Wednesday, September 20, 2006

2006 Rocky Mountain Woodturning Symposium

As I mentioned in my previous post about Cindy Drozda and David Nittmann's workshop, I spent last weekend in Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Woodturning Symposium. The venue was "The Ranch" in Loveland, Colorado - aka, the fairgrounds. I spent the late afternoon and early evening organizing the room where I was assigned for the weekend. Then it was time to go have a bite to eat with the steering committee and other demonstrators.




This is the view looking east from the entrance of the fairgrounds. The sky looked pretty ominous with the mammalaria clouds highlighted by the sunset. That flat landscape is pretty much what you'll see all the way across Colorado, Kansas and beyond.








We had dinner at The Black Steer, but this was the back entrance to the restaurant. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with that kind of signage as a welcome to an eating establishment. Hmmmm.










I sure wasn't expecting Corn Chex as croutons on the salad. That was verrrrry interesting. . . .

The meal was just fine, but this was something new to my experience.







Here's the dinner crowd - too many faces to name here, but I'll point out Dave Wilson on the far right. He's the club president for Rocky Mountain Woodturners, and he was my local host for the weekend. (Thanks, Dave!)










The Saturday night banquet was held at the venue and the caterers did a great job on the food and service.










Here's Lee Carter (L) and Dale Nish (R) having a good time on the trade show floor. These two are good friends who have had a longtime rivalry going on. Lee and Dale, together with Vic Wood from Australia, had a session called, "ask the masters." I was demonstrating during that rotation so, unfortunately, missed this session.








Michael Mocho (L) and David Nittmann (R) - two very talented artists. Michael was one of the other featured demonstrators (along with Dale Larsen, Keith Gotschall and myself). Michael's snapping my picture while I'm snapping theirs.





Don Derry had one continuous demo going on the trade show floor. He had a booth set up to sell his wares. He had a good crowd around everytime I walked past the area.

Trent Bosch was also doing demos on the trade show floor. I can't remember all the vendors, but they included Craft Supplies, Treeline, The Sanding Glove, Woodcraft, and many more. I only had one rotation off during the symposium (the last one), so I didn't have a lot of free time to roam the trade show area. I did manage to spend a couple hundred bucks on new toys.







The rest of these images are from the instant gallery. There were a lot of interesting turnings on display and I enjoyed doing the instant gallery critique with Michael Mocho and Keith Gotschall. I don't feel up to posting several dozen images from the gallery, so here are just a few examples of what was on display.





Miniature chairs by Doc Thode. These were really cool!












Hollow forms by Doug Schneiter.














This is Richard Bailey holding my "Leaf Saturation" bowl, which he had just acquired for his collection. (Thanks, Richard!)
















A lidded vessel by Bruce Hoover. I'm working on a trade with Bruce for one of these sometime in the near future. . .














I liked this vase by Mike Morek - especially the added touch of the dried flower arrangement. I started the instant gallery critique with this piece.












One of Michael Mocho's boxes.
















Cindy Drozda's beautiful lidded vessels. I don't know anyone who does finials as well as she does them.












As previously mentioned, Vic Wood was also at the symposium, and I was privileged to meet him. He contributed a slide show, which showed how he makes these rectangular boxes. I'm kicking myself that I failed to get a picture of Vic. I'll see him next year in Australia, so I must remember to get a photo then.






Here's one of David Nittmann's platters. He also had some miniature basket illusion platters on display - the first ones of these I've seen.











This was my favorite piece in the instant gallery. It's a sculptural piece by Curt Theobald. I wish I could afford to buy it for my collection . . .
















Phil Lackey made this pierced vessel. I liked the form of this one a lot.















Frank Amigo had three large bowls in the instant gallery. We chose this one to include in the instant gallery critique. The basket illusion works very well with the ambrosia maple.

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