Thursday, October 04, 2007

A visit to the Apple Ridge Woodturners

13 Sep 2007

I taught a hands-on class at John C. Campbell Folk school the weekend of Sept. 15th (Friday night - Sunday noon). The Apple Ridge Woodturners invited me to give a demo for their club meeting on the 13th since I would be in the area.

Gary Gardner picked me up at the Atlanta airport and drove me to Blue Ridge, GA to visit his partner's gallery there. Sherry Darling is the owner and primary driving force of this venture.




It's a very nice gallery featuring wood turnings, wood art, pottery, fiber art, gourd art, jewelry and 2D work. That's Gary in the yellow shirt and Sherry behind the counter.










I brought a couple of my decorated turnings for the John C. Campbell instructor exhibit. Since I had them with me, I brought them out for Sherry to see as well.









She liked them, I think. I'll be sending her some work as soon as catch up on my backlog.









We went next door to a great restaurant for a nice lunch. Sherry Darling and Gary Gardner. They were wonderful hosts for my visit to the Apple Ridge Woodturners. I stayed at their home that evening - a lovely log home that was very comfortable.







The Apple Ridge woodturners meet at a fire house near Blue Ridge. This is a chair that was to be raffled. I can't remember the maker's name, and I forgot to write it down.














Here are a few of the turnings on their show-and-tell table. You can see that someone has taken a class with Binh Pho.









Gary sets up a retail shop for the club meetings and sells tools and supplies.

I enjoyed my visit to the club - they had a good turnout and they were all very nice.




This is Gary's shop - it's much bigger than my house, but I've come to expect that of most serious turners. My house is pretty small, but most of these shops are twice as big as my home. Am I envious? Not really. I have a hard enough time keeping my basement shop tidy, and I do seem to have everything I need. I wouldn't mind some extra space to have a photo studio and a packing room, though. Maybe someday. . .

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