Arrowmont 2008 - Part V

10 July 2008 - Thursday.

The final two days of my class were set aside for the students to work on their individual projects. In addition to the sampler boards they started on Wednesday, they had a platter or plate motif to do as well as one to several tall bowl forms.

They used pyrography, carved textures and two different coloring techniques to come up with some patchwork and other design motifs, some of which were for incorporating the digital doodle ideas from Tuesday.




I had fun watching Susan Pollard coming up with some very creative motifs on her sampler and turned forms. She's the first art major I've had in one of my hands-on classes and it was great to have her experience with other media to be shared with the other students.





Myra was on scholarship from the Tennessee Association of Woodturners and she was a very eager and enthusiastic learner. She planned to take all of the information she learned during the week back to her association to share with other turners. The openness among turners in terms of sharing techniques is one of the aspects I really enjoy about this endeavor.





Alan and Tom were here on vacations with their spouses and they spent the day time in class, but needed to balance the needs of their spouses in the evenings. From talking to other instructors and students at Arrowmont, this seems to be a common pattern - combining vacation with a class.




I drove to Arrowmont rather than flying, as I usually do when I go off to teach a woodturning or surface enhancement techniques class. Thus, I was able to bring a lot more supplies along and most of these were used, although the focus tended to be on the metallics and interference acrylic paints. Still, it was good to be prepared for trying other ideas.






I did this sampler board as a demonstration for the class, but gave it to Evelyn Lahti as a thank you for all the help she gave as the class assistant. It's a lot of work for room and board. Thanks, Evelyn! You were a champ!









The wood studio has a gallery of excellent art pieces. This one is by Stoney Lamar.

















This is a sculpture by Joe Falsetti.















Here's a view of the gallery space. The front doors open onto the street where the main building is across the way. To the right are the doors into the woodturning studio.










Jean François Escoulen's work.
















The view across the street to the main building.













It rained on Thursday and the afternoon was pretty wet. You can get an idea from the roof runoff.















The extra wide eaves are good for shade and for keeping the walls a bit drier than they would otherwise be.














Susan Pollard's work in progress.













Thursday night's activity was the annual art auction. Here are director and co-director David Willard and Bill Griffith (L to R).













I'm not sure how many people were there from outside the school, but it seemed like a decent turnout. The donated art items were on display prior to the auction. I did some bidding, but didn't bring anything home from this event.






John Hill was, of course, the auctioneer. I've certainly seen John in action a lot this summer - first at AAW, then his home association's fund raiser and then Arrowmont. He certainly knows how to get the bids going and make everyone have a good time in the process.