turning to the Future will include categories for “Functional”, “Small Turnings”, and “Open” entries with first, second and third place prizes for each category. Like Fresh Wood, Turning to the Future high school and post-secondary entries are judged separately and there is no entry fee.

Woodcraft Donation Program Supports Fresh Wood
Woodcraft has extended their existing donation program for Fresh Wood 2017. While shopping online, Woodcraft.com customers can contribute funds to support students participating in the competition and their schools and Woodcraft will match funds. The company raised over $12,000 for the 2015 Fresh Wood competition, which allowed the students to receive higher cash prize values and supported shipping costs and student travel allowances. Wagner Meters has also signed on once again to sponsor the People’s Choice award, which is selected by the AWFS® Fair attendees and exhibitors.

AWFS Fresh Wood Student Competition moves to an Online Entry Process
The entry process for the 2017 Fresh Wood competition is now completely online. Students can go
to https://freshwood17.artcall.org/ to create a user login, upload images, and submit all entry information. “This will make it easier for students to enter the contest and hopefully increase the number of applicants, raising the bar on an already prestigious national competition” says Torrez.

The entry deadline for Fresh Wood and Turning to the Future is May 1, 2017. Finalists will be on display throughout the AWFS®Fair July 19-22, 2017. Winners will be identified and announced at an Awards Ceremony on Friday, July 21, which is open to all attendees and exhibitors. First place, second place, and honorable mention awards may be given out in each category and at each school level. A “Best of Show” award will also be selected from all first place winners. The Best of Show trophy will be designed by a recognized woodworker/artist, to be announced at a later date. The 2015 trophy was made by the well-known and respected marquetry expert Paul Schürch. A People’s Choice award, for which all AWFS®Fair attendees and exhibitors have the opportunity to vote, will also be given.

For more information on Turning to the Future and Fresh Wood, go to http://awfsfair.org/attendee- information/competitions/ To submit an entry to Fresh Wood, go to: http://freshwood17.artcall.org/

Any questions? Contact: Adam Kessler, (585) 465-9613  ed.projects@awfs.org

About AWFS
The full-scale international AWFS®Fair, scheduled for Wednesday – Saturday, July 19-22, 2017 in Las Vegas, has become a critical hub for international commerce in the woodworking industry. The AWFS®Fair brings together the entire home and commercial furnishings industry, including manufacturers and distributors of machinery, hardware, lumber, construction materials and other suppliers to the furniture, cabinet manufacturers and custom woodworkers. For more information on the AWFS®Fair, please visit: AWFSFair.org

EASY READER NEWS: Woodturner Richard Gould… and Art at the Harbor (09/07/2016)

Richard Gould holds up a chunk of wood, which gives rise to the inevitable first question” Okay, so what?

“It’s mystery wood,” he replies. “And it’s also free.”

Explain why it’s free, and why it’s also a mystery.

“It’s free because one of my friends was cutting down a tree, and it’s a mystery because I don’t know what it is.”

Would someone else be able to identify it?

“I’ve tried that with this wood. It looks like ficus, but some people say it’s not ficus. A lot of times you’ll get a wood and you won’t be able to figure out what it is. I know a lot of my woods, but this one is a mystery to me. It’s not ash, it’s not maple…”

Richard Gould is a woodturner, or maybe woodcrafter, but not a woodcarver, which is often imagined as an old guy sitting on a stump with a piece of wood in one hand and a penknife in the other. Gould is also more than a woodturner who specializes in bowls, and we’ll get to that part of the story in a few minutes, but right now he’s wrapping up preparations for “Art at the Harbor,” which he’s co-organized with Bernard Fallon. The event, a combination art show and sale, takes place Saturday and Sunday in Redondo Beach and it features Emily Brantley and several other artists.

Chips falling where they may

How do you get free wood?

“A lot of people all over the South Bay know that I’m a woodturner,” Gould replies. “A lot of tree cutters know me, too. So people call me and say, We’re cutting down a tree, can you come get it?” He does, and sometimes there are surprises, like finding a rare coin in your pocket change.

