Here are the pics from our Christmas party last Monday, December 14th. The turnout was not as big as last year, but there was plenty of great folks and good food! The weather was horrible (cold, very foggy, rainy) and probably contributed to the light attendance. A good time was had by all, and thank you to everyone that made it a great night!
Kaitlin and I decided to make her teacher a pen for Christmas. This style of pen is called a Teacher’s pen, and has red ink on one side and black on another. We decided to use red acrylic on one side, blue on the other, and wood in between. Kaitlin was a huge help in completing this project, and no work was done while she wasn’t downstairs working with me. She is excellent quality control, as well as a great safety coordinator! We sure hope Mrs. Taylor likes it!
I’ve done some turning in the past few weeks, but I can’t post pics! 
I’ve worked on a couple of Christmas gifts, and I can’t risk the recipients finding them. Other holiday activities (Thanksgiving) have also cut into my turning time (in a good way).
Kaitlin and I did get a chance to go to the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF) Holiday Market this past weekend. There we saw my buddy Jim Talley and his wife Phyllis. There was also one other turner there, although I can’t recall his name. Kaitlin and I had a good time looking at all the art. I think she enjoyed the colored glass of Annette Paskiewicz more than any other booth. Several of the artists have agreed to extend the festival for this Saturday, December 12th from 10am to 5pm. It is only $3 for 16 and older, and parking is free. If you get a chance to drop by, make sure to visit Jim and Phyllis’ booth and tell them hello for me!
Mom’s birthday is coming up, so I decided to attempt to turn her some earrings…. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve finished making a bottle stopper with one of the Torne Lignum kits, and I’m pleased with the kit itself. It uses the same drill bit as some off the other stoppers I have made, so no additional investment needed there. It was able to fit on my previously-purchased mandrel, as well. I believe that making stoppers would be considerably easier with a tap to thread the wood after drilling, but I prefer my current ‘screw onto the headstock’ mandrel over one that has a morse taper. (TL has a MT2 mandrel that is also a tap.) My drill chuck (which has a morse taper) tends to pop out at times with any pressure at all being exerted towards the tailstock. I don’t want to deal with that on my bottle stopper mandrel as well. It is easy enough to solve with some all thread, a washer, and a nut, but why bother? What I have works, so I’ll keep using it.
I chose to insert a Sacagawea dollar that my daughter found in my change jar into the stopper. Whereas the design itself is rather plain this time, I believe that the figure of the red malle burl combined with the insert gives it some character.
While at the symposium, I picked up a few new bottle stoppers to try from Torne Lignum. These are stainless steel (not plated like most others), and should never pit due to the acids in wine. They are very low profile, as well — intending to show off the wood of the stopper rather than the metal. I’ll let you know what I think of them after I turn a few. They look well-made, but do not have the shine of other stoppers. I don’t guess that really matters though, since the stopper is so low profile.
Click on a gallery, then click on a pic, and then '<<' & '>>' buttons to navigate. Thanks again to all of the organizers and demonstrators of this event!
Monday night was our monthly meeting of the Classic City Woodturners. Bill G. started the meeting off with some business including executive committee nominations. Also included was the appointment of Shep as the treasurer through the rest of this year.
This month, instead of a hands-on demo, Abraham Tesser showed us a powerpoint demonstration of how he built a custom pool cue stand. Please click on his link for pictures as well as his word document further describing this piece of fine furniture. It was interesting seeing how he was able to incorporate turnings into the work. His stand has been in two pool-related magazines, and will also be featured in a woodturning magazine in the near future.
Afterwards, Don Fournier followed up with a demonstration of how he recent built some shaker style chairs, as well as the steady-rest that he made in order to deal with wobble of the long back pieces. Nice chair!
Yesterday finished up attending the NC Woodturning Symposium, and I’ve got to say it was worth the time and money.
And here I thought yesterday was a long day…. Four 1.5 hour sessions today, lunch was provided, more wishful thinking at the vendor area, another glance at the instant gallery, dinner banquet, auction, a quick g’night call with the wife and kid and all of a sudden it is 11pm! Given the long drive tomorrow, I’m going to get some rest and do pics, etc. sometime next week.
I saw 3 demos by Jimmy Clewes today, and he has great turning skills as well as demonstration skills. His demos were Coloring, a Natural Edge End-Grain Vase, and an Oriental Box. His last demo ended early (a first for him!) so I was able to peek in at Allan Batty working the skew chisel for a few minutes. Hopefully I will get to see more of Allan tomorrow. The other demo I saw was Nick Cook on pepper mills — partly because someone asked me recently if I had done any, and I haven’t yet. Probably soon though. 
Nick gave an excellent demonstration as well.
The auction was impressive. The main goal of the auction is to raise money for charity, so folks are willing to open their wallets a bit. (Don’t worry, Lanie, I got a deal on the tool I bought at auction… I swear I got it for under retail.) They auctioned off tools, wood, demo pieces, and finished pieces. The most expensive piece was one by Stuart Mortimer (see yesterday’s post for link) that went for around $1600! Several items went for over $100. After the auction, they gave away several weeks at Arrowmont and John C. Campbell. I think that they may have mispronounced my name when they gave them away though, it sounded like they spell ‘Bill’ with a ‘T’, ‘o’, ‘d’, and ‘d’. Go figure….