Benoît Averly

Benoît Averly, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

At the Turning 2011 symposium I had a goal of doing some portraits of featured demonstrators over the course of the weekend. My favorite portrait is this one of Benoît Averly. I'm posting the bulk of my photos from the symposium on my woodturning FB page at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150391300903582.411395.60983528581&type=1

Turning 2011 symposium

The Ohio Valley Woodturning Guild does a symposium every other year.  I started attending in 2001, and I've been to all but one ever since then (I missed 2005 because of my trip to Australia to demonstrate in another symposium).  The attendance is capped at 250, which makes it pretty cozy and easy to visit with folks.  The symposium takes place at a church camp, which has housing and dining facilities as well as a huge hall for setting up the demo areas.  The only drawback is the difficult acoustics in such a venue, but the quality of the demonstrations and demonstrators more than make up for that.

In addition to the featured demonstrators, there are guest demonstrators who fill in the early morning and late afternoon time slots.  I'm doing two demos in that framework - one on 3D carving and the other on coloring techniques.

Here is a snapshot of the symposium.  I didn't spend a lot of time processing these images, so they are nearly straight from the camera.

Al Stirt demonstrations include platters, fluting, surface texturing.

Jimmy Clewes knows how to throw some shavings.

Betty Scarpino does a great demo on sculptural aspects of her work.

Kimberly Winkle demonstrated techniques for making a stool, and surface enhancement techniques. 

Avelino Samuel's demos included hollow forms with spirals and straight flutes.

Keith Holt has a series of demonstrations on multi-axis turning to explain his approach to using the lathe for sculptural work.

Benoít Averly's demos focus on box making.  I purchased one of his hut boxes and am delighted to add it to my collection.

Richard Raffan - always a class act.

AAW booth at the trade show

John Jordan, Al Stirt and Basil Kelsey

Stubby Lathe demo in the trade show

Doug Thompson of Thompson Tools (buy them - they are amazing!).

Jim Burrowes demo

Youth Turning

Youth Turning - I think this guy is pretty happy with the program.

2011 AAW Symposium - Friday, June 24 part 1

The first day of the AAW symposium is always full of frenetic activity - especially at the registration area.  Everyone wants to pick up their packets before the start of the opening ceremony.  In previous years this was because you needed the schedule to determine which rotations to attend.  This year, however, the a preview version of the symposium book (edited by Sharon Bierman) was available online.  Still, the activity at the registration area was hopping all the way up and through the opening ceremony.

The AAW board of directors and the AAW headquarters staff all sat up on the stage at the beginning of the meeting so that introductions could be done.  Attendance this year was somewhere between 1700 and 1800 preregistrants.  There were likely additional registrations throughout the weekend.

David Ellsworth gave the opening remarks.  David is AAW member #001, was the first president of AAW, and the first recipient of a Lifetime Membership Award.  I think he may be the only member to have attended all 25 symposiums, too.

Tom Wirsing, current AAW president, then talked about the schedule and gave general comments.  You can see part of the large audience in the room.

I like this angle for the photo.  It puts the session in context with the large crowd.

Part of the celebration for the 25th anniversary symposium was the publication of "Woodturning today" edited by John Kelsey.  It's a marvelous record of the history of AAW with stories shared by members, beautiful photos of turnings representing the evolution of our art, and many interesting articles.  If you don't already have a copy, be sure to order one from the AAW website.  John Kelsey is to be congratulated on putting this all together for us.

After the opening ceremony, there's always a mad dash for seats in the demonstration rotation rooms.  Making his debut at the AAW symposium this year was Jerome Blanc from Switzerland.  Jerome participated in the International Turning Exchange program last year at the Wood Turning Center.  This demo was on sculptural woodturning.

There was one or more panel discussions offered during each rotation throughout the weekend.  This one featured David Ellsworth, Kevin Wallace, Terry Martin and Giles Gilson.  Giles couldn't attend the symposium, but checked in via a Skype connection.

Nick Cook demos are always worth seeing.  He was showing how to make lamp bases.  That's what that giant drill bit is for - drilling through the lamp to make room for the electrical wiring.

Jerry Kermode did a rotation on basic bowl turning techniques.

Some of the demonstrations were so popular that there was standing room only, and the audience spilled out into the hall.

Friday morning also sees the big rush through the trade show to find the best stuff to buy before someone else snags it.  Many of the trade show vendors have demonstrations going on continually throughout the day.  Nick Cook demonstrated in the trade show as well as doing rotations in the symposium itself.

Guilio Marcolongo was demonstrating for Vicmarc lathes.  It was great to see the Aussies here for the 25th anniversary symposium.

The Stuart Batty Woodturning booth was also continually busy with demonstrations.  This booth had the most impressive set-up from the technology standpoint of any booth I've seen at an AAW symposium.  He sure did draw in the crowds with his line-up of demonstrators, too.








For more pictures from Friday, June 24, 2011 of the AAW symposium check my FB albums: here and also here.

Other posts from the 2011 AAW symposium:

Preliminary report from the AAW symposium
2011 AAW symposium prelude
Thursday afternoon and early evening; June 23
Thursday - 23 June 2011 AAW: Conversations with Wood: Selections from the Waterbury Exhibit

Claude Lethiecq's Chinese Ball display at the 2010 AAW symposium

Here's a video I put together from the 2010 AAW symposium where I interviewed Claude Lethiecq about his amazing work.

