Arrowmont 2008 - Part II

July 8, 2008. Tuesday.

This was the day I had planned for the students to learn how to see the world a bit differently. I started out with a slide show of my own design inspirations. Then we spent the rest of the day working with digital cameras to take photos of textures, forms, shades of color, and light.

Most of my students told me that they will never see the world in the same way again and that they now know how to find inspiration for design ideas. That's a successful exercise in my book.

I'll post images from the exercise in my next entry to the blog.

We spent the morning walking around the Arrowmont campus - taking digital photos of everything imaginable. The early afternoon was spent across the street at the aquarium, and then I spent the rest of the day doing one-on-one with students to look at their images. From the several hundred photos, I had them narrow it down to eight of their favorite images.




Part of the fun of this exercise was in exploring campus in a different way. This is the porch of the staff house. The Shaker rocking chairs, the siding, screens, floor, art objects - all were selected for study.







I took them into the lounge area to look at the various art objects. Again, this was a lot of material for digital photo studies.









I really enjoyed staying in the staff house. The lounge area was a very relaxing place to hang out at the end of the day.










The staff lounge had an entrance to the dining hall, too, so it was pretty convenient to get from my room to the main hangout for meals.






The next stop on our photo exercise tour was the main building. I had the students walk through the faculty art exhibit and explore ideas for texture there. This is Damon McIntyre, the resident wood artist for this year. When he found out what I was doing for this part of the class, he asked if he could tag along. We all enjoyed having him participate in this exercise.






While the students were exploring, I popped into a couple of the studios that are in the main buidling. This was the metal class taught by Tom McCarthy (standing at the blackboard).









The faculty gallery space. Hal examing one of the wall hangings.









Myra doing some close-up images.












The fiber studio. They were having way too much fun this week.










Iza Taylor (in the apron), teaching the glass class.











The glass studio










I had shown part of this hallway in my previous post. This is the entire area with all the postcards and posters. It's pretty cool. I spent a bit of time studying the pictures.








A view of the bookstore. Wow - this was another incredible resource. I bought some books on ceramics, inspiration, philosophy, and several other media. I would have like a couple of hours extra to explore it further.





I had been getting up early in the morning to do a walk before breakfast. I had walked along the river in Gatlinburg and it really didn't sink into my at that time of day what a tourist trap Gatlinburg really is. When we walked across the street to the aquarium after lunch, it was pretty obvious that this is a vacation destination. I'm not quite sure what the attraction is, but people come here by the thousands.



The main drag was chock full of cars and people. I have to confess that this kind of place is not where I would choose to vacation. I want to be away from people in natural areas when I take a break from it all. To each his own, I suppose.

Arrowmont is an oasis away from this chaos. While you're in the studio, the world goes on without your input.






The aquarium is, apparently, one of the vacation draws. There were a gazillion people in here, which made photography a real challenge. The lighting is also very dim, which posed some other challenges. However, the images that came from this part of the day were really fantastic and will provide a lot of design ideas for everyone in the class. Stay tuned for those pics in the next post.

Arrowmont 2008 - Part I

6 July 2008 - First day at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

I wasn't sure what to expect in doing a one-week class, since my longest class is usually a two-day hands-on over a weekend. I was a bit nervous about the prospect of keeping a bunch of people busy for such a long time. I needn't have worried - the time went so fast and we could have used another couple of days!

New instructors are given an orientation tour of the school, which I found to be very helpful.



Bill Griffith is the Assistant Director of the school and he gave us a lot of good information along the way, including some of the history of the school.

We started up at the staff house, which is where all the instructors stay. It's also where the dining hall is located and so everyone gathers there three times a day. The food was pretty good, which was a nice surprise.




The old red barn is one of the historic buildings on campus. It's used now as a student dorm, but it wasn't in use during my week at Arrowmont.









The main building on campus houses several art studios, the administration offices, the store, the library (what a wonderful resource!) plus the gallery space and an auditorium. The lounge is in the basement of this building.

This is the view from the entrance near the staff house. The fountains are a welcoming sight. Just beyond the stone wall is the gallery space.











Studios are labeled above the door. You don't really get a sense of what's in there until you walk into the studio. Each one is well equipped with state-of-the-art gadgets and supplies.









