2008 AAW Symposium - Part VI; Friday night and Saturday daytime activities

Self portrait of the blogger. . .


I stayed at the Marriott, which was very comfortable and convenient to the convention center.





Friday night there were a lot of special interest groups that met. There was also a book signing for this book, which features "De la mer" by J. Paul Fennell.

This is a great book and I can highly recommend it to turners, other media artists, collectors and anyone who would like to learn more about woodturning as art.









Here's a view of the book signing. I foolishly forgot to bring my copy for signing, but it was good to see all this action.

The collectors of wood art also met on Friday evening and I went to that. It was great to meet so many collectors at once.








Saturday morning I had a chance to do some more instant gallery surfing. Here are a couple of vessels by Steve Sherman.










One of the Youth Turning awards went to Chris Ljostad for this natural edge bowl.


















I didn't catch the name on this youth turning award winner.
















Peter Oliver (New Zealand) made these interesting pieces.













Malcolm Ray











Segmented vase by Peter Schultheiss. I wonder what the collectors thought of the price tag on this piece.
















A variety of pens from the Pen Turning group.











Collaborative pieces by Steve and Irma Sherman











Jamie Donaldson











Jim Christiansen

















Something a little different from Trent Bosch. These vessels were sandblasted with resist designs in different geometric shapes.








Dale Larsen received a merit award for his beautiful bowls.












This and the next several photos show the chapter collaborative challenge entries.













































































































Back to the Spheres exhibit again. This time to watch John Wessels demonstrate all the different layers of his entry. He's shaking hands, using the pewter casting of his hand, with Jeff.









A crowd gathered to watch while he opened his sphere to show the different components.










Arthur Mason getting a closer look.











Someone was pointing out my sphere, too, while John was doing his demo.










Back to the trade show to say hello to some of my favorite vendors, including Treeline.










Jamie Donaldson is visiting with Alan Lacer.












Alan showed me the prototype brass ice cream scoop he designed and will be marketing.















The AAW staff at their space in the trade show.











Rolly Munro and Graeme Priddle showing some New Zealand comradery.









One of the rotations I went to was a panel discussion about woodturning as art from the collector's perspective. Kevin Wallace with Arthur and Jane Mason led the discussion.









I enjoyed this panel discussion. Most of the POP programming was interesting this symposium.










Terry Martin and John Kelsey. Terry co-wrote "The New Masters of Woodturning" with Kevin Wallace. John was the editor.










The other POP program I attended on Saturday was the session on conducting a critique that was given by John Christiansen and Stephen Hatcher. David Ellsworth (front right) introduced the session.

Shameless Self-promotion

I started working on a solo CD project last February and finished the recording in May. Add a few weeks for processing and printing, and the project is finally done. I received my CD's this week after I returned home from a week at Arrowmont. You can hear some of the tracks at my MySpace Page.

I'd really like to move some of these CDs out of my living room and into your stereo system. If you'd like to buy one, you can click on the paypal button here:

Ok - sorry for the commercial break. . . ;-)

ps - if you're wondering how this relates to woodturning, there are several connections. 1. The project kept me away from my woodturning endeavors for three months; 2. The cover photo is of a big leaf maple tree covered in burls, and that's my preferred wood for turning; and 3. It's right brain all the way, baby!

2008 AAW Symposium - Part V; Friday afternoon

Ok - I'm back after that short break to do other stuff for a couple of weeks. I have so many photos to process that it's going to take weeks to catch up. In the meantime, I have more blog-able stuff to experience and then post. To resume the AAW symposium postings, though, I'll share photos from Friday afternoon, June 20, 2008. I did a walk-through of the instant gallery and a bit of the trade show. Then I sat through J. Paul Fennell's demo on shipping your work. So, here are the Friday afternoon pics and commentary: (warning - I'm not much into "brown and round" so the images here aren't representative of "traditional" or "conventional" woodturning)


Two images to show the open segmented forms of Bill Smith. Bill uses a lot of purple heart and holly in his work.




