President’s Corner – Steve Leblanc
Gallery event
The AAW is encouraging local chapters to host a gallery event. I received a letter from Frank Amigo of the AAW board, and I want to present this suggestion to the general membership and see if there is any interest in doing this. I have been personally involved in two gallery shows and am preparing for another in May, so I have some experience in this; I can tell you it is a rewarding experience. It also takes some work. Depending on the venue we choose, our selected works from the membership may or may not need to be for sale. It would give us great exposure in the community and would help in increasing the skill level of the club as a whole. If we go forward with this, it would be later in the year. One possible venue, as suggested by Chrystal Craver, would be the Ventura Art Walk in the fall. I will provide more details in forthcoming newsletters.
Presidents Challenge
At our January meeting, I issued a challenge to club members to turn something “whimsical”.
You have two months to create a project that could be playful, fun, silly; and/or abstract. Take a chance, and let the child in you come out. Bring your project to the club meeting at the 28 March Swap Meet for Show-n-Tell. I’m excited to see what you can create!
Skills
If you had to pick just one thing (project, technique, skill) you wanted to learn this year, what would it be? Think about that and e-mail me ([email protected]) or Bob Fahrnbruch ([email protected]) your answer. Or bring it to the February meeting where I will take your suggestions. This will aid us in preparing content for the half-day demos.
Steve
New and continuing members should pay their 2009 club dues of $25 to treasurer Ron Lindsay. Please mail them to him or bring to the meeting. The membership forms in Word and Acrobat formats can be accessed from the top of the Bylaws page.
New Members:
Kathiee Huelskamp, Richard Ingram,
Dana and son Johnathan Christensen,
Kathy and Gayron Downs,
Larry Harms and son, and
Ralph Rossbach (see Club Roster for addresses, phone numbers, etc.)
- Raffle winners Stan Wolpert and Murray Kay
- Introduction of visitors
- Program chair Joe Levy with update
- Librarian Judy Grange
- Al Geller with sanding disks to raffle off
- Seth Macarthur with winged bowl
- Michael Ingham is doing hollowing ala Ellsworth
- Bob Fahrnbruch is making pens with rifle shell brass
- Jim Rinde with deeply wire-brushed Redwood vessel
- Show and Tell Table
- Jim made deep hollowing tools
- Tim Albers brought another cash donation and another load of Avocado – also live oak – shows sample project
- Dave Staeheli with turned scoops & eccentric turnings with magnets
- Al Geller starts demo showing favorite work lamp
- Use plastic coffee cans to hold soapy water to de-gunk tools
- Star wheel and diamond dressing tools for truing grinding wheels
- Al recommends beginners first master the open shapes
- Try out diffent designs to fit the available blank
- Collet chuck and tenon of piece to be held
- Al’s rules for scroll chuck
- Al’s advice on glue chucks
- Showing centering wire through center of glue block chuck
- Dave showed how to use Cole jaws instead of Jam chuck for making scoops
- Hollowing the bowl on glue chuck with tailstock support
- After CA debonder applied, break glue joint
- Spindle turning using the collet chuck