“You know Jacquelyne May?” Sure, who doesn’t? “Jacquelyne May’s next door neighbor was taking down this macadamia tree, and she called me on a Saturday and said, Richard, they’re taking it down right now, can you get over here? I said, oh my god, macadamia, that’s a little exotic, isn’t it?”

He’ll also find free wood on Craig’s List, and sometimes will drive a great distance to pick it up.

At this point we’re in Gould’s garage, a former three-car garage but now with hardly enough room to park a bicycle. “I have a whole woodworking shop here,” he says, stating the obvious, and with enough tools (and of course the knowhow) to make all kinds of furniture. As if that isn’t impressive enough, “I also have a small metalshop over there,” he adds, indicating another area of the garage. With his metal lathe and other equipment he can make his own tools. Meanwhile, the rest of us are keeping Lowe’s and Home Depot in business.

“My dad did woodworking when I was a kid,” Gould says, “and he allowed me to use his workshop. That’s what kind of got me into this, through my dad.”

So you’ve been doing this for a long time?

“I’ve been doing this a long, long time. Woodworking is my hobby; I don’t make money off of it, really.”

After another quick look around the workshop: It looks like a long-term hobby.

“This is collected over many, many years,” Gould replies. “I’ve just recently started turning wood, and I just recently started doing art shows. But I’ve always had a workshop, so my workshop’s been here for a long time. My lathe-turning is something that’s a little bit newer, like in the last six-seven years.”

But what’s the sense of interviewing a woodturner who doesn’t switch on his wood-lathe and show you how it’s done?

Gould does just that, giving an explanation and then a demonstration.

“I turn the outside [of the bowl] first. I plan it, and I plan it trying to get an interesting rim.” And in the process he introduces the functions of a spur drive, the tenon and the chuck, the headstock and tailstock. Chips fly, and then the outside shape of yet another bowl begins to emerge. “I turn the bowl around on the lathe in order to do the inside,” he says, but for now cutting off the machine.

“I also do mentoring for Boy Scouts,” Gould says, removing his goggles. “I’m a merit badge counselor for woodworking for the Boy Scouts, and I’m involved in a lot of Eagle projects where the kids come up with a project and need to do something out of wood. There’s not really much woodworking in the schools anymore, so I try to help out and give back that way.”

Man on the move

“I’ve always lived in the South Bay,” Gould says. “I went to El Segundo High School, I’ve lived in Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo, PV, then back to El Segundo, then back to Redondo, then back to Manhattan, and back to Redondo and then PV.”

What about Torrance?

“I’ve never lived in Torrance, but my office has been in Torrance for 35 years.”

Currently, Gould and his family live in a large three-story home a bit down the road from Chadwick in Rolling Hills Estates.

“I’ve been in this house about ten years,” he replies, when asked. “I built this house [although not in his workshop]. We wanted to get my kids into the PV school district and so we moved up here. Now that they’ve graduated we’re thinking about building another house. This is like my fifth house I’ve built for myself.”

Well, Geppetto with all of his woodcarving skills could never have afforded anything this nice, so Gould must have been spending a lot of time away from the wood-lathe. But he did say that woodworking was just his hobby, didn’t he?

So what do you do as a real job?

“I ran an architectural company for a development corporation,” Gould replies. “Maybe in the 35 years I was with that company I designed and processed and oversaw the plans for 4,000 houses. That’s what I did for the majority of my professional life, design houses, either custom or tract houses, and implemented the construction of them. It’s kind of like an architect, but it’s not an architect: I had architects working for me.

“Later on in my career I got into real estate development. We developed properties, so it meant dealing with planning departments and planning commissions and city councils.”

He’s still involved in such endeavors, but seemingly at a more relaxed pace. When he states, “I think I’d rather wear shorts to work” that about sums it up. And pretty nicely, don’t you agree?

