September Meeting

Wednesday September 21, 7 pm at Bridges Church
  Turning bottoms - not limited by a tenon - by Bob Bley
  Show & Tell
  President's challenge:
    Make a calabash form, as shown by Kirk Deheer

  Bridges Church map

Wednesday August 3 2022
August Picnic - Hosted by Silicon Valley Woodturners

The annual picnic/BBQ was hosted this year by Silcon Valley Woodturners. The turnout was good, the food was good and the display of turnings was worthy of study. Once again Ceasta Park was a good venue and we enjoyed the time in a casual atmosphere.
See photos of the turnings and members
Photos compliments of silicon Valley Woodturners.

Sunday August 21 2022
Kirk DeHeer professional demo at the Santa Clara High School

Kirk is an experienced turner and instructor who has been a Resident instructor at Craft Supplies USA for more than 15 years.

His topics covered:
• Demystifying cuts and catches
• Calabash bowl
• Square bowl with lid

He did these and also did a bonus, a tree, demonstrating wrong way turning creating an interesting effect.

President's Words - Claude Godcharles

How hot did your shop get this summer? It can be hard to work at the lathe when it's 90+ out there! I must admit that did not appeal to me at all. Instead I have been staying cool inside the house. That can be a good time to do some research, learn new tricks (i.e. spend too much time watching people turn on Youtube instead of turning by myself), and browse through some books. But now I have a backlog (pun intended!) of pieces waiting to be turned...

We had a great joint picnic with SVW in August, with lots of camaraderie, good eats, eye-catching show & tell, and a vote for best piece (won by Jerry Galli). Our next meeting should get us back in action with a demo from Bob Bley on various ways to access and reshape the bottom of your piece, without being limited by the diameter of the tenon or the chuck. Bob has tried them all, so it should be a great comparison of methods.

My challenge to you is to make a calabash form, as shown by Kirk Deheer at his demo. If you weren't there you can find the shape online. Watch for those bottom catches !!

Until then,
Claude G.

"As the Wood Turns"
Time vs Result- by Dave Vannier

During Covid I found myself feeling like I had time on my hands, and I worked on projects that I knew would take a lot of time, so just hadn’t started them. But this 3 week lockdown drug on and on and on, so I started a few. Some ended up being interesting, others, ehh. But even though we aren’t locked down, I’ve continued to tackle a few things which take a lot of time.

My latest has me questioning if I really should try it, but after spending a few weeks on the planning stage, I really want to give it a go. It is an extreme segmented project, with a little under 500 pieces, but each piece has to be cut 4 times, making the process feel more like a couple thousand pieces. Will I or won’t I, that is the question.

The things I liked about learning to turn, was the time spent on a project, and lack of measuring and planning. Just felt more like a free flowing process, taking firewood into a pleasing form. Then, I tried a little segmentation, and all the woodworking/engineering/math skills came in handy. This project has all that and more. The big unknown is will it simply be one of those things that the question “But why?” is asked. We’ve all seen those pieces we marvel at the skill that went into making it, but wondered what the point was. I hope it doesn’t turn out that way, but only time will tell.

So during this 3 week shutdown down, what projects did you take on? Some of those house repairs you just didn’t have time for? Reading the book that you knew would just take too much time? I’m big on learning, in fact to me it is the reason to live. So I’ll probably do it, and then you can tell me how crazy I am. I promise not to be offended.

See everyone at the meeting!
Dave
www.daves-turned-art.com

2022 WBW board members and committee chairs

President: Claude Godcharles
Vice President: Tom Gaston
Treasurer: Jon Bishop
Secretary: Roman Chernikov
Member at Large: Fred Colman
Meeting Program Coordinator: TBD
Visiting artist Coordinator: TBD
Anchor seal: Dennis Lillis
CA Glue: Tom Kenyon
Craft Supply:Tina Chou
Librarian: Kelly Smith
Audio Visual: Curtis Vose
Website & Newsletter: Tom Haines

click here for contact information on the above

Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.