A Chapter of The American Association of Woodturners

Northwest Woodturners meetings are held on the 1st Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM. See www.northwestwoodturners.com for details and map. Next Meeting: February 4th William Moore Turning Challenge for March: Turned Pourer

STAFF

President Mike Meredith (503) 522-0531 mmeredith23@comcast.net V. President Richard Hall Secretary Bill Rufener Treasurer Tom Reiman Board of Directors Jim Gentry Bob Tuck Fred Kline Scott Blackman Librarian Lynne Hemmert Raffle Tom Willing Supplies Tom Helzer Newsletter & Web Barbara Hall

QUICK UPDATES

Most of you have probably heard that Bob Rosand has cancelled his visit to Portland. Family obligations will prevent him from joining us this year. We will begin to set up a new scheduled visit, I hope in 2011. That means Nick Cook will be our first out of town demonstrator in May. Start making your plans now for Nick's presenta-tions, the Friday class hands-on will be followed by a Saturday all day demo.

Canceling the demonstration for that weekend opens up a spot for us to have "learned to turn" event. I've always maintained that these are among the most important training opportunities the club provides. We'll meet at Jerry Keller's recreation hall, 9AM on March 4, the Saturday after the March meeting. The map to Jerry's place (2330 W Arata Rd) is in the file cabinet on the MyFamily site. As usual, we will go from 9 to 12. Bring a lathe if you have one, wood and tools, questions and answers. It's always fun.

Although I am known as the "tool pimp" in some quarters of the club, I still feel obliged to point out a really good tool when I find one. The band saw is the best of time and the worst of times. Since all band saws are, by definition underpowered (except Tom's band saw down on the farm that dims the lights in Woodburn when he turns it on) the band saw blade is facing a losing proposition from the start. I noticed a blade in the Highland Woodworking catalog that they referred to as the "Woodturner's band saw blade". It's a 3/8-inch blade with 3TPI with alternate set and a rake or tooth pattern. It is 0.032 inches check, much thicker than most small band saw blades. The gullets are deeper than usual allowing for rapid chip removal and the wider kerf makes getting around corner a lot eas-ier. The minimum circle diameter is still about 1.5 inches. It cuts wet wood about as easily as dry and doesn't seem to trail away under cutting tension. At about $20 for the 105-inch version, it is a medium price band saw blade. On the whole, I'm very pleased with the performance of this saw blade.

I'm pleased to announce that Richard Hall has agreed to serve as vice president for 2010. We need to be scheduling demonstrators for 2011. The primary responsibility of the vice president is looking for demonstrators and arranging the details of classes and demonstra-tions. I'm sure we can look forward to 2011 as a year filled with interesting classes.

See you all March 4th and if not then on Saturday the sixth at the "Learned to Turn".

Mike

PRESIDENT ’S MESSAGE

FEBRUARY, 2010 THE WOODTURNERS’ LOCAL RESOURCE

VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2 WWW.NORTHWESTWOODTURNERS.COM

Show your NWWT Membership Card to receive a discount of your purchase at Gilmer‘s, Rockler, Woodcraft, Woodcrafters, and Crosscut Hardwoods. Membership has benefits.

PAGE 2 VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2

JANUARY MEETING AND SWAP MEET

The January swap meet is really a great NWWT tradition. There were some good bargains, valuable equipment, great tools, wood, fun stuff and an enjoyable opportunity to socialize. I lucked out and got exactly what I needed—a great steel stand for my Delta mini-lathe. It raises and lowers to adjust to my height. I also got an early Valentine, a portable air compressor for my ―Bin Pho simulations‖. It definitely pays to come early to find that special treasure!

Teapots - the current "in" project in Wood Turning.

Why teapots? was asked on the WOW site. Some of the responses cited tea as the most consumed bever-age in the world. Teapots have been in use for about 2000 years. Rituals have developed around the brewing and drinking of tea. Oprah has embraced green tea with acai berries as an energy cure all.

It has been the subject of whimsy and fun; A student submitted a teapot poster with a large phallic sym-bol for the spout; another suggested putting a fig leaf on it. A smiling public and some head shaking have graced current exhibitions. An icon in the decorative arts, this is a sculpture without a need for a label to tell what it is.

Cindy‘s piece is a fabricated from a gilded sea urchin with blackwood attachments. It is an excellent ex-ample of using the spindle work that she taught us last year in the design of a teapot.

Cindy Drozda entry in the AAW Pop Teapot Show in Hartford

TREE SCHOOL

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The purpose of all of this is to make the Tree Farmers aware that some of the things that they put into slash piles and burn or have people come in and log for firewood is quite a valuable resource. Considering the fact that the attendees represent several thousand simi-lar acres of wood resources it can be seen the opportunities here are quite great for future wood sources and expand our influence within Farm-Forestry Associations,

Jim Hall

The "Slash to Art" this year's annual event at Tree School is on Saturday, March 20, 2010.