The finishing touch

Although Richard Gould has “only” been a woodturner for six or seven years, he’s already been recognized for his work. This past summer he received the Gwen Sandvick Award for 3D at the Celebrating PVAC Artists Groups Show at the Palos Verdes Art Center. He’s also a member of several related organizations, the American Association of Woodturners, the El Camino Woodturners Guild, and the Redondo Beach Art Group, among others.

We’ve been looking at one of his woodpiles, outdoors next to his house. Gould has lifted the tarp that covers the blocks of wood and points out how he seals the ends with wax so they don’t dry out too fast. While he’s pointing to the black acacia that came from Torrance I’m keeping an eye out for snakes, having lived on the Hill myself, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth.

Inside the workshop once more, Gould studies the rows of unfinished bowls. After he’s rough-turned them, they sit for a few months losing weight and drying out, and in fact Gould charts the progress of each bowl rather carefully. “When it stops losing weight it means it’s come to equilibrium in this climate, and I can go ahead and finish it safely. In the first month or two it’s very susceptible to cracking, especially if it’s really hot.” Then, if the bowl isn’t cracked, he’ll apply a type of furniture varnish called tung oil. It’ll receive between five and eight coats, while sanding with 800 grit sandpaper in between coats. If there is a crack, he often fills it in with turquoise, inlayed and sanded just like the wood.

Needless to say, the beauty of each bowl depends on several factors, beginning with the shape, the rim, the grain, the contrast of light and dark or heartwood versus sapwood, knots, or spalting (a fungus) which adds colored streaks.

Do you have a favorite kind of wood?

“You know what I love,” Gould replies, “is olive, because when you turn olive it fills up your shop with the smell of olive oil. You would think that wood like eucalyptus would be similar; they’re not. With eucalyptus, the leaves are the thing that have the aroma, not the wood. So olive is very fun, and it’s relatively soft and easy to turn, and it’s easy to finish, easy to sand.”

Depending on the venue, Gould may take 60 pieces when he participates in an art show, as he has at Malaga Cove Plaza this year. This gives potential buyers plenty to choose from, doesn’t it?

“Sometimes, yeah,” he says, “but sometimes I can’t make up my mind which ones to take, and then sometimes people can’t make up their minds which ones they want to buy.”

Of course, there’s nothing to prevent someone from picking up two or three.

View source and photos.

KRQU NEWS 13: Local woodturners look forward to New Mexico State Fair (09/03/2016)

 

The New Mexico State Fair is just around the corner, and one stop you’ll want to make while you’re there is in the arts and crafts area.

There, a talented group is turning out masterpieces using a block of wood and some tools.

It’s the first Saturday of the month, and the New Mexico Woodturners are coming together to learn and grow in their craft.

Woodturners don’t use nails and hammers or screws to form the wood into shapes.

“Woodturning is where you put a piece of wood on a lathe and you spin it to speeds of up to a thousand, 2,000 and more RPS and you apply tools to them to shape them,” Larry Linford, president of New Mexico Woodturners.

Larry Linford is the president of the club established nearly 25 years ago.

He says this ancient art-form is growing in popularity.

“In the last probably 10 to 15 years, it just really has taken the county by storm,” Linford said.

He also says local woodturners are creating all kinds of unique items.

“There is a lot of talent here in New Mexico, and it’s just amazing what these people are turning out,” Linford explained.

The group’s vice president Hy Tran says his hobby is addicting.

“I like the fact that with your own hand and the help of a machine you can make something that is both really pretty and also functional at the same time,” Tran said.

While the group hosts monthly workshops, their main event is the New Mexco State Fair.

There, they set up their machinery and show people exactly what they do. members taking home blue ribbons for their work.

“It’s a lot of fun, we have a lot of children stop by adults too actually,” Tran said.

The New Mexico State Fair opens next Thursday and runs through September 18th.

 

View source and photos.

POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL: Woodstock/New Paltz Art and Crafts Fair offers ‘unique flair’ (09/04/2016)

Ted Sokolowski began woodturning 17 years ago after the internet pushed him out of illustrating by hand.