This one is very interesting and I would have liked to have seen the process of assembly and design that went into it.















Beautiful work from Binh Pho.


















A banjo made by Charles Nall. I'm not sure what components were turned on this project because I couldn't really inspect it all that closely.
















Stuart Batty signature pieces.
















Marilyn Campbell - holly and epoxy.












Cindy Drozda and David Nittmann collaborations.











David Nittmann









David Brown - maple and glass













Al Stirt












Tim Heil














Andrew Osborne - this kind of reminded me of the masking that Graeme Priddle uses to burn his designs around. I wonder if Andrew has seen Graeme in action. I liked the overall effect of the pyrography and coloring.









Wayne Fitch and Ralph Watts












Steve Sinner












Tiberio Yepes - this was one of my favorites in the instant gallery.









I think the future of turning is in good hands. It's nice to see so many entries from our young turners.









Larry Hasiak












Fishing lures by Emory McLoughlin












Craig Timmerman - Star Trek characters? I'm not quite sure what to make of this entry.












Jennifer Shirley - lovely texture and color combination.

















Robert Nelson - this was a very nice variation on a goblet motif.














Another of my favorites - Eli Avisera is branching out!











Jon Shrader











Dewey Garrett










Jim Syvertsen - very Drozda-like












Emmet Kane
















James McClure - I wonder if the presentation would have been better for the bowl to be on top of the blank cut out. . .









Tom Crabb - Another of my instant gallery favorites.

















Irene Grafert - I never did see Irene at the symposium. I wonder where she was all weekend.









Keith Holt is doing some interesting masks. He turns the form on several centers and then carves the mask.









Johannes Michelson











Peter Hromek - very cool!










Attendees brought toys for a charity.












Mark Gardner











Ron Gerton had two wall-hangings with turnings as part of the design motif. His use of these word cut-outs is really intriguing and you have to spend some time really looking at each of his pieces.














Here's a bowl with a similar type of motif, and it's presented on Ron's bronze work.



















Lyn Christiansen
















Jerry Whitehurst










Jon Sauer












Ted Rudie & Heather Sefcheck










John H. Williams












Peter Rand

















David Ellsworth










Dixie Biggs












Nick Agar

















John Jordan










Tim Heil - a crib for a future woodturner











Satoshi Fujinuma







J. Paul Fennell. I had a picture of the piece on the left that was in progress from his demo to Central Ohio Woodturners. The one on the right is his latest version of the De La Mer series. The tight corners between the ridges and the piercings must have been a technical challenge. This one was another of my favorites from the instant gallery.






Bill Tilson is branching out a bit with his veneer bowl forms.










Another personal favorite - Tall boxes and sculptures by Benoít Averly











Whimsical pieces by Art Liestman











David Sengel


















John Noffsinger














Avelino Samuel













Gorst duPlessis
















David Marks - lovely patinations on metal foil

















Mac Ray inspecting some spheres that have been labeled, "please touch."













Anthony Harris - an alien box that used porcupine quills. These look like the quills from a South African porcupine.













Boxes on the left by Alan Lacer, on the right by Mike Stafford.











My favorite boxes - by Matthew Hill. I won the bid on his auction entry, so I have one at home to join the other one I purchased several years ago.













It was great to see this in person. This was Pascal Oudet's entry to the AAW spring contest on spheres. I was the judge for that contest and I had selected this as the winner. The photo doesn't do it justice - it's a great piece.











Mary McKinney









Betty Scarpino













Harvey Fein











Jacques Vesery











John Wessels











Wood and glass by Steve Worcester

















Gary Sanders














Bill Neddow















Ed Kelle











Richard Raffan


















Stephen Hatcher
















Rhapsody in Red by Jerry Bennett - another of my all-time favorites from this symposium.

















Derek Weidman received an AAW purchase award - congratulations to Derek!









Ken Deaner







This was the first year for the AAW to have artists in residence during the symposium. This year's residents were Louise Hibbert and Sarah Parker Jones. They worked on a small radiolarian box that they then donated to the Saturday night auction.

