Jason Clark2
02-10-2009, 12:53 AM
The 2009 Desert Woodturning Roundup was this weekend and I thought I'd be one of the first to post my review. Up front I want to declare that I was on the organizing committee for this symposium so my experience may have been a little different than most attendees.
Friday started around 9AM and ran until 8PM. Most of the day was spent photographing the pieces in the Instant Gallery, browsing the vendors area, and meeting as many people as possible. Around 6PM my attention shifted to the Pen turning demos. The 55 chairs that had been setup were quickly filled and it ended up being standing room only with 80-90 people in the room at any given point. I took a couple of photos but was having some trouble with my flash. Overall I think it was a huge success, but next time we need to arrange for a video camera and a projector to be setup. Doing a demo with small pen parts in a large room with a capacity crown is nearly impossible without video help. My wife and I left after the 2nd demo, around 8PM, as we knew we had an early morning on Saturday.
Saturday started at 8AM with the opening ceremonies, Bill Haskell (President, American Assoc. of Woodturners) spoke as did each of the demonstrators. I didn't stay for the whole 90 minutes as I had more instant gallery pieces to photograph.
The first rotation started at 9:45. I had planned to attend Cindy Drozda's "Multi-Axis Hollow Form" but instead decided to forego the first rotation and elected to roam from room to room photographing all of the demonstrators in action. This included all 9 demonstrators, Jimmy Clewes, Bonnie Klein, Cindy Drozda, Mark St. Leger, Alan Lacer, Nick Cook, Keith Tompkins, Hans Finsterwalder, and Dwight Klaus. This also made it easier to choose which demonstrations I would attend for the 5 remaining rotations.
Lunch was followed by the 2nd rotation. I had selected to attend Nick Cook's "Production Turning for Sale" but ended up splitting time between Jimmy Clewes "Colored platter" and Alan Lacer "Making and Using Hook Tools". The volunteer videographer for Jimmy's demo was needed in another room to fix a glitch in the video setup so I shot the first 10-15 minutes of Jimmy's demo. I missed the first 20 minutes of Alan's demo which I later found out was putting a burr on scrapers, but got to see the portion covering making and using the hook tool.
The last rotation on Saturday was Cindy Drozda's Finial box. Cindy made a beautiful little lidded box out of Holly and Mesquite with one of her trademark finials. She later donated it to the live auction.
The Saturday evening banquet, live auction, and silent auctions were next. At the banquet 3 people were honored. Clarence "Shorty" Hart received the 3rd "Desert Woodturning Roundup Recognition Award" We tried to keep it a secret but enough whispers went around that Shorty knew he had been selected. I'm really glad that he knew, if we had surprised him like we had planned I think the shock of it all literally would have killed him. We also honored Bill Baumbeck of Arizona Silhouette with the first Sponsor award. Bill has done more for our local club and for the DWR than I have room to type. Lastly we honored Mike Lucckino. He's a former Arizona Woodturners Assoc. President and was the driving force and Chairperson for the 2007 and 2009 DWRs. Mike in turn honored the rest of the committee members for their contributions and for making his job easy.
We had a volunteer professional auctioneer this year to run the live auction. The results were fantastic. I don't know the final number but it was somewhat higher than I had expected. I contributed 2 framed photos to the auction, one for the live auction and another for the silent auction. Together the 2 photos earned somewhere between $200 and $240. Both went to the same bidder and I've had several other people contact me about acquiring copies, including Mary and Alan Lacer. Other auction items included demo pieces from Cindy Drozda, Jimmy Clewes, Mark St. Leger, and Bonnie Klein. Hans Finsterwalder and Keith Tompkins also donated finished pieces.
Sunday started at 8:30. I decided to see Mark St. Leger's "Sphere box" with hand chased threads. I'm not planning to hand chase threads or turn a perfect sphere anytime soon but it was still an interesting demo to watch and made me want to see more of Mark's demos.
Next was Keith Tompkins demo on "Priciples of form & design" I really wanted to Mark St. Leger's 2nd demonstration, "Third axis in motion" but wanted to see Keith's design rotation as well. This next demo of Mark's also had some multi-axis work so Keith won that battle. Keith talked about using the golden rectangle and the golden triangle as a guide to turning pleasing forms. Keith then went over the inspiration for some of his turnings, including Playing Hooky, Tango, Steppin Out, and Winter Rose. He finished the demo by turning a cube on the lathe, something I know he does that I couldn't quite put my head around but now that I've seen it done I can't believe it was that simple. He's definitely inspired me to try a couple of new things and to step out of my comfort zone a bit.
After Sunday Lunch I returned back to Mark St. Leger's room for his "Rock a Bye Box" demo. I had seen a small portion of this demo on Saturday morning and knew I wanted to see it in full. This demo involves pretty much everything; shop made jigs, multi-axis work, hollowing, and turning a block mounted on a bias. He's a great turner and entertaining as well. I highly recommend him to anyone who has a chance to see him demonstrate.
I think the quality of the instant gallery improved over 2 years ago, as did the selection of vendors. On hand this year were Arizona Silhouette, Sanding Glove, Don Pencil, High West Wood Products, Timber Woodworking Machinery (they supplied most of the lathes used by the demonstrators), Serious tools, Driftwood Connection, Craft Supplies USA, Woodworkers Source, Rotary Chisel, Alan Lacer, Woodcraft, Elbo Tools, Burs for Carving, and several others that I can't think of off the top of my head.
All in all I think a great time was had by everyone in attendance and feedback has been vastly positive. One comment I was made aware of that springs to mind is "I'm not a woodturner. My boss is and he asked me to come along. I will be at your next one even if my boss does not attend." If that's not a glowing recommendation I don't know what is.