“Believe it or not, there are a lot of similarities,” Sokolowski said in comparing illustrating and woodturning, in which wood is shaped while spinning on a lathe. “Drawing translates into just about every other art form — sculpting, painting and photography. With woodturning, I’m just drawing with a chisel as opposed to drawing with pencil and paper.”

Sokolowski, who now owns Peppermills Studios in Pennsylvania, demonstrated his craft at Woodstock/New Paltz Art and Craft Fair at the Ulster County Fairgrounds Sunday by turning red cedar blocks into rounded wine stoppers within minutes. Each of his pepper-and-salt-mills on display have “unique flair,” he said. Some are ingrained with actual peppercorns on the outside, others with salt, which adds color and texture to the wood.

Like an art show, vendors for the fair are selected by a jury, meaning artists and artisans submit photos of their work in advance and are accepted into the fair based on the quality of their art, co-director Scott Rubenstein said.

“My brother and I grew up as woodworkers,” Rubenstein said. “That’s pretty much our passion, so we pride ourselves on one-of-a-kind furnishings in the show.”

More than 215 artists from all over the country, including Florida and California, were selected, Rubenstein said. One requirement of the show is that the artist or craftsman must be on hand to answer questions about their work.

“It’s important because the foundation of the show is that the visitors will meet the artists,” Rubenstein said. “That’s been the formula since we began the fair in 1981. Whether the artist is buying something or there to learn, artists are here to make a connection with the buyer.”

From wooden bowls to wind chimes made from wine bottles, art at the festival ranges from practical to whimsical.
Artist Amalia Flaisher creates whimsical designs onBuy Photo

Artist Amalia Flaisher creates whimsical designs on wine bottles recycled as wind chimes. The wind chimes were among many of the unique offerings at the Woodstock/ New Paltz Art and Crafts Fair Sunday. (Photo: Amanda J. Purcell/Poughkeepsie Journal)

Artist Amalia Flaisher, whose studio Sand and Water Creations in Glass is based in New Hampshire, has been attending the show for five years. She showed off her unique wind chimes-made wine glasses. Each wine glass had a painted scene. She also creates jewelry from glass pendants.

“I love working with glass because it is very fragile but can be very strong, too,” she said. “I can relate to that.”

View source and photos.

YANKTON DAILY PRESS & DAKOTAN: Last Call For The ‘Mighty Mo’ (09/01/2016)

YAA’s Annual Photo Show Wraps Up With Some Special Events Coming Out Of The Woodwork

This year’s installment of the Mighty Mo Photo Exhibit will end with fanfare this weekend when Yankton Area Arts (YAA) invites the public to visit historic GAR Hall Art Gallery for a number of special events.

“We will start the weekend of events tonight (Friday) with a reception and demonstration from 5-7 p.m. where we will be honoring master wood turner Dr. John Buckner of North Newton, Kansas,” said executive director Julie J. Amsberry. “Dr. Buckner will give a brief overview of woodturning, illustrated with a lathe and pieces made in his workshop. In addition, we will be presenting the winner of the People’s Choice Award for the Mighty Mo Photo Exhibit.”

Amsberry said that two judged winners had previously been named for their work in the show, which traditionally runs from July through early September. This year’s theme was the animals from the journals of Lewis and Clark.

“This year Sam Stukel for his photo ‘Black Hills Lion’ and Nancy Tesdall for her photo ‘Luna — Great Horned Owl’ were given honorable mention,” she said. “They were chosen by our judging panel on fitting the theme, originality, presentation and technical aspects. The People’s Choice award has been voted on by everyone who has come in and visited the exhibit.”

Noting that the exhibit will officially end Monday, Amsberry said this will be the perfect weekend to visit the gallery and enjoy the photographs and the wood turning demonstration.

“We are very excited to have Dr. Buckner join us both Friday and Saturday,” she said. “Friday, the demonstration and artist reception will be very educational and fun to watch. We hope that everyone then comes back on Saturday where they can participate in a free hands-on workshop.”