Northwest Woodturners has a real part in the school. If you want a catalogue for all of the events at the school, e-mail me and I will see that you receive a catalogue. As I said in the January Newsletter, there will be some 800 to 900 people at the event. It is good source to meet "tree farmers" that have waste wood that might be of interest to woodturners. I have obtained Mad-rone, Maple, Yew, Cedar, Alder, and others from some of the farmers. The price is always very good -- FREE, so you might want to make an appearance.

OUR FEBRUARY DEMONSTRATION

William Moore

We are in for a treat! Our February demo is by an experienced wood turner who combines metal spinning successfully marry-ing the two disciplines to produce well balanced sculptures. Bill's creations are elegant, sometimes whimsical, exotic and at place in both a traditional and contemporary setting. He blends wood, metal, and occasionally stone. No medium dominates. The elements are balanced, and exist in exquisite harmony.

Bill incorporates wood turning with an area that many of us are not familiar with: metal spinning. Like wood turning, the primary tool in metal spinning is the lathe. The basic skill of metal spinning is not difficult to learn; but the creation of consis-tently masterful pieces takes much time, practice and tenacity and in Bill's case that spark of creativity.

As a teenager, Bill learned how to use a lathe. His mother bought a 1/2 -HP Crafts-man lathe with an 8" swing and taught him how to turn. She also taught him how to make jewelry. He learned to love the creative process, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a MFA. In 1988 he attended the World Turning

Conference and was warmly welcomed by the community of woodturners. He had considered himself primarily a wood sculptor, now the lathe has become his primary tool and the vessel form a major design element. The addition of spun metal to his turned forms is one of the unique con-tributions Bill is known for in the field of wood-turning.

Bill currently teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Arts in Portland, and at the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts. He is nearing retirement from his 37 year-long teaching career and looking forward to spending more time in his studio creating, discovering and experimenting forming new pieces.

His work is represented in major collections, museums and galleries. You will recall enjoying sev-eral of his pieces represented in the January Newsletter or perhaps you read his profile in the Winter 2009 issue of the American Wood Turner.

PAGE 4 VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2

WOW Christmas Ornament Exchange 2010 update Johnny Tolly is continuing the 2010 Christmas Exchange with a new album. This is not a real exchange; WOW members choose another WOW turner and send them a surprise ornament with no expectations of a return gift. Many WOW members throughout the country are planning to join in the exchange. There is even talk of sending ornaments to New Zealand and Australia; but shipping charges may be prohibitive. It is such fun and brings so much pleasure, I thought some of our members might like to participate Christmas 2010. A feature article in the Fall NWWT Newsletter will be a word document detailing Johnny‘s process. Of course, you who are skilled ornament turners will enjoy creating your own special ornaments.

Rockler Sorby Event

11773 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy Beaverton, OR 97005 (503)672-7266

Dear Northwest Woodturners,

Rockler has partnered with Robert Sorby Tools of England to present a once-in-a-lifetime turning demonstration featuring an internationally-known turning demonstrator, Chris Pouncy. Chris will be using the new Sorby Sovereign tool system. This will be a unique opportunity for our members to hear directly from the expert. This is a great event for all skill levels that Rockler is underwriting so there will be no charge to attend.The demonstrations will be on February 4th, 2010

Session 1 10:00am - 1:00pm Session 2 2:00pm – 5:00 pm

As part of the event, Rockler will be offering 25% off all Sorby tools the day of the demonstration. This is a great offer for our members to either get started or get that specialty tool for which they‘ve been waiting.

Chris Nilluka Gene Shaw Gene Shaw Gene Shaw

Jim Hall Jim Hall Jim Hall Gene Shaw

February Show and Tell

David Williams Gene Shaw

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

PAGE 5 VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2

Design

To briefly review our discussion on design in the January issue of the Newsletter: We defined design as the visual relationship of the parts of a piece to each other. The first element of design we discussed was balance. We defined balance as the visual impression of the weight distribution of a piece. A piece is balanced symmetrically when both sides are mirror images of the other. A piece is asymmetrically balanced when the sides are no longer visual mirror images of each other, but the piece retains weight symmetry. The third type of balance is radial, like the petals radiating out from the center of a flower. Now we need to apply three dimensional thinking because our pieces are not two dimensional but are 'in the round'.

As we examine our piece we do not see a flat picture with only length and breadth as a scribble on a piece of paper; but an ex-panse with physical depth because our turnings are three dimensional. Which means the relationship between the piece and our eyes is constantly changing as we view it from different angles and distances. Our concept of balance and the success of our pieces becomes much more complicated. This is one reason why many pieces are not successful; there is an unbalanced area when viewed from certain angles. I designed a free form piece that I felt was good; it was successful from all angles and even from the top and bottom view except I had not taken its base of support into consideration. You can't float a bronze sculpture in thin air. I had a very difficult time trying to integrate a base into the design, because doing so altered the balance of the origi-nal piece.

