Catching up on past events - Clay Foster visits Central Ohio Woodturners, April 4, 2009

I'm very, VERY behind on blog posts, primarily because I had so much travel time last year. I'm trying to catch up on photo processing. Here are some pics from a visit Clay Foster paid to the Central Ohio Woodturners nearly a year ago (Apr 4, 2009).





Wood Werks is very kind to the Central Ohio Woodturners by providing the space for our visiting demonstrators. Ron Damon introduced Clay Foster.











Clay pointed out Krum, Texas, where he used to live.












The first project he demonstrated was a two-part hollow form.

















The project starts between centers and is turned end grain. A tenon is cut on both ends.












Clay's go/no go template for the chuck tenon.











We had an average size group for a visiting demonstrator. I wish more of our local members would realize how great it is to see a professional demonstrator and to recognize what a bargain it is.









Clay demonstrated his technique for sharpening a gouge. He work the top of the gouge first.












Next he touches up the wings of the flute.













A bevel relief is put on the heel.












The shape of the hollow form is turned between centers. The parting line is marked.













Clay had a good time messing with the group that was in attendance.
















Parting through the future hollow form.


















Each half is hollowed. He's basically making a big box that will be glued back together.










The two halves need to be absolutely true. One half has a tenon, the other has the "lid" recess.













Checking the fit.













Signing the interior space. "Only a proctologist will be able to find my signature," said Clay.










Preparing a cabinet scraper, which will be used to clean up the surface.












Jim Burrowes gets a kick out of Clay's stories.












An attentive group, glued to the project screen where all the details are shown from the camera angle.











Using the cabinet scraper to clean up the surface.










Turning the opening.














"What's that?"











Clay also demonstrated how to do a multi-axis hollow form.













The form is turned on more than one axis.












These lines are guides for where to place the spur drive and live center.












Pretty exciting turning going on here.












Booker Brooks takes meticulous notes.












Cutting detail grooves.













Ready for hollowing.













You have to know what's going on.













Finished demo projects.












One of Clay's classic hollow forms.












Some of the tools he used.













An egg shell decorative motif.











Some of the surface enhancement supplies.














Clay applied glue to the interior surface of a broken egg shell.



















Then he flattened it onto a surface.












Colored grouting was applied. After this sets, the excess will be sanded off and the egg shell mosaic will appear.










Clay showed how he does his print motifs, also.














The final surface enhancment technique he demonstrated was his mud relief scorching. He "draws" a design in mud.

















Next he scorches around the mud resist.

















A bit of liming wax or other contrasting material can then be rubbed into the design.

Great Horned owlets

Great Horned owlets, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Three owlets in the nest. These are causing quite a stir in Columbus. I hope all the activity isn't too much for the parents.

Chamber Music Connection - you should know about this program!

Yesterday was the Winter 2010 Finale concerts for the Chamber Music Connection. This is such an amazing program that I want to let the world know about what's going on here. Chamber Music Connection is a program for K-12 students to learn and perform chamber music. The first session was in 1998, although the roots for this program go back to 1992. The artistic director and founder is Deborah Barrett Price. The program has recruited and produced some amazing chamber musicians, including groups that have been medal winners in the Fischoff and St. Paul competitions.

Every year, hundreds of young musicians are coached by professional musicians from the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Pro Musica, music faculty from universities in Ohio, and professional Chamber Musicians from visiting quartets and other chamber groups performing in the Chamber Music Columbus series at the Southern Theater. Autumn and Winter sessions include a series of concerts, including jazz, chamber orchestras and chamber ensembles. Master classes for all the ensembles are featured in every session. The spring and summer sessions include some intensive all-day workshops and master classes as well as finale concerts. These concerts are truly amazing and it's wonderful to watch the progression of our youngest musicians into accomplished chamber players over the course of just a few years.

Several of our young musicians have been featured in the "From the Top" series of radio and television shows. This YouTube video (Mendelssohn Quartet, Op. 13 I. Adagio. Allegro vivace, featuring Kaho Sugawara, Rebekah Lee, Rachel Kufchak and Kyle Price) that I filmed at yesterday's performance will give you an idea of how talented our program students are:



The programs is so successful that CMC has outgrown their available space for teaching students chamber music. I'm sure Deborah Price would be very interested in hearing from potential sponsors on coming up with a permanent solution to the space issues the Chamber Music Connection is facing.