Saturday’s workshop will be under a tent in front of GAR Hall, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. The workshop will introduce children and adults to the art of carving wood on a lathe. Participants will have guided, hands-on experience making a top, wand, yo-yo, pen or coaster from wood. They can color the wood and use pyrography — wood burning — to decorate what they’ve made. After applying a finish, they can take home their work.

“The workshop will be under the direction of John (Buckner),” Amsberry said. “His work is available in the YAA Gallery gift shop throughout the year.”

Working with Buckner will be Dick Reece, of Austin, Texas and Justin Church, of Boulder, Colorado.

Buckner has been turning wood for 70 years. His father was an expert woodworker and built most of the family’s furniture from walnut wood harvested from their southwest Missouri farm. Some of the wood is still being shaped.

With degrees from the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Kansas, Dr. Buckner taught at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, where he retired as professor emeritus of music. He lives and turns in North Newton, Kansas. He’s a member of the American Association of Wood-turners.

Buckner’s beautiful, useful objects are made from domestic and exotic hardwoods. Each piece is a unique. He takes pride in his finishes, allowing weeks for varnishes and lacquers to cure. He then triple-buffs and hard waxes the finishes.  

Children and adults wanting to try their hand at turning may simply drop by, or may call the gallery at (605) 665-9754 before Saturday morning, to reserve a 15-minute time slot, Amsberry said. There will be no charge for the materials or instruction. However, free-will donations are welcome.

View source and photos.

2017 Idaho Artistry in Wood Show

Opportunity for artists working in wood and/or gourds to participate in a judged competition and display their outstanding creations to the public. Application deadline: February 20, 2017. Information and entry forms:
http://mkmk.com/iaiw/downloads/Prospectus/2016-turners-prospectus.pdf

More information: Marlies Schmitt, marlies.schmitt@icloud.com, 208-466-4899, http://www.idahoartistryinwood.com/

The Idaho Artistry In Wood Show will be held February 25-26, 2017 at the Wyndham Garden Boise Airport Hotel, 3300 Vista Avenue, Boise, ID. Admission is $4.

WACOTRIB.COM: Woodworkers from 26 states show off wares in Waco this weekend (08/27/2016)

Officials expect more than 1,000 people to take in fine woodworking and listen to expert presentations at the Southwest Association of Turners’ silver anniversary symposium this weekend at the Waco Convention Center.

The woodworkers association began informally in 1992 with 75 people in a live oak grove in Columbus, said James Johnson, of Kerrville, a woodworker since 1983 and one of the first organizers. The group first became known as Texas Turn or Two, named for the lathes that are central to the production of their work.

“They asked me to find a place in Austin, but the best place I could find wanted my personal guarantee of thousands of dollars,” Johnson said. “So we moved to a place at Canyon Lake, north of Austin, a few years later. We had two or three buildings, and people stayed in tents. Then one year we had a big storm that covered the ground inside and out with water, and we were outgrowing the place, anyway.”

After one year in San Angelo in 2001, the group accepted an invitation to Wichita Falls and changed the name to its present form.

“Some people were put off by the acronym SWAT because it also stands for ‘special weapons and tactics,’ but it works because it’s easy to remember,” Johnson said. “But Wichita Falls was so far out of the way that people from distant areas like South Texas couldn’t get there, and we started holding conventions in Central Texas, eventually finding the convention center nine years ago. It’s given us room to grow.”

The organization has local chapters in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico as a nationwide affiliate of the American Association of Woodturners and boasts one of its largest regional conventions, Johnson said.

“We have plenty of room to stretch out and relax, and we feed people lunch,” he said. “I’ve been to national symposiums where you have to walk 10 blocks to get a tuna sandwich for $8.50. I’d much rather be here.”

President Buddy Compton, of Colorado City, talking with incoming President Stormy Boudreaux, of Willow Park, said he’s happy the convention has endured over the years.