There were several cabinets nearby with their work for sale. It was really great to see so many of their collaborative pieces.

























Sarah does the metalwork for these collaborations and Louise does the turning, carving and surface enhancements.











There was a steady stream of onlookers, but not nearly as many as I had thought would be there. The location was off to one side of the huge room, and maybe that had something to do with it. Maybe it was because this was the first year and there weren't a lot of shavings being thrown off a lathe.







Here's Sarah and Louise enjoying themselves.










I did a quick walk-through part of the trade show on Friday afternoon as well. All of the major vendors have professional demonstrators. This booth featured Johannes Michelson.










He was busy, so I didn't stop to chat.

















My favorite vendor - Vicky Jordan. She's always so cheerful and fun to visit.









Steve Worcester and his sanding packs











Curt Theobald's new family member. Wow!















The only other rotation I sat through, besides Benoít's morning one on French woodturning, was J. Paul Fennell's demonstration on shipping fragile work.










Paul gave a lot of good information about the details of packing materials and cardboard cartons and then demonstrated the correct way to pack a fragile piece. He used an egg.










After he threw the carton across the room, he unpacked the box to show that the egg hadn't broken. Someone thought it was a boiled egg, so Paul is offering to toss it to him.














Nope - it's a raw egg.

Brief interruption to AAW postings

Greetings from Arrowmont! I'm going to be very busy over the next few days so I doubt very much whether I'll have time to post pictures and text from the AAW symposium. The bad news is that I'm going to be tied up on other things this week while I'm teaching a woodturning/surface enhancement techniques course. The good news is that I'm going to have a lot more blog fodder from my visit to John and Patti Hill and then Arrowmont.

2008 AAW Symposium - Part IV; Friday morning

Friday, June 20, 2008. The first rotation began at 8:30 am, and I went to see Benoít Averly's presentation on Woodturning in France. He had two very nice computer graphic presentations to show the work entered into the most recent AFTAB exhibitions.

There were a few technical glitches initially, but between the room assitant, Malcom Zander (on left), Benoít, and myself, we were able to get the computer to talk to the projector.




I missed the next rotation so that I could see what was in the instant gallery. There are more than 1000 entries each symposium, and so there is no way for me to show every entry. I'll post pictures of a biased representation. The bias is from my own interests in things that are just brown and round. There will be some of that represented, too, but most of my photos are of manipulated turnings.

Jerry Bennett had two very nice entries in the instant gallery. This was a smaller sculpture of reassembled sections of turnings.









A ceremonial bowl by Bill Neddow. This is the first of this style that I've seen from Bill.
















Andi Wolfe - turned and carved vessels. The two on the right are in my "hidden world" series. The one on the top right is in two parts that can interact with one another.










Banksia pod turnings by David Datwyler.











An amazing sculpture by Malcolm Zander. Malcolm continues to raise the bar each year.

















Carved turnings by Michael Kehs.









Elaborate assemblies of pierced turnings by Joey Richardson.










Three wonderful pieces by Pascal Oudet.














A closer look of one of Pascal's entries.















Neil Kagan sculptures.











Jim Rinde uses epoxy and wood to make interesting designs in his bowls and other turnings.







"Over the Rainbow (a menopause moment" by Gerrit Van Ness. I laughed out loud when I saw this one. . .















John Wessels was here from South Africa and brought these beautiful bowls that are a combination of pewter inlay and South African timbers. The top tow have red ivory; the bottom one is made from hard pear. You can look for these to be in del Mano's Small Treasures show next year.





After the second rotation on Friday, I was on duty in the Spheres Exhibit. I was to keep an eye out for potential disasters ala backpacks, purses, bags, etc. that might accidently bump into a piece. You'd be surprised at how upset some ladies become when asked to put their handbags aside to the wall while they are looking at the exhibit. Unfortunately, we've had those kinds of accidents in the special exhibits and instant galleries. Everyone thinks they have their cameras and bags under control, but one small slip can mean disaster. So, I blanketly apologize to anyone who became upset about the restrictions, but it really is a necessary thing to do. I hope anyone visiting the exhibits and instant gallery in the future is courteous to the staff who volunteer their time to help everyone have a good experience.