The metal studio was being used this week for and introduction to metalsmithing class - oriented toward jewelry. I have photos from later in the week, but it looks very much like a wood studio to me.











You have to keep your eyes open or you'll miss some of the art gems that are tucked away into nooks and crannies. That was one of the delightful things I found about walking around campus. You really live with art for a week.








Here's a glimpse of the gallery. The summer faculty art show was going on. I didn't get something together in time to have a piece in the show. Next time. . .







The recreation lounge is open 24/7. I didn't see much of this all week. I was too busy in the studio - either helping students, working on stuff, or practicing music. I had brought my fiddle and hammer dulcimer along because of the gigs I had coming up for July and August.








The hallway coming out of the lounge is covered in postcards of artwork from the faculty that has taught at Arrowmont.










A quick look at the ceramics studio.










This is what greeted me in the wood studio. Mike Lee and Stony Lamar had been there the previous two-week session. I got a real kick out of Mike leaving me a reminder about the fun we had running rock in 2007.






On Sunday evening, after dinner, all the classes begin. I started my session with a lot of general information, including a rough draft of a schedule for the week. We certainly changed this as we went - especially by using the wood studio auditorium for powerpoint presentations.








Here are some of the students - I had eight altogether, plus Evelyn Lahti as my able assistant.

L to R: Hal, Bill, Mel, Bob, and Myra.






We did some turning on Sunday evening and Monday. Here's Tom and Hal.

Students got busy right away with starting some surface enhancement techniques.







Bill Stephenson had been there the previous two weeks and stayed on for a third to take my class. He was a real fount of knowledge for everyone. He's taken 23 classes, or something like that, at Arrowmont. He was a heck of a nice guy, too.








Bob on the lathe while most of the class was back at the carving bench.









Busy, busy, busy. The carving part was focused on surface textures. Everyone seemed to enjoy this part of the class.










We used everything from Dremels to Foredom to NSK and Powercrafters. Whatever anyone had.

My favorite tool for this work is the NSK Z-500.

A visit with John and Patti Hill - part III

6 July 2008 - This post should really be titled, "Guinea fowl chicks and shop tips." I headed over to Arrowmont just before noon, but the morning was full of fun because the guinea fowl chicks started to hatch. I sure enjoyed my visit with the Hills!




John keeps his egg incubator in the utility room. He heard the peeps from the kitchen. He brought out a transport carton to hold the chicks while he moved them from the egg trays to the upper part of the incubator.









He had to get the top part of the cabinet ready for its new tenants.















The chicks had fallen down to the bottom of the cabinet and had to be captured from there.










Looks like about 6 should be there.











John grabbed them and handed each one to me. They were sooooo cute! They don't stay that way for long, though.








The pipped eggs were transferred to a screened box so the chicks couldn't fall to the bottom after hatching.













Their next home to be was out in the garage.















John spent a bit of time getting everything ready for the chicks to be transferred.









Some feed in a tray. . .











An old towel on the mesh to keep the chicks from having trouble walking there. . .











check the thermostat and heater to make sure it works . . .









water and more feed --- ready for chicks!









Time for some shop tips. The first one is on setting the laser pointer on a hollowing rig. The usual way is to use a card with a line as a guide.











John made a series of jigs out of dowel rods to show the appearance of the laser beam on the outside edge of a turning.









Here's what they look like. You can see the different wall thicknesses represented. You put the flat edge against the tool cutter and set the laser on the curved side of the jig.














Another tip was for protecting the tool rest from parting tools. John made a cover for the tool rest so that it doesn't get chewed up when a catch occurs.








Buffing wheel adaptation - to protect one's knuckles from the nut that holds the cloth wheel into the mandrel.









Yep - that's more finger friendly than a hex nut.













A goblet buffer that goes into a four jaw chuck.










This is a holder for background paper that is used to examine the profile of a turning - especially offcenter work where one has to see the shadow line clearly.









Having the paper upright keeps the shavings from accumulating.












A convenient holder for sanding discs.
















Organization for the sanding rolls, too.










A ball mill for hollowing. I've seen several turners use this kind of cutter for hollowing and it works very well.