This program is truly a hidden gem in central Ohio. If you enjoy chamber music and want to help promote the future of this genre, please consider supporting the program.

Acer Embrace

This project was started in November 2009 and finished February 12, 2010. It was the most challenging piece I've done thus far - primarily because of the small amount of interior space, which made carving very, VERY! challenging. Photos are by Jerry Anthony Photography.





I started with a hollow form that 10 X 7.5 inches with 1 - 1.5 inch walls, and it weighed about 5 lbs. The finished piece has super thin walls - paper thin in many places and probably < 1/16 inch in the rest of the piece. It weighs 4 oz after all the carving was complete.

This is my favorite view because it gives a window to the interior space. The curvature of the "arms" is why I named the piece "Acer embrace."










This is the view that is 180° from the image above.
















A detail shot. The wood is Ambrosia maple (sugar maple that was infected with beetle larvae).












You can see a series of progress photos on my Facebook page. This album shows the initial rough-out stages of the piece through the finished carving.

I also posted a series of videos on YouTube. I don't really have the ability to show this kind of work in a demonstration, but these short videos give some of the details.

Carving a hollow form - Part 1

Carving a hollow form - Part 2

Carving a hollow form - Part 3

Carving a hollow form - Part 4

Glamour rose in black & white

Glamour rose in black & white, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Just having fun with Nik Software plug-ins for Aperture. This is a dark red rose against a green background with beautiful boka. I used Silver Efex Pro to convert the color image to black and white and then used Color Efex Pro to do the soft focus and glamor glow effects. I kind of like the total effect.

Dachshund bathtime

Subtitle of this post - "Shake, baby, shake!" I laugh everytime I watch this!

What's with all this white stuff????

Have you heard about all the snow we've been getting in Columbus, Ohio? Well, it's been pretty interesting around here during February.

Come to think of it, the snow didn't really get started until after Ground Hog's Day when Mr. Rodent saw his shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter.







Over the past two weeks we've had two big storms that dumped about 10 inches each time. The snow was so bad that campus closed Feb 16, 2010. That so rarely happens, but, when it does it generally means that we've been dumped upon - literally!



Orton Hall from across the oval.












Another view of Orton Hall.













University Hall.













The front approach to the Thompson library. The statue is of William Oxley Thompson - the fifth president of the university.

Rose experiment

Rose experiment, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

I bought a focusing rail system and gave it a tryout today. I used my Canon EF 100 mm f2.8 lens. The light source was a window, which gave the flower a beautiful soft lighting.

Here's a black & white version, processed in Silver Efex Pro.

Nearly finished - close enough for a video

One, maybe two coats of oil left to apply, but I'm calling this one done for now. I started it in November, finished it today. Countless hours of nerve-wracking work. What a challenge!

Yet another video on carving this project

This video clip should have the title of my last post. Here I am demonstrating the meticulous detail work that goes into finishing one of my sculptures after the carving is all done.

The devil is in the details

Wood Sculpture II, originally uploaded by SWolfeNI8W.

I finished carving, but now there are countless hours ahead for detail work. I use small files and diamond rasps together with a variety of sanding methods to clean up the tool marks and smooth the surface. It seems rather tedious, but I find this work to be somewhat relaxing. I'm so focused that I lose track of time. For example, this evening I spent more than 5 hours at my carving bench without a break and I was surprised when Steve came down to the shop to say goodnight.

Still making progress

I just hope I can finish this on time.












Here's another video clip showing the detail carving with a Powercrafter and then some detail sanding with a Pfingst micro sander.




Progress pics are posted on my FaceBook page.

Progress pics on latest project

I've been working on a very complicated and challenging carved hollow form. Here's a video clip showing the carving on one of the last of the interior leaf surfaces. There are 18 leaves to carve on this hollow form that was 10 X 7.5 inches when I turned it. The wall thickness was 1 - 1.3 inches initially.



Progress pics are posted on my FaceBook page.

My new toy

Flying pig ornament, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Merry Christmas to me! I received a Canon EF 100 mm f/2.8 Macro IS USM lens -woooohoooo!

I gave it a trial run this morning, using my old ring flash that I used with my 35 mm film SLR. My new lens has a filter size of 67 mm, but my ring flash is for 52 mm. I put an adapter ring on. I was worried that the reduced ring size would have a big impact on the imaging, but, aside from losing some of the field of view, it worked just fine.

