April, 2003

Meeting Information: Saturday, April 26th

from 9:00 am to afternoon

Hands-on-Turning and Teaching

(see details below)

at   Russ Babbitt’s

Lunch will be provided (small donation requested)

Member Warren Brown presented the program for the February meeting on making Cyma Bowls.  He brought bowls at different stages of development, and with the help of member Dan Halpert, used PowerPoint computer projection to demonstrate the steps involved in the process.  Photos and project information will be posted on the Projects page.

Also in February the club voted to purchase our own web page domain name.   Those of you who are seeing this online have found us atwww.ChannelIslandsWoodturners.org and can see the improvement over last month’s beta site.  We plan to add more photos, project details and resource information in the near future.  A special section showing recent turnings will be posted in the Members Gallery.   We are also planning to include how-to-articles and any editorial essays of interest to woodturners that you wish to contribute.  Send your material to editor@ChannelIslandsWoodturners.org for consideration.

Past President Sam Turner reported that the Home Arts Division has promised to increase the number of categories available for woodturning entries at the 2003 Ventura County Fair which runs from July 30^th to Aug. 10^th this year.   They will be sending information catalogs to everyone who participated last year and we will also provide additional information in this space.  It will be necessary for us to supply volunteers to help check-in entries and to help with the judging.

Vice-President Jim Rinde brought the full scale mock-up of the club’s entry for the Chapter Challenge at this June’s Annual Symposium of the AAW.  The finished product is on schedule and should be ready for unveiling at our May meeting.  President Al Geller explained our involvement with the registration-area lathe on Thursday, June 26^th and with clean up on Sunday, June 29^th.  Note that we will not have our own meeting in June.

Details for the April 26^th meeting: This is a novice/beginner’s workshop.  We will have 4 to 5 lathes for anyone to use.  Bring your own tools, safety gear, and wood.  If you don’t have your own yet, you can borrow ours.  If you have never turned or are just getting started this is the time to improve your skills.  Come get your feet wet (at least covered with wood chips).  Even the “more advanced” tuners love these sessions as a chance to teach, show off their skills, and even learn something new.  Bring your questions on any turning/sharpening problem and we will give you at least one answer (probably different depending upon whom you ask).  President Al Geller requests that in addition to bringing your recent work for show-n-tell, that you also bring magazine clippings of design ideas so that we can discuss what makes a shape pleasing to the eye.

Next Meeting: Saturday, May 24^th   Surface decoration:  Bob Pettit