Woodturners Newsletter, September 2024

West Bay Woodturners Newsletter is a monthly update on the club activities. This free resource is available to beginner and professional woodturners.

Next Meeting

Program

The presentation will be about pen turning by Jerry Galli, tying in with the Pen for Troops effort that Jerry has been championing for years. And we’ll have pen turning tools and supplies for the raffle!

President’s challenge:

For the president challenge, how about “not a bowl” ?
Jim Koren was asking a while back for ideas of what to make that’s not a bowl, and the idea stuck in my head.
Let see how diverse our turning craft can be!

Upcoming Meetings and Demos

• September 14-15: wood carving show in Pleasanton, CA. Woodturning will be present. It is the last wood carving show in Northern California. See details in the “show letter” at the Tri-Valley Carvers website.
• October 6 (Sunday) demo: Eric Lofstrom, details to follow
• October 16 meeting: program tbd, nominations for board election
• November 20 meeting: program tbd, election of board officers

President’s Message

It’s nice to see that summer did not slow the amount of activities for woodturners, between the picnic and the visit to Randy Pi’s collection, wood gathering all over the place, watching the symposium recordings. But now we are headed for the fall and Holidays, with their own set of seasonal activities. There are meetings and demos coming up, our famous potluck, and one of those is… electing a board of directors for next year (I know, not the level of excitement I seemed to be leading to, right?). Nevertheless, it is a necessary and useful thing that makes our club operate and run smoothly within the framework of the club bylaws. We are a registered non-profit organisation, and have to meet the requirements for such a status, one of those being the election of a board of directors every year. I have been acting a president for three years now, and I am very grateful for working with such an enthusiastic and dedicated team. There are the officially elected board members, but also a great deal of volunteers and helpers that make our activities run smoothly. I have decided it is time for me to move on to other activities and involvements, therefore I am opening up the president’s seat for the next able and willing member. The other positions are also up for election every year, so it is perfectly OK to nominate whoever you feel could add their skills to the functioning of the club. At the September meeting I will talk briefly about it means to be a board member, and we will start accepting nominations at the next two meetings, with the actual election happening in November. Hopefully our board election doesn’t get overshadowed by that other election going on !!!

Claude Godcharles

WIT eXchange 2024

This year’s Virtual WIT eXchange will start the first week of September and run through October 15th. See details at the AAW website: Women in Turning (WIT) Home Page.

Last Meeting Review

Wednesday August 7, 2024

Woodturners newsletter notes by Laura Rhodes, pictures by Angela Gunn and Roman Chernikov

SVW and WBW Joint Picnic

Show & Tell:

Congratulations to the winners of the People’s Choice voting:

• 1st Place – Dennis Lillis
• 2nd Place – Mark Koenig
• 3rd Place – Bob Bley

Special thanks are due to the active members who made this picnic a success:

•   Edy Chung for wrangling the RSVP list, and organizing the supplies and logistics
•   Steve Dahout for the ‘day-of’ Costco run to get the bulk of the food
•   Curtis Vose and Sang Park for handling the BBQ and cooking
•   Jerry Galli for bringing the display tables for our Show-and-Tell

Thanks also to the many who helped out before and after with set up and clean up.  

“As the Wood Turns”

We owe a big thanks to Randy Pi for letting us view his collection of turnings, and to Dennis for working with Randy to make it happen. While I have seen most of the pieces at past symposiums, there were still many I had not seen and being this close and intimate with so much outstanding work was overwhelming.  He had a number of pieces made by names you would recognize, as well as names maybe I should know but didn’t.  Regardless of your interest, there was work that you could admire.  From those that are chasing that perfect form to those using the lathe to create a canvas for embellishments

the experience was overwhelming.  Randy also has another 100+ pieces coming!  So another visit in the future is something to look forward to!

I happen to currently be using the lathe to make a canvas, spending far more time carving/piercing/painting/….  I find it rewarding to have a vision in my brain, and to finally have developed my skills far enough to attempt it.  Still a lot to learn and practice.  I say this to frame what pieces inspired me, not to say others weren’t impressive. This picture says so much to me.  

Frank Sudol was one of the first demonstrators that I saw after joining WBW. I’d only been turning a very short period of time, but his pieces just spoke to me.  He did a 3 day hands on class, which I passed on, feeling that I really didn’t have the experience to try it, and one of the more experienced members would get more out of it.  Sadly, the space didn’t get filled, and Frank passed away before I could reconnect.  One of the things he told me was never just copy someone else, it robs you of your soul. I occasionally do imitate others, to learn new techniques, and then to try to find a way to add it to my work.  Next to Frank is work by Binh Pho. His skill was incredible.  I was fortunate enough to sit with him for breakfast before a symposium.  He was an incredible man, open and willing to share. So many things he told me rattle around in my brain every time I sit and embellish. But one thing I’ll share was don’t embellish just to embellish. Have a reason or a story. Sadly, Binh has also passed.  The crab piece next to his work was done in memory of Binh, with the crab representing the cancer which took him from us.  This work was done by Malcolm Zander. The skill to make this delicate piece is mind boggling. Both he and Joey Richardson, the final piece on the shelf, had training by Binh, who had training by Frank. 

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.  No matter what your interest was, some of the worlds best pieces were on display, including our own members Jon Sauer and Glenn Krueg. Now, what inspires YOU?

Woodturners Newsletter Editing Notes

WBW members, if you have a personal website and would like it included in the President’s Challenge and Show & Tell sections of our Woodturning Newsletter, please let the newsletter editors know. Email us at info@westbaywoodturners.com.

WBW board members and committee chairs