Utah 2007 - more about the symposium

The Utah Woodturning symposium takes place on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo. It's a great symposium every year and well organized. Some of the rooms are a bit limited on seating, but nobody seems to mind. I went to many of the rotations, sometimes skimming in just to take a photo or two.


I watched Cindy Drozda's demo on doing a three-sided lidded box where the inside had a larger diameter than the outside (i.e, you cut through the walls). She started this demo with an explanation of how to layout the centers for doing the three axes.

I liked her usage of the large cubic box to illustrate her demo.





Here's Richard Raffan during one of his rotations.











Mark Baker demonstrating surface enhancement techniques.










Stuart Mortimer showing how to cut spirals.











Caitlin Batty with grandfather Allan Batty.













Dale Nish.











Dixie Biggs showing how she does some surface enhancements.









Michael Werner.











Kip Christensen on one of the 10 projects (fast and easy) he demonstrates in just over an hour.











Johannes Rieber turning a canteen.









Cindy Drozda and David Nittmann during their Left Brain/Right Brain demo. This was a great rotation - Brilliant!

Cindy and David tackled the question of how to find one's own voice by copying one of Steve Sinner's classic forms. Cindy started out by taking exact measurements and doing a very close copy through measuring. David then did basically the same shape except without all the measuring. Then they put on a different piece of wood (shorter and fatter) and did a similar shape. By the time they were done with the rotation, the form had evolved into a unique shape and surface treatment.







The Friday night picnic took place at the usual venue up in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains.









The volunteer cooks all did a great job again this year.










The Friday night swap meet had a big turnout, also.











Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or demo room), Stuart Batty is getting ready to throw some shavings.








Terry Scott talking to some new friends.











Paul Fennell had a lot of carving burrs to sell.











L to R: Ron Gerton, Dick Sing, Cindy Sing, Gary Gardner.












Geri Carder and Ron Reeves.









Jason Marlow turning an interesting platter. He did some color printing on the surface after he finished the turning.









Richard Raffan doing a functional plate. He donated this to the raffle and Gigi won it! Woohoo!










The silent auction - lots of great stuff to bid on here. I didn't win any of the bids, but I sure pushed some of them up.








One of the things I like about the Utah Symposium is the closing ceremony. Somehow it just brings closure to a great weekend and gives everyone a chance to say goodbye to new and old friends.

Mike Mahoney and Kip Christensen are working out the logistics of awards and raffle tickets before the start of the ceremony.






Dennis and Gigi Laidler. Dennis has posted a lot of pics of Utah on his blog here.











A bunch of demonstrators up on the stage up front.









There's still a big crowd at the end of the symposium. I think everyone wants to win some raffle prize.









Let the fun begin!











Raffle time - Caitlin and Stuart Batty assisting Mike Mahoney.










After the closing ceremonies. . .

John Wessels, Gigi and Dennis Laidler.









Here I am with some of my favorite friends.









The cabinets we're standing in front of are chock full of interesting artifacts from Central and South America.

L to R: Dennis Laidler, John Wessels, J. Paul Fennell.











































Here's a motley crew -

L to R: Allan Batty, Johannes Rieber, Stuart Mortimer.








The last thing to do is to go back to the instant gallery and repack one's turnings.

Here I am with Cindy Drozda...











and with Cindy and David Nittmann.


What a great symposium!