What’s Happening at Other Chapters

The Northwest Woodturners in Beaverton, Oregon will be meeting on December 6th at the former Hollywood video store at the mall. They will be holding their holiday party and White Elephant Gift Exchange.

The Inland Northwest Woodturners are meeting on December 6th at the Woodcraft in Spokane Valley. This meeting will be the holiday potluck and gift exchange.

The Seattle Woodturners next meeting is on December 13th for their annual holiday party.

The Woodturners of Olympia are also meeting on December 13th for their holiday party potluck dinner and gift exchange. They will also have drawings for 2 club sponsored AAW memberships and 2 tickets to the WOO Symposium featuring John Jordan and Jack Wayne.

The Fraser Valley Woodturners Guild in Abbotsford, B.C. will be meeting on December 13th. Bruce Campbell will demo a finial box with an accent ring.

The Willamette Valley Woodturners in Salem, Oregon will be meeting December 13th and will be holding their potluck dessert and year end auction .

The Southwest Idaho Woodturners are meeting December 11th. The meeting will be the holiday party and gift exchange and will be held at the Presbyterian Church on Overland Road in Boise ID.

The Northwest Washington Woodturners are taking December off and will meet again in January.

The Cascade Woodturners are taking December off and will next meet in January.

The Greater Vancouver Woodturners Guild in Vancouver, B.C. are also taking December off and will meet again in January. Also, the Guild had planned a demonstration and workshop by Kurt Hertzog on December 8th but had to cancel due to lack of interest. They are hoping that there will be more interest for Ashley Harwood in March and Jimmy Clewes in May.

The Island Woodturners Guild on Vancouver Island will be meeting on December 15th for their annual holiday social.

The Olympic Peninsula Woodturners are meeting on December 12th with their annual Christmas party.

The Beaver State Woodturners in Eugene, Oregon will be meeting on December 27th. The program for the evening has not yet been announced.

AAW / chapter profile / demonstrator / woodturning events

Jaxturners Turning Plywood Demo

The North East Florida Woodturners Association has uploaded a video from their August meeting. Segmented turning has been gaining popularity and plywood has been one of the materials used for the interesting patterns that can be created. In this video Bob Hunt demonstrates how to turn plywood.

AAW / demonstrator / techniques / video

AAW Board Message

Note – The following is a message from AAW Board member Cassandra Speir

casandra speier2013 Elections for AAW Board Officers are now officially over. As I reflect on this annual process, it occurs to me this is a time for “Thank you’s” to be made.

Thank you to all our AAW volunteers! This seems inadequate, as our organization would not function without the hundreds of volunteers and the thousands of hours invested. But, this is what woodturners do: they continually “pay it forward,” whether it is manning the Instant Gallery at a symposium, demonstrating at their local chapter, writing an article for the Journal, mentoring a new turner, or volunteering for any of the million other jobs involved in running AAW.

Thank you to our outgoing officers. Jean LeGwin has served two full terms on the AAW Board, and for most of these six years, served as Chairperson of the Publications Committee. She, along with Editor Betty Scarpino, has taken the Journal to even greater success. It at times has been a full- time job and sometimes a thankless task. We thank Jean, for her hard work, dedication, and commitment. Warren Carpenter will be leaving after serving three years, most of which he spent as Treasurer and Chairperson of the Finance Committee. Warren invested countless hours working diligently (and with much hair pulling) to get our books and finances organized. It was a daunting task, but by the end of his term, the AAW will be a better organization as a result of his hard work. Thank you, Warren, for your time, energy, brainpower, and your always gentle nature.

Kurt Hertzog has been re-elected for his second term. Kurt has served as Chairman of Educational Opportunity Grant and Symposium Committees. His amazing organizational skills and political savvy helped to produce the successful 2012 Symposium in San Jose. Thank you, Kurt, for all you’ve done in the last three years, and for all you will do in the next three.

Now for our new board members: Rob Wallace and Lou Williams, two very talented professionals who bring a broad scope of experience to the board. Thank you in advance for the time and energy you will invest, the countless hours serving on various committees, the battles you will fight, and, I am sure, the successes you will have. Just a caution from a veteran…be careful what you wish for!

I have had the privilege of serving on the AAW board for four years. It has been four years of great change and sometimes controversy. And, I am proud to have been a part of the team that led these changes. I am looking forward to the remaining two years. Thank you to the members who had the confidence in me to vote me onto the AAW Board.

AAW / Message

2013 Board Elections

Congratulations and thank you to the 2013 Board of Directors who were elected at last night’s meeting. The incoming board members are:

  • President – Dan Stromstad
  • Vice President – David Best
  • Secretary – Fred Abeles
  • Treasurer – Stephanie Lane
  • Membership – Stan Gardner
  • Communication – Bill Wood
  • Inventory Control – Steve Solatka
  • At Large: Vendor Liaison – Andy Firpo
  • At Large: AAW – Keith Palmer
  • At Large – Jim Cotter

Also, Pat McCart will be taking over management of the sawdust sessions and Tim Spaulding is continuing as webmaster.

Also, thanks to the outgoing members of the board for all of their hard work in ensuring that SPSW continues to offer great learning opportunities for all of us.

AAW / Membership Meeting

November Demonstrator – John Shrader

John ShraderOur demonstrator for the November meeting will be John Shrader, who will show us how to make his unusual Colorwood Christmas tree ornaments. John Shrader Christmas OrnamentAn example is shown in the accompanying photograph. Several steps in this process are made with other shop tools, (table saw, band saw, etc.), so John will show a video of these steps. This project is a good introduction to several aspects of wood turning. The “icicle” is spindle turned, the bulb is segmented and turned using bowl turning techniques, and since one typical blank of Colorwood will yield 5 ornaments, there are elements of production turning involved. The ornament pictured just won a semi-finalist award in the Wood Central Christmas Ornament contest. Click on this web site, then click on “View the Winners.”

John is a retired engineer/manager who worked “gee whiz” technologies (electric cannons, death rays, hypervelocity impact, etc.) while he was working full time. He now spends about 20 hours a week on various aspects of woodturning. His muse leads him to designs that require high precision, which his engineering background helps him realize. He currently sells his work at 5 galleries in the Northwest and 2 on line galleries. He has shown in the Bellevue Artsfair for the last 4 years, and in 2011 won one of the Bellevue Arts Museum Carol Duke Awards for Excellence that included a check for $1,000.

demonstrator / Membership Meeting

November Woodturning FUNdamental

The AAW has published the latest edition of Woodturning FUNdamentals. There are lots of good tips here including:

Dick Sing
Dick Sing
  • Tips on using the indexing function on your lathe with illustrations by Keith Tompkins
  • Response by Jim Rodgers, Secretary of the Segmented Woodturners chapter, on how to build a feature ring design in a Ray Allen bowl
  • Don Derry tells his favorite safety tip
  • Part 3 of Joseph Herrmann’s series on processing wood from tree to blank. In this installment he gives tips on preparing the lumber to be cut into a blank on the band saw.
  • A nice reprint of an articles from the American Woodturner archives on Pitfalls for Beginners by Dick Sing
  • A woodturning project from Linda Van Gehuchten on turning angels
  • Another woodturning project, this one from Jerry Hubschman, on turning coasters from your “can’t part with” wood scraps

The Woodturning Fundamentals is a email publication of the AAW and is available to any AAW member. You can sign up here.

AAW / Message