“Most turners’ symposiums don’t last long enough for a silver anniversary,” Compton said. “Things get so complicated as they grow that they burn out. But we have 30 committees with carefully defined responsibilities that communicate through the year, and everything goes well.”

Amid all the works of art and equipment on display, Ken Mays, of Hewitt, who was in charge of vendor relations, said the group’s pride and joy is its annual Beads of Courage project for hospitalized children. A New Mexico company makes the beads and supplies them to hospitals, and SWAT members make wooden containers, called “boxes” though many of them are round, to give to the children. Every time a child goes through a procedure, he or she gets a bead to add to a collection.

This is the first year SWAT will deliver containers to the new Scott & White McLane Children’s Hospital in Temple, scheduled Tuesday to receive 50 of the 250 made this year.

Mays said John Tolly, of Austin, contributed 50 boxes. Mays himself made 10 and showed off one with a lid decorated by a 9-year-old granddaughter who lives in Austin.

“There’s nothing like seeing the face of a sick child light up when we present one of these,” Mays said.

The box Mays showed was made of spalted wood, a term for wood crisscrossed with squiggly lines created by mold that is beginning to rot a tree.

Such wood once was regarded as trash, but a few years ago wood turners began communicating with the lumber industry and asking for it because it adds to the wood’s beauty and can be chemically treated and stabilized. Several vendors also had products made from the substance or related to it.

Other vendors had wood from trees grafted from several varieties to blend big northern trees with southern heat-resistant strains. Also on offer are small, brightly colored blocks to make pen barrels and bottle stoppers. In all, vendors come from 26 states and as far away as Maine.

An art gallery displays small and large sculptures of painstaking intricacy. Experts give several presentations at 90-minute intervals while doors are open.

The three-day symposium began Friday evening and will be open 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.

“A lot of people come to see wood turning. I come to see wood turners,” Johnson said. “I spend a lot of time visiting with friends I only get to see once a year, right here.”

View source and photos.

NORTHERN VALLEY DAILY VOICE: Former Harrington Park Butcher Swaps Knives For Lathe (08/25/2016)

In his third career as a woodturner, Steve Bistritz of Harrington Park is happy as can be.

He loves that his driveway is filled with wood.

It brings him joy to see 50 more pieces of wood drying in his basement – and 50 beyond that completely dried and ready for his lathe.

“I only use wood that is already down on the street or at the end of the woods,” Bistritz said.

“If I’m riding with my wife,” he added, “and I see some oak from a tree someone took down, I’ll stop and throw a few pieces in the car.”

Sure, Bistritz enjoyed running his own butcher shop – Olde Tyme Meats and Deli – in Ringwood, then Closter, for 20 years. The 62-year-old Elmwood Park native also likes his current day job as a computer tech.

But Sawdust Unlimited , his woodturning business? Now that’s divine. He gets to transform pieces of oak, maple, poplar, and the occasional birch into artful bowls, plates, platters, vases and candle holders.

“Ornamental fruit tree woods turn like butter,” Bistritz said. “Cherry is my favorite because it smells like you cracked open a cherry soda when you’re turning it.”

The world of wood opened for Bistritz after he closed Olde Tyme in 2006 and became a computer tech. Suddenly, his weekends were free. When he went to a New Jersey Woodturners open house in Roseland and they put the tools in his hands, he fell in love.

Two weeks later, he had a lathe in his basement.

There was a learning curve, Bistritz explained, which is only natural. After all, a lathe spins at 3,000 revolutions per minute.

“You have to learn how to duck,” he said.

Sometimes Bistritz sits and stares at a piece of wood or a branch and ponders what he can do with it. To him, that’s usually the best part.

He feels satisfied when he turns something that would have disintegrated into a work of art.

Bistritz calls what he does “the ultimate form of recycling.”

The only person with whom Bistritz works is his wife, Ann, who is his artistic consultant, business partner and craft show companion. In the year the two have hit the show circuit, they’ve sold a lot.

“We have pieces in Japan, Dubai, Texas, Canada, Seattle and Australia,” Ann Bistritz said.

View source and photos.

