West Tennessee Woodturners

As I mentioned in an earlier post I agreed to help my friend, Mike Partridge, familiarize some students with a new lathe they have recently acquired for their extra curricular woodworking activity.  I really enjoyed it and I hope the children did as well.  The group was smaller than we had expected due to a late conflict with a band activity (musically inclined woodworkers?  Hmmm.  Interesting).  We had a good group in any case.

Before Mike acquired the lathe a few days ago only one student had even seen a lathe.  None have every touched one except to install this one on a table that they built for it.

Keeping their attention for the hour and a half was definitely no problem.  The questions came in a steady stream.  I picked some very basic previously turned item such as tops, honey dippers, pens, small bowls and vases, and Hershel’s cookie cutter to give them some ideas as to things they could make.  I explained the basics of a lathe and the tools to them and we turned a few tops and did some other fundamental cuts.

Mike is a great flat wood worker, but he is basically a “between the centers” spindle turner.  He was almost as enthusiastic and the children to learn about chucks, bowl gouges, pen mandrels etc.

They have a neat shop in a spare room with all the basic woodworking tools.  Looking around I saw some amazingly nice projects they have completed with the scroll saw and other flat work tools.  I’m betting they will be giving some of us older folks a run for our money pretty soon.

It was a great experience to see an educator taking it upon himself to go beyond the required routine to make this optional activity available to the students, and to see their level of interest.  Their involvement is also purely voluntary and it’s after school time.

Who wants to be first?

Wouldn’t you have guessed.  The girl got to try it first.  Assertiveness on her part?  Yeah.  A bit of old fashioned chauvinism on Mike’s part?  Maybe.

A friend, Mike Partridge, is the assistant principal at the Huntingdon Middle School.  Some time ago he undertook to assemble some woodworking tools and equipment in a spare room at the school and offer woodworking as an extracurricular activity for any students interested.  It has been very successful.  These students voluntarily stay after school a couple days each week.  They have advanced to the point Mike decided to add a wood lathe to the mix.  He managed to acquire a TurnCrafter mini lathe with a fairly extensive package deal including a few tools, pen kits, chuck, etc.  Mike is an excellent woodworker, but he has limited turning experience, so he has asked me to assist him with the first demo later this week.  I think Mike’s initiative and the students’ response is a very positive thing and I am excited to be a part of it.  I’ll let you know how it comes out.

The Carroll County Habitat for Humanity organization held its annual banquet/fundraiser Thursday night (2-24-2011).  In addition to the revenue from the ticket sales we always have both a silent and live auction of donated items.

Last year I donated a large black walnut salad bowl which sold for $400, the highest price of anything that evening.  This year I donated a large cherry salad bowl.  Just as we were ready to start the live auction the weather reports became very frightening and the town sirens commenced blasting.  Most of the crowd spooked and left.  Things got really hectic.  The live auction never came about, but someone suggested we handle the live auction items like the silent auction, and let people just write down what they were willing to give for each item.  It worked out okay.  The bowl brought $85 and most of the other items brought a fair price.  Nothing like previous years, but better than a complete wash out.

Cherry Bowl about 13" x 5"

I attended the Mid-South Woodturners Guild meeting Saturday, February 26, 2011.  It was an all day meeting with Dale Larsen as the demonstrator.  The demo was interesting and informative.  Dale’s forte is bowl turning.  He focused mainly on the basics of wood selection, preparation, roughing, and drying.

The MSWG is comprised of a large group of very fine woodturners, and very fine, friendly folks.  It was a fun and worthwhile day.

If you haven’t attended any of the numerous craft fairs in Tennessee this fall you have missed several opportunities to see some outstanding art and craftwork in a variety of media.

Glenda and I traveled to Memphis October 10 to the Pink Palace Craft Fair where we were joined by our daughter and granddaughter.  We were pleasantly surprised by the large number of wonderful art and craft exhibits we found, especially the three large woodturning booths.  Some of the turners I knew and the rest I met for the first time that day.

One very large booth was shared by our own Norman Fowler and his friend Hershel Miller.  Together they had as fine a collection of beautiful, professional quality products as one could hope to see.  This included bowls, vases, hollow forms, spinning tops, and ornaments.  They had a lathe in their booth and were doing live demonstrations.

Across the way in another tent was an acquaintance of Norm’s, Rick Cannon and another gentleman whom I did not get to meet.  They were displaying some outstanding segmented bowls and pens.

Farther down was Dennis Paulis whom many of you met at our September outdoor meeting.  Dennis had a great collection of very large bowls and other items.

All of the woodturning pieces as well as most of the other products at the fair were for sale and seemed to be moving quite well.  This is an extremely large craft fair with hundreds of exhibits running the full gambit.  It is open for four days each fall and attended by approximately 25,000 visitors.  The fair is held in Audubon Park which is easily accessible and has ample parking.  The only negative we experienced was lots and lots of unavoidable dust due to the lengthy dry season we’ve had.

Saturday October 16 Glenda and I traveled a much shorter distance to the Fall Folklore Jamboree at the Agriculture Research & Education Center in Milan.  Here again we were pleasantly surprised at the very educational and interesting displays.  We were also pleasantly surprised to see several of our woodturning and woodcarving friends.  Jerry Dawson and his son Bryan were manning  a large display of Jerry’s turning and carving work.  Hershel was again present with his display and demonstration, and Ray, Elsie, and Vicki Newman had a large display of their carving items.  During the day we ran into Norm Fowler and Bill Wyche.  Jerry, Norm, Bill, and I were all wearing our West Tennessee Woodturner caps.

If you missed these events, remember to watch for them next year.  Also, there are some excellent art and craft events in the Nashville area.  I will try to watch for announcements on all of these events and post them in the newsletter and on the website.

Chuck Jones