August, 2003

Meeting Information: Saturday, August 23rd  

from 9:00 am to Noon

Natural Edge Bowls: 101

at   David Frank’s

166 Estaban Drive, Camarillo, CA 93010

(see below for more details about the meeting)

At the July 12th meeting President Al Geller led us in a discussion of our experiences at the AAW Symposium last month. Thanks to Russ Babbitt for hosting the meeting in his home.   We were complemented by the AAW on our performance at the registration area lathes on Thursday evening and for our help through out the symposium with video/demonstration assistants and  the clean up after the show was over.  Al Geller is arranging to deliver to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles the balls and tops that were made at the symposium.  We are suggesting to the AAW Board that the “return to the community” project be better publicized next year.  Photos from the instant gallery and digital images byRon Lindsay and David Frank of demonstrators were displayed on Russ’s TV for our review and discussion.  Al is compiling a list of demonstrators we might like to invite to present demos for us next year.

Looking ahead: Sam Turner was selected to chair a nominating committee to work on lining up officers for next year.  In particular a program chair who would be willing to start now on next year’s program. [Late breaking news: Joel Oksner has volunteered for this position and is already starting work- give him a call if you have topics you would like to see presented.]  We also discussed the possibility of searching for a permanent venue for the club meetings with sufficient space and lathe.  Al asked members to think about how large we want the club to be and be ready to give feed back at the next meeting.  Joel and David will start to gather information on possible venue sites that we might consider.

The idea of exchanging gifts at the Holiday Social this year was suggested.  Each member or friend who attends and voluntarily wants to be part of this would bring a turned piece that he had made.  These would be exchanged either in a random fashion or on a first choice basis by “raffle” ticket.  This would give us a chance to add samples of each other’s work to our collections.  This idea was warmly received and will be discussed again prior to December.

This year’s Ventura County Fair is almost over and Channel Islands Woodturners can be proud of our participation.  Thanks to Sam Turner for all of his work in arranging the details, setting up the booth and for helping with the judging (see below).  Thanks to Russ Babbitt for designing and printing the brochures and to Mike Mowrey for loaning his lathe for our demonstrations at the fair and to all the members who took turns at demonstrating.  Special mention should be given to Martha Etchart for taking 8 rotations or 24 hours of demonstrating.  This was above and beyond the call of duty, but it was easy to see that she was having fun.  With the new Lathe Turning Division and all of the classes we were able to enter a great number of turned works all of excellent quality.   Separate pages contain photos and information from the Fair Booth  and the list of prize winners and photos.  Links to these can also be found on the Projects page.

Additional information for the August 23rd meeting:  For Show-N-Tell bring new work and also bring the pieces you entered at the fair.  On a voluntary basis, if you wish, Sam Turner will present the notes he took while he clerked for our judge Dan Hogan.  The judging was done without Dan knowing who made the work, and he discussed the reasons he found a piece pleasing or well made, etc.  This feed back may help us improve our entries for next year plus is part of our ongoing discussion of design.

David will present a short introduction on design and position or orientation  in the log for natural edge bowls, and then we will all have a chance to work on a NE bowl in the workshop.  Bring your tools if you need help with sharpening and any extra wood that you wish to share with other members.

Future meetings: [note these differ from our usual meetings dates]

        September 20th: Bill Haskell on Sculptural turning with multi-centric faceplate jigs.  See his web page at www.homestead.com/bhask .  This meeting will likely extend until 2:00 p.m. and lunch will be provided. More details next month.

October 4th: Lyle Jamieson will do an all day demonstration starting with basic technique and working up to the use of his special tools for deep controlled hollow turning.  His web page is at www.lylejamieson.com.  Contact Lyle at ar785@tcnet.org if you want to arrange individual hands-on-teaching.