Mark Sfirri visits Central Ohio Woodturners - Day 1

Mark Sfirri visited Central Ohio Woodturners this weekend for two days of hands-on classes and an all day demo. The class on Friday was a bit more exciting than usual since we had a huge winter storm with wind gust up to 60 mph. Those wind gusts resulted in tree limbs knocking out power lines, and Barbara's shop was affected along with a large area of the greater Columbus region. Oops - no power, no turning, and some rearrangement of evening plans. We were going to have a reception for Mark at Barbara's house, but the power didn't come on for the rest of the afternoon. John Belland graciously offered his home, even though his power was also out. However, John has a generator and we were able to have electricity for the evening. Thanks John!

After everyone had arrived, Barbara made a presentation of a belated "birthday" cake to Mark (Jim Burrowes is watching). Barbara Crockett, Jim Burrowes, and Walt Betley had taken Jean-Francois Escoulen's two week course on eccentric turning at Arrowmont last July. Mark Sfirri was a guest artist in Jean-Francois' course the second week of the class. During that time, Barbara celebrated a birthday and she received a very nice cake and party in her honor.





Mark had commented that his birthday was about the same time and no one thought to give him a cake. So, Barbara and Jean-Francois turned a cake out of wood, using Jean-Francois' eccentric faceplate. Barbara finished it off with acrylic paste "frosting" and Mark was delighted to receive a cake for his belated birthday.






Well, he thought he was receiving a chocolate cake. . . "Now, what do I do with this?????"










It does look good enough to eat. . .












"Someone left the cake out in the rain . . . "










John Belland has a beautiful half grand piano in his living room and he delighted our ears with a couple of movements from sonatas and some big band era tunes.






Why is it that most parties tend to be concentrated in the kitchen? Is it because that's where all the nice munchies and bottles of wine were hanging about?

L to R: Jamie Donaldson (taking a break from Winterfair), John Belland, Steve Wolfe in the background, and Craig Wright.






L to R: Shan Donaldson (also taking a break from Winterfair), Walt Betley, and Bruce and Nancy Kearns.









Mark and Steve sat on a bench to allegedly talk about cameras, but I suspect they were talking about other things as well (. . . "she just does what she wants and goes where she wants to go." Poor Steve!).








All good parties must eventually come to an end, and we ended the evening back in the kitchen to wash dishes.