Here are some of my ornaments and flower shots from today using the ring flash:



My Lesotho angel - collected in 2003.



Richard's first Christmas ornament.



An Ndebele ornament, collected in South Africa.



One of my dachshund ornaments - definitely not a portrait of Emma. She was quite a hellion today.



Steve's new ornament that his folks gave to him.

Some flower shots:









And now for the penultimate scary shot (the scariest was of Steve's nose!):

Sunrise over Waterman Farm

Sunrise over Waterman Farm, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

This morning brought the most spectacular sunrise I've ever seen in central Ohio. What a wonderful way to start the day, and what a nice reminder that the winter solstice has come and gone and the days will be getting longer.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas (or other significant religious or non-religious celebration of the season). Christmas 1999 was the first day I did any turning and so tomorrow marks my 10th anniversary as a wood turner. What an amazing ride that has been.

Ten years ago on my birthday in October, Steve gave me a minilathe. It sat in the box until Christmas morning because I didn't have any turning tools. So, Christmas rolls around and there's a big, clunky box under the tree. I thought it was probably something for the kitchen and so I was less than enthusiastic about opening it. I had made a family rule some years before then that no one was to give me a utilitarian gift for the kitchen (after having received, year after year, the gamut of small kitchen appliances and gadgets, which usually meant more work for me).

I think that big clunky box was the last to be opened. I was so very pleasantly surprised to find a set of wood turning tools. I knew nothing about sharpening, didn't have a grinder, but I really, really wanted to give them a try and so I rushed down to the basement, pulled the lathe out of its box, set it up on my workbench (much, much too high for turning), put a piece of wood between centers and started, right then, to teach myself to turn. Catches? You bet! I learned from each one of them.

I have a wonderful neighbor across the street. His name is Walt Betley and he's been turning now for 77 years (he's 88). He soon set me straight on the proper use of my new tools and he sharpened the set for me. Needless to say, I bought a grinder and sharpening supplies and straight away learned the value of sharp tools.

I took every project across the street to Walt for his honest critique. He's a retired army colonel and so had no qualms whatsoever in telling me what was wrong with each piece. However, he also told me how to fix it. I well remember the day when I took a bowl over for his critique and he handed it back to me without a single criticism. That was within six months of the beginning of my adventures as a wood turner.

Funny thing about turning bowls and gift items and not being able to give them all away: I got bored with brown and round before the end of my first year as a wood turner. I walked into our local Woodcraft one day and saw a whole wall of carving chisels. Simple surface enhancements in the form of lines and divots soon ensued. Not long after that I discovered acrylic paints in one of the craft stores. The sign above the display said something about their being useful for painting wood. Hmmmmmmm - I think you can see how my style of work had its beginning.

Carving, painting, wood burning, whatever - I wanted to see what would happen and I experimented to my heart's content. I didn't know I was breaking tradition - I was just pursuing my curiosity.

I went to my first AAW symposium in 2001. I brought three small painted and textured bowls with me to display in the instant gallery. I sold all of them - imagine my shock and pleasant surprise. The next year I attended the symposium I brought the first of my botanical motif designs. My large platter was selected for the instant gallery critique, and I was invited to exhibit with del Mano gallery. Shock of all shocks! I had been turning for all of 2.5 years and was invited by the premier gallery of craft art? Wow!

Needless to say, I wasn't quite prepared for that kind of attention since I didn't even know I had any artistic talent. I had always thought that artistic talent meant you could draw or paint. I can't draw, and didn't think I knew anything about painting. How wrong I was. I discovered, through working with wood, that I can envision things in 3D and bring my visions to life. I taught myself to paint, and I'm self taught in turning and carving. I do take every opportunity to take a class with a master turner when we have visitors to the club. I'll continue to learn at every opportunity.

The past 10 years has been a wonderful journey in discovering and expressing my artistic talent. I feel so fortunate to have a great job, a great family, good health, and the time to play with wood. I've met so many interesting people through wood turning and have seen a lot of interesting places through my demonstration opportunities. I'm represented by del Mano gallery, The American Art Company, The Real Mother Goose gallery, Nina Bliese gallery, and several others when I'm invited to exhibit. Yep, it's been a fantastic 10 years.

Merry Christmas!