HERALD LIVE: Working with wood in George (08/23/2016)

With a history in timber dating back as far as 1932, what better venue for this year’s Woodturning Festival in association with the Working with Wood Show than Saasveld, George?

The woodworking fraternity globally is extremely excited that the Association of Woodturners of South Africa (AWSA) in partnership with the American Association of Woodturners, the Working with Wood Show and the School of Natural Resource Management at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), will take an active role in this year’s Woodturning Festival at NMMU’s Saasveld Campus from Friday to Sunday, August 26-28.

This beautiful venue’s origins can be traced back to 1911 when a forestry college was established at Tokai near Cape Town. The government of the day moved the college to a new location – Saasveld – near George in the Southern Cape in 1932.

From 1932 to 1985 almost 1,300 foresters were trained at this campus that is surrounded by indigenous and commercial forests.

Following on from the successful 2014 Working with Wood Show in Knysna, the event quickly established itself as a leading woodworking and tool show in South Africa, and is acknowledged today as Africa’s most diverse woodworking and woodcraft event.

The Working with Wood Shows are known for bringing top South African and international demonstrators to share their woodworking skills and crafts from woodturning, carving, chair-making, and sharpening, to furniture making with participants.

Everything timber-related and eco-related, from mobile milling of slabs, to fine furniture and sculptures, sustainable alternatives for the home and natural resource management displays can be found. These events showcase sustainable timber production.

This year, the Woodturning Festival and Working with Wood Show will feature top woodworking experts, including international AWSA guests Carmen De La Paz from the US and Chris Pouncy from the UK. The South African contingent includes John Wessels,John Speedy, Dave Stephenson, Mervin Walsh, Richard Muller, Jan Conradie and Charlie Letsoalo.

This year, participants will also be treated to woodturning demonstrations and enhancements that will highlight the global trend in woodturning. De La Paz and Wessels will offer live demonstrations on some of the latest techniques in wood enhancements.

The organisers are thrilled to announce the launch of the outreach programme, Turners without Borders, to be held during this festival.

De La Paz will also host the first Working with Wood Show’s programme exclusively for women called Women in Turning.

View source and photos.

KMTV3: Club turns pieces of wood into work of art (08/22/2016)

A monthly club is all about turning pieces of wood, into works of art. Literally.

For retired doctor Chuck Frichot, the hobby of wordturning was supposed to start as a way to make big pieces for his wife.

“I asked my wife if she wanted furniture. She said ‘I don’t need any furniture, we already got it all,” he explained.

So now, here Frichot is, one of about 60 hobbyists in the Loess Hills Woodturners Club. The club started about fifteen years ago with just twelve members. They meet the second Tuesday of the month at the Elks Lodge on 96th street in Omaha.

Woodturning differs from woodworking in that the wood is moving on a large power tool called a lathe. Woodturners then use a stationary tool to cut and shape it, transforming blocks into intricate shapes, designs, and objects.

“When you’re turning, it’s like playtime,” Dennis Nygard said. “Go back to when you were a kid. You played with clay. You could mold it into whatever you want. Now you can go that with wood.”

Nygard, who has been wood turning for twenty two years, is one of the mentors of the club. He is paired with a newcomer who is just getting into the intricate art.

“Thats what I enjoy-seeing that light go on,” he said.

The local chapter of this national organization in also giving back in Omaha too. This year club members made more than two dozen hand turned bowls for kids at Children’s hospital, who are collecting beads for a program called Beads of Courage.

“Beads of courage is a thing that the children get a bead for each procedure they go through, cancer patients, heart patients, stomach problems,” said woodturner Jim Schober. “It’s such a worthwhile project where you can help these kids.”

These members have an art show this weekend, Saturday 27th, at Midwest Woodworkers off 146th and West Center. For many, it’s a chance to sell a couple of items. For others, it’s a change to
grow the club. And no doubt it will continue to grow, as more and more members get on the  lathe and get their wheels turning.

“It’s an addiction!” said Frichot.

 

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