Index to 2010 AAW Symposium postings

Including this one, there are 14 entries to cover the 2010 AAW symposium. The first four are live reports that I did at the end of each day while at the symposium. The rest include photos or videos of the action from each day. Here they are in order:

2010 Thursday live report

2010 Friday live report

2010 Saturday live report

2010 Sunday live report

Music at 2010 AAW

2010 AAW Symposium - 6/17/10 - Thursday

2010 AAW Symposium - 6/18/10 - Friday, part 1

2010 AAW Symposium - 6/18/10 - Friday, part 2

2010 AAW Symposium - 6/18/10 - Friday, part 3

2010 AAW Symposium - 6/19/10 - Saturday, part 1

2010 AAW Symposium - 6/19/10 - Saturday, part 2

2010 AAW Symposium - 6/20/10 - Sunday

2010 AAW Symposium - informal portraits and people pics

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2010 AAW Symposium - informal portraits and people pics

One of the things I most look forward to at the AAW symposium is to reconnect with friends I've not seen in person for many months, sometimes since the last AAW symposium. I also very much enjoy meeting new people and making new friends. It's a natural extension for me to take pictures of friends during the times we spend time together, or to take some informal and candid images. I've been accused of having a camera growing out of my face, too. So, this posting is about people - mostly some of my dearest wood turning friends, but also people I've just met for the first time as well as the range in between those two extremes. Some of the pics are just snapshots that reflect a shared moment. Others are informal and candid portraits. I'm finding that I enjoy doing black and white processing for portraits, so you'll see a mix of color and black and white photos for this posting.


L to R: John Whelan and Flynn Cohen. These two gents were the headliners for the Thursday night talent show. I've known John for about the same amount of time I've been turning, but from the Irish music scene. We met through the Dublin Irish Festival and we've become friends through the years. Flynn and John regularly play gigs together and it was a great pleasure to have them on stage for the AAW.








Douglas Fisher. I've known Doug from his online postings and from his amazing work, but this was the first time we've met in person. In fact, this was the first time Doug had done any demonstrating, and he made his debut at an AAW symposium. I'm looking forward to having opportunities in the future to chat again at a symposium.














Sharon Doughtie and John Jordan - good friends and a lot of fun to be around.












L to R: David Ellsworth and Pascal Oudet. You could caption this, "the old and new generation of turners." David is a charter member of AAW, the first president, in fact, whereas Pascal was one of our featured Emerging Artists highlighted by the Professional Outreach Program.















L to R: Tucker Garrison and J. Paul Fennell. Tucker was one of the other emerging artists featured this year. When he did a hands-on class with me a few years ago I knew he would be making a splash in a very short period of time.











Bill Grumbine, demonstrating on the tradeshow floor for Robust Lathes. Bill and I met just a few years back, and we've had some interesting conversations about "brown and round" v. "artsy fartsy." I think we both enjoy these chats and can appreciate each others' point of view.













The caption of this picture is "The three amigos." I can't remember their names, but they're from Canada and I spent a bit of time chatting with them about carved turnings one evening in the bar.











Ray Leier, co-owner of del Mano Gallery. It was great to see Ray so relaxed and enjoying the moment.


















Is Ray the next Marlborough Man?
















Hmmmm, let's put a wooden cowboy hat on him and see how that looks, shall we?

Actually, I'm calling this series of images "From the Smokers' Corner." When I intercalated myself for a picture, someone handed me a cigarette, which Giles Gilson decided to smoke.

L to R: Giles Gilson, Andi Wolfe, Norm Rose and Ray Leier.









Arthur Mason and Ray Leier.















Arthur Mason, Ray Leier, and Norm Rose.












Arthur Mason and Ray Leier.













Clay Cochran and Norm Rose.













L to R: Elizabeth and James York with Binh Pho,















L to R: Deborah Kermode and Bonnie Klein.















L to R: Pascal Oudet, John and Vicki Jordan. I love this pic.












Pascal Oudet and Andi Wolfe















L to R: John Jordan, Andi Wolfe, and Pascal Oudet.















A yearly tradition - my pic with Mike Mahoney. I suppose that in 10 years I can post a retrospective of all the symposium pics we've had together. You'll be able to see us age in "real time" then.
















Fred Klap from the Canadian contingency. I really like this informal portrait I captured of Fred.



















My woodturning "bro" and me: Art Liestman and Andi Wolfe.













Two of my best friends in wood turning:
Art Liestman and J. Paul Fennell.

I don't know what we were joking about, but Paul's about to crack up here.












Hans Weissflog












Three other amigos, or, perhaps I should say, "The Glitterati."

L to R: Giles Gilson, Mark Lindquist, and David Ellsworth.










Stuart Batty and Ashley Harwood.



















L to R: J. Paul Fennell, John Wessels, Gorst DuPlessis, and Bonnie Klein.














Claude Lethiecq from Quebec - a new friend as of this symposium.















L to R: Molly Winton and Ruth Niles.














L to R: Mark Lindquist and Giles Gilson













L to R: Richard Hogue, Marilyn Campbell and Terry Martin - the panelists for the instant gallery critique.













John Hill, auctioneer extrordinaire.

"Will you give me a thousand?"

"Andi, a camera flash is a bid!"

"Yes, I've got a thousand!"

"Who will give me eleven hundred?"

"Yes, I've got eleven hundred. Now, twelve hundred!"

Whew! Off the hook on that one . . .









John and Elizabeth York sharing a laugh at the teapot auction.

















Dixie Biggs - watching the action during her teapot being auctioned.


















Tib Shaw, the AAW gallery director and an extraordinary person who I've really enjoyed getting to know over the past few years,