Thanks
Jason
Friday started around 9AM and ran until 8PM. Most of the day was spent photographing the pieces in the Instant Gallery, browsing the vendors area, and meeting as many people as possible. Around 6PM my attention shifted to the Pen turning demos. The 55 chairs that had been setup were quickly filled and it ended up being standing room only with 80-90 people in the room at any given point. I took a couple of photos but was having some trouble with my flash. Overall I think it was a huge success, but next time we need to arrange for a video camera and a projector to be setup. Doing a demo with small pen parts in a large room with a capacity crown is nearly impossible without video help. My wife and I left after the 2nd demo, around 8PM, as we knew we had an early morning on Saturday.
Saturday started at 8AM with the opening ceremonies, Bill Haskell (President, American Assoc. of Woodturners) spoke as did each of the demonstrators. I didn't stay for the whole 90 minutes as I had more instant gallery pieces to photograph.
The first rotation started at 9:45. I had planned to attend Cindy Drozda's "Multi-Axis Hollow Form" but instead decided to forego the first rotation and elected to roam from room to room photographing all of the demonstrators in action. This included all 9 demonstrators, Jimmy Clewes, Bonnie Klein, Cindy Drozda, Mark St. Leger, Alan Lacer, Nick Cook, Keith Tompkins, Hans Finsterwalder, and Dwight Klaus. This also made it easier to choose which demonstrations I would attend for the 5 remaining rotations.
Lunch was followed by the 2nd rotation. I had selected to attend Nick Cook's "Production Turning for Sale" but ended up splitting time between Jimmy Clewes "Colored platter" and Alan Lacer "Making and Using Hook Tools". The volunteer videographer for Jimmy's demo was needed in another room to fix a glitch in the video setup so I shot the first 10-15 minutes of Jimmy's demo. I missed the first 20 minutes of Alan's demo which I later found out was putting a burr on scrapers, but got to see the portion covering making and using the hook tool.
The last rotation on Saturday was Cindy Drozda's Finial box. Cindy made a beautiful little lidded box out of Holly and Mesquite with one of her trademark finials. She later donated it to the live auction.
The Saturday evening banquet, live auction, and silent auctions were next. At the banquet 3 people were honored. Clarence "Shorty" Hart received the 3rd "Desert Woodturning Roundup Recognition Award" We tried to keep it a secret but enough whispers went around that Shorty knew he had been selected. I'm really glad that he knew, if we had surprised him like we had planned I think the shock of it all literally would have killed him. We also honored Bill Baumbeck of Arizona Silhouette with the first Sponsor award. Bill has done more for our local club and for the DWR than I have room to type. Lastly we honored Mike Lucckino. He's a former Arizona Woodturners Assoc. President and was the driving force and Chairperson for the 2007 and 2009 DWRs. Mike in turn honored the rest of the committee members for their contributions and for making his job easy.
We had a volunteer professional auctioneer this year to run the live auction. The results were fantastic. I don't know the final number but it was somewhat higher than I had expected. I contributed 2 framed photos to the auction, one for the live auction and another for the silent auction. Together the 2 photos earned somewhere between $200 and $240. Both went to the same bidder and I've had several other people contact me about acquiring copies, including Mary and Alan Lacer. Other auction items included demo pieces from Cindy Drozda, Jimmy Clewes, Mark St. Leger, and Bonnie Klein. Hans Finsterwalder and Keith Tompkins also donated finished pieces.
Sunday started at 8:30. I decided to see Mark St. Leger's "Sphere box" with hand chased threads. I'm not planning to hand chase threads or turn a perfect sphere anytime soon but it was still an interesting demo to watch and made me want to see more of Mark's demos.
Next was Keith Tompkins demo on "Priciples of form & design" I really wanted to Mark St. Leger's 2nd demonstration, "Third axis in motion" but wanted to see Keith's design rotation as well. This next demo of Mark's also had some multi-axis work so Keith won that battle. Keith talked about using the golden rectangle and the golden triangle as a guide to turning pleasing forms. Keith then went over the inspiration for some of his turnings, including Playing Hooky, Tango, Steppin Out, and Winter Rose. He finished the demo by turning a cube on the lathe, something I know he does that I couldn't quite put my head around but now that I've seen it done I can't believe it was that simple. He's definitely inspired me to try a couple of new things and to step out of my comfort zone a bit.
After Sunday Lunch I returned back to Mark St. Leger's room for his "Rock a Bye Box" demo. I had seen a small portion of this demo on Saturday morning and knew I wanted to see it in full. This demo involves pretty much everything; shop made jigs, multi-axis work, hollowing, and turning a block mounted on a bias. He's a great turner and entertaining as well. I highly recommend him to anyone who has a chance to see him demonstrate.
I think the quality of the instant gallery improved over 2 years ago, as did the selection of vendors. On hand this year were Arizona Silhouette, Sanding Glove, Don Pencil, High West Wood Products, Timber Woodworking Machinery (they supplied most of the lathes used by the demonstrators), Serious tools, Driftwood Connection, Craft Supplies USA, Woodworkers Source, Rotary Chisel, Alan Lacer, Woodcraft, Elbo Tools, Burs for Carving, and several others that I can't think of off the top of my head.
All in all I think a great time was had by everyone in attendance and feedback has been vastly positive. One comment I was made aware of that springs to mind is "I'm not a woodturner. My boss is and he asked me to come along. I will be at your next one even if my boss does not attend." If that's not a glowing recommendation I don't know what is.
Thanks
Jason