Art has been integral to Roberto Ferrer from early childhood in Mexico where, ever-present art and craft infused into his life and soul. Early expression of art came through drawing and painting. Sometimes, schoolteachers would need to redirect his attention away from a sketch and back to the class assignment. His initial exposure to woodworking was in his cousin’s furniture shop where he had fun just being there and on occasion, he would have an opportunity to use a saw or a plane. His initial wood projects were a simple table and bookcase.
The President’s Challenge for April was adding resin to your turned piece. Although there were a few entries, they were all very stunning. There was one piece that stood out above the rest, it was a Black Walnut Platter with a resin rim with black walnut shell inlay. The shells are thinly sliced and in order for them to not float to the top of the resin, are glued into the groove and resin added. I have to tell you that the artist is none other than lifetime woodturner, Bob Sievers. I asked Bob how long he has been turning wood and he said ‘forever’; he started turning in high school and has turned every day up until late 2019, he still turns today, just not as often. If you have paid attention in our show-and-tell over the years you can see that Bob is a very talented artist.
Elizabeth Webber is an award-winning local woodturning artist, living in Seattle. She is a co-founder and member of the Seattle Spoon Club, a carving group in town. Additionally, she currently serves as the President of the Seattle Woodturners. We are fortunate to have her as our April demonstration guest demonstrating advanced embellishment techniques for wooden bowls during her Carving A Wave/Leaf Motif Bowl demonstration for our next SPSW club meeting, April 18th, 2024. Elizabeth has a robust diversity of skills that she draws on to create her unique works of art.
Additional examples of her work may be found on Instagram (@icosa_woodworks), as well as in the fabulous article, Immersed in Community: Elizabeth Weber’s Creative Journey written by Elizabeth’s friend and fellow member of the Seattle Woodturners, Randi Aiken in the February volume of American Woodturner. You can read highlights from Randi’s article in this month’s newsletter.
Like many woodturners, I was exposed to a lathe briefly in high school. It was fun to use the different tools and start to understand how they worked. I moved on in life and didn’t start seriously turning until about 8 years ago.
Over the years I have made lighthouses, hollow forms, bottle stoppers, etc. Two lathes later and I don’t know how much money I have spent; I have settled on making mainly bowls. Each piece of wood presents its own challenges and opportunities as I create a variety of sized and styled pieces.
We are so excited to tell you about our January President’s Challenge recipient, Ethan Green. As we have had the pleasure to see some beautiful pieces of art he has brought to our show-and-tell last year, the most memorable to date, the rose root ball vase. In January, the President’s Challenge was a square rimmed bowl. All of the submissions were stunning but there was one bowl that stood out above the rest, a beautifully mastered work of art made from Big Leaf Maple with extraordinary fiddleback with spalting and a gentle curve leading into a bowl. Stunning for the eye, inspired by the works of Richard Raffan, The Art of Turned Bowls and his information about curves; using a catenary curve for his bowl you can see it looks like a bowl in a bowl as the edges gently curve upwards with a bowl in the center with a walnut oil finish.
