Monday, May 26, 2008

Best of 2008 show



J. Paul Fennell's visit to the Central Ohio Woodturners was a huge success. We were able to squeeze in a visit after he finished teaching. I took him to the Ohio Craft Museum to see the current exhibit, "Best of 2008." Several club members had work accepted into this exhibit.









Here's my piece: "Imagine the hidden world #4."














This beautiful necklace was made by Cynthia Cetlin. It's made from copper and has a lovely patina applied with some coloring process.














"Diffusion study" by Lisa Wilson. This is hammered silver.










Untitled. Josh Foy, made from stoneware.


















Ceramic teapot by Scott Dooley.

















Fiber art by Herbert Friedson

















"Choosing sides" by Julie Byrn










"A kiss is just a kiss" by Jim Bowling

















"Genetic hybrid" by Denise Romecki











"Juggling Dog" by Janis Mars Wunderlich
















"Masu series 19030" by Kaname Takada


















"The art of letting go" by Cindy Billingsley













My photo of the label didn't work on this one, but this is a paper ceramic technique. I really liked these bowls.













Ditto on this fiber art.













"Beaked pair" by Page Candler (stoneware)















"Addiction" by Mike Wallace (glass and enamel)














"Laundry time" by Janis Mars Wunderlich
















"Balls, black & white" by Deborah Bewley


















"Soular sensations" by Ramana Hawa















"Family romance" by Janis Mars Wunderlich











Miniatures by Tadashi Kotzuml











Work by Lesley Schug












"Memory objects - back yard" by Jennifer Holt















Jeff Piggle



It seemed as if a lot of the works in this show were on an industrial theme.












Vessel by Barbara Crockett












Containers by Carla Longley

Friday, May 23, 2008

Last recital for Columbus American School for Double Bass

The American School for Double Bass in Columbus is closing. This is because Mark Morton, the artistic director and principle bassist for the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, has taken a job at Texas Tech University. We're all very sad about this and about the possibility that the CSO might be going under.





The final school recital was on May 4th. Meghan played a selection by Faure.


















Take a bow, Meghan.
















Mark Morton played some Bottecini.
















It's always such a pleasure to hear Mark play at these recitals. I'm going to miss him.

















Mark also played a Chopin etude. Very nice!










Shao-Lan Lee is Meghan's teacher and she always plays a piece for the recital, also. Meghan will continue her studies with Shao-Lan.









Mark Morton and Shao-Lan Lee.

Home improvement, wren style



May 4, 2008. A morning walk around the OSU wetlands park yielded a nice surprise. We're always on the lookout for nesting activities this time of year, and we spotted this freshly excavated space.









Look who's home - a House Wren.












He was very busy cleaning out stuff , making the hole bigger, and bringing in nesting materials.











After each trip, he'd get on a branch near the opening and advertise this prime real estate.












Hmmmm - this is a problem to be solved. He couldn't take the twig in like that.
















After several attempts, he did manage to get it into the nest.











Hey, sweetie! Look at the nest I'm building. Come and get it. Strings attached, but the the house is great. Hey, sweetie!













Other sightings: The spectacular Great Blue Heron.












Song Sparrow.














Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

J. Paul Fennell visits Central Ohio Woodturners - - Part II

The second half of J. Paul Fennell's demonstration focused on surface enhancement and carving techniques. Paul started the afternoon session by talking about design inspirations. He shared a couple of books, including: "Photography and the art of seeing." I can't remember the name of the other book and I forgot to snap a picture of it. Maybe Paul will send me a note to remind me and I'll update the blog to include the title.





The first texturing technique was pretty cool. Scored, parallel lines along the length of a turning. Paul first prepped a surface to use for the demonstration.








The scored lines are put in using a homemade tool that can cut evenly spaced grooves into the wood. The last groove of each pass serves as the guide for the next set.








This is Paul's grooving tool. It's a file with a cutter of several teeth soldered to the end.











Here's a closer look at the tool and its components.












The cutting teeth are from a die for tapping holes. Parallel edges are ground down to leave a flat surface where the teeth from two sides are exposed.














A length of this is snapped off and soldered to the file to make the grooving tool.
















It's a pretty cool effect. I've seen several of Paul's hollow forms that have this texturing. It adds a wonderful dimension to a beautiful turning. At one point, Paul was adding metal leaf over the grooved surface and that added another interesting effect.






The grooves can be deepened using another homeade tool - basically a point tool where two sides are ground as in a skew and the top surface is slightly relieved into a negative rake. It's kind of a hybrid between a scraper and a skew.
















Here's the side profile.












Before Paul started his carving demonstration, he talked about design layout. He uses a grid system where he draws lines onto the vessel prior to drawing the pattern. To facilitate making this layout graphing paper, he designed an indexing system where you can put any number of divisions onto the vessel. This is the wheel part of it. I didn't get a good detail shot of how the pin set-up works, but you can see the slots in the wheel. He has a sliding stop that fits into each of those grooves.





Alas, poor Yorick!

Alternatively, it could be "The thinker."

However, it was the vessel Paul was using for his carving demo.







Paul used an air-driven power carver that runs at 400,000 rpm. This particular one is made by NSK.








Paul made a manifold to run 6 carvers simultaneously for his hands-on class. After using it the next day, he's going to do some tweaking of the design.








This is a really neat design where the grooves have sharp edges.










Tool marks are cleaned up using small sanding disks placed in a micromotor tool. Paul uses double-sided masking tape to connect the disk to the mandrel. Disks of various sizes are cut with a leather punch.








This is going to be a really neat piece when it is finished. The wood is Eucalyptus, and it has some stunning figure.








Paul showed his piercing technique using a thin piece of wood.











A bit of heat is generated.










Here are some of the designs Paul showed us.












A few more here.











Paul has started an online company called "BursforCarving.com." All of the burs he demonstrated are available here. They are topnotch dental lab burs and I've been beta testing them. I highly recommend you try them if you are a woodcarver.






The last technique Paul demonstrated was a texturing pattern that used an engraver and a variable speed controller.







Paul used a rounded over nail to vibrate a random pattern over the surface.

The afternoon session went very well and everyone enjoyed the demonstration and the time spent with Paul.