Whilst I was on duty, Jon Sauer came in to see the exhibit. We hadn't met before and I've been a big admirer of his ornamental turnings. He just so happened to have a bag full of small pieces, and so he pulled them out for me to examine.













I think he does some of the best ornamental turning in the world right now. It was a real treat to be able to see these up close.

2008 AAW Symposium - Part III; Turned for Use II

The Turned for Use II exhibit opened on Thursday night, June 19, at Gallery 5. This was about a mile's walk from the convention center through a scary neighborhood. Not the best of plans, but there is safety in numbers.

The gallery is a converted fire station, and the building is pretty cool looking, inside and out.




The theme of the show was based on useful objects and so there were a number of pepper mills and traditional bowls. I'm sure I missed a few of the entries, or the pictures I took didn't turn out well - sorry about that. . .

The pepper mill on top was made Dennis Cloutier. Jerry Gilman made the two on the lower left. The salad bowl and server are by Allen Jensen.



There was a pretty good turnout, despite the scary walk from the convention center. I suppose that many attendees had driven to Richmond, but for those of us who flew in, cabs were non-existent in this part of town.











L to R, top to bottom: Fruit bowl, Richard Corson; Ball vase (a magician's prop), Angelo Iafrate; Communion set, James McClure; Double rimmed bowl; Mark Sfirri.













Kitchen set by Mike Mahoney. This was my favorite entry in the show.












However, these His and Hers plungers (Take the plunge) by Jim Burrowes gave Mike's entry some close competition.














Twisted, but still stable. This is an offcenter turned stool by Bruce Campbell. Bruce had a bunch of necklaces in this motif that he distributed to some of the ladies at the symposium. I have a nice one to add to my collection of turned necklaces - thanks, Bruce!













Chess set by Beth Stanfield.












Stool by Ralph Watts
















Bowl by Dale Larson, pepper mills by Don Leman.








Carving knife by Del Stubbs. Del was one of the jurors for the show. It was so great to see his work on display. The woodturning community misses his contributions.








The small box on the left was made by Mark Nadeau, the vessel on top is a cremation urn by Jack Rogers. The catalog shows a lid, but maybe that was behind the title card.













This tall vessel is an umbrella stand by Jim Bumpas.















Awl mine by Alan Lacer.










L t R: nut bowl by Frederick Williamson, enclosed spin top by Charles Henderson.











L to R: box by Mike Stafford, goblet by Barbara Gill, ornamental box by Dewey Garrett, glasses by Keith Holt.











Cardiac Lamp by John Lucas.
















Stool by Stephan Goetschius. This was made during a residency at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The "IUP" acronym is twisted here to mean, "I usually party."
















Mandolin by Bernie Hyrtzak.















Djembe by Ralph Thomas, Udu by Art Liestman. I was really tempted to try out these two instruments. I played a clay udu on my solo CD, An Obair, which will be released in a couple of weeks. You can hear some tracks of my new CD at my MySpace page. I'll have more information posted on my blog in a couple of weeks, but I am taking pre-orders now.













An interesting chandelier by Kristen Levier.
















More people enjoying the opening.














vessel by Edward Koenig















Jewelry box by Fred Klap - a clever design.
















Caroline Harkness - pierced earring stand. My mother-in-law saw one of these in the "Beneath the Bark" exhibit catalog and remarked how much she liked it.
















Doll lounging chair by Lonnie Combs















L to R: bowl by Gary Pollard, platter by Stephen Hatcher, flower bowl by Bill Tilson.











Stool by Stephen Hogbin.















Kick spindle by Jim Echter.














Bagpipes by Ray Hughes.
















This was a fire truck from the good ol' days that was on display off the main floor galleries.










A mixed media sculpture by Joseph Whitfield was in the same gallery as the fire truck. Hmmmmm - the title is "7th Age." I have no idea what tht means in the context of this sculpture.