Fred Abeles, SPSW President, is a Seattle native, born and raised in the Magnolia area, Graduated from Queen Anne High School, attended University of Washington, attended the Art Center College of Design in Hollywood for professional/commercial photography, operated Kent Photography, a professional portrait/wedding photography studio for 25 years and worked at Microsoft for 18 years, the last 12 years as the technical manager for the Microsoft Visitor Center. He currently works his retirement job at Woodcraft of Seattle as a sales associate and wood turning instructor in their classroom.
Fred began woodturning over 20 years ago by learning pen turning at the Puyallup Fair during a demo there, attended many pen turning demos at Rockler by David Morrison, bought my first lathe and the rest is history. I became addicted to the craft as so many of us do. Fred is now a proud owner of 5 lathes in 3 locations.
Fred has been a member of South Puget Sound Woodturners for at least 15 years, served as the board Secretary for 5 years and now as the club President. He will be demonstrating pen turning from start to finish at the July meeting. He will also attempt to demonstrate laser engraving using a small desktop laser engraver. He will be happy to entertain questions and offer solutions for those of you who are struggling with the fine art of turning writing pens using the wood lathe.
“This time around I’ll introduce you to what for many will be a new adhesive, filler, and finish that has some unique properties. With it you can pot inlays, create clear, colored, and glow in the dark void fillers, clear pore filler, and a high gloss finish that goes on in minutes and is both waterproof and durable enough for even daily use objects, like knife handles, goblets, and bowls. As always, I will leave plenty of time for questions on any subject you care to broach.”
It has been over 50 years since Oregon artist Tom Willing created his first woodturning in his father’s woodshop. Since then, he has come to focus on pieces that are sensitive to the interplay between light, form, and material. Working with both native and exotic species of woods, Willing seeks to reveal the visual magic within each piece of timber with which he works. In addition to sculptural display work, he designs pieces that combine the aesthetic and functional – bowls, pepper grinders, platters and more. Willing’s work is elegantly finished on the lathe with walnut oil and wax, then buffed to bring out the natural luster of the wood.