To be a good three-dimensional designer we should be learn to visualize mentally the whole form, rotating it mentally in all directions. We need to explore the play of depth, the impact of mass, the flow of space on a three dimensional form. The three primary viewing directions are vertical, up and down (top and bottom of the piece); horizontal - left and right, and trans-verse - forward and backward. When we construct our piece we also need to consider the effect of size, color, texture and distribution. Size can be measured by its height, width and thickness. Color along with its light and dark values distinguishes our form from its environment and gives pattern. Texture defines the tactile surface characteristics, and also contributes visu-ally with color to the pattern. Distribution refers to how the mass of the article is distributed throughout space, and is one of the most important contributors to the feeling a piece invokes in the viewer.

Take for example the simple egg form. By itself it is balanced, symmetric in the vertical plane, asymmetrical in the horizontal plane, radially balanced along it‘s axis. It is a simple form with no color or texture to affect our response. If we place the egg with the large end down, we get a feeling of relaxation, well-being, satisfaction. Yet if we simply rotate the form so the large end is up, we get in-stead an uncomfortable feeling. All of a sudden those pleasant feelings turn to anxiety, a sense of edginess. This is due in large part to the effect of distribution - and our innate personal experience with gravity. We ―know‖ the egg with the large end up is naturally unstable, and likely to fall over, and so we apply our per-sonal experiences when we evaluate the egg. Our emotional responses result from the marriage of the piece and our personal experience. It is important to note that neither position is ―right‖ or ―wrong‖, but rather different. We can be free to choose how we design our piece, so as to direct our viewer towards cer-tain types of experiences. As another example of how personal experience can affect our view of a design, take the simple ―pac-man‖ shape. If we point the ―mouth‖ up, we might get a sense of laughing. But rotate the design just a few degrees and the sense of the shape is now much more negative.

(Continued on page 6)

Other relational elements we will consider are direction, space and gravity. Direction refers to the suggestion or illusion of movement. Often when I work with children we talk about direction in terms of incorporating ―swing‖ into our pieces, Swing is a feeling of move-ment: a horse with its neck raised, a frog about to jump. Space whether positive (occupied), negative or illusionary (absence of mass) is very important in our sense of balance about a sculpture. We see this all the time when we watch dancers who 'frame' an area with their arm or leg movements. In the drawing to the right, two randomly placed elements do not suggest a connection, but when they are placed as to suggest an enclosure, they are recognized as related, and the enclosure (the negative space) becomes a part of the sketch. Thus, empty space that you ‗enclose‘ becomes a part of your piece, and carries visual weight and mass as if it were actually there. Gravity is a necessary ingredient in our interpretation of balance; our turnings cannot float in air (as I once remembered - too late) without being anchored, supported or hung. The sense of gravity is not visual; but psychological. We tend to attribute heaviness or lightness with our sense of gravity. As you add other elements such as metal or glass to your pieces , remember your viewer will have a sense of how these elements are supposed to feel. He or she may reject a thin walled piece because it does not feel substantial or question whether a bowl has sufficient weight. We are at the mercy of how potential viewers and critics judge our turnings. Their feelings and interpretations are often not based on the skill level or work involved in creating the piece.

All the visual elements combined together constitute what we generally call ―form‖. Form in this sense is not just a shape that is seen, but is a structure of definite size, color and texture, weight, balance, and feeling. The way these elements are presented to-gether in a piece is called structure. We will continue next month with a discussion of form. Form as volume, positive and nega-tive form that we touched on this month, form and color distribution and patterning and the interrelationships of form and my favorite overused truism ―Form Follows Function‖.

PAGE 6 VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2

I've been storing my sanding discs (2" & 3") in a drawer for years. Two issues I've always had was putting any lightly used discs back and getting them cen-tered on my sanding pad. Also the drawer I stored these in was across my shop and not very handy for access. I recently moved many of my lathe acces-sories into a roll-a-way tool box. This was a great opportunity to get organ-ized and finally mark all the discs.

My solution is pretty simple. I used black PVC piping available from the local box store in short lengths. Both sizes holds the 2" and 3" discs perfectly. Measuring the depth of a drawer, I cut several pieces just short of that height. In my case, I cut them 1-1/4" long, one for each grit size needed. Once cut, set them on a router pad for pad sanding and edge cleanup. A disc sander would be helpful here as well.

Once done, just put them in the drawer, mark your discs with a sharpie pen and load them up with 10-15 discs. The best part of this is changing discs is quick and easy, I just put the pad in the appropriate grit hole and it's all centered up on the pad. This makes sanding easy. Backup storage is in the back of the drawer.

After using them a couple times now, I'm going to glue the tubes to a mounting plate as once in a while they may lift during disc removal. Overall, it's pretty nice and was a real cheap solution. I'm not sure if these would be compatible with the wave type discs, but I'll bet the box store has a size for that.

Scott Blackman

SANDING D ISC STORAGE

T IME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP

It is time once again to renew your membership in NorthWest Woodturners. If you need a refresher on how to pay, please

see the website www.northwestwoodturners.com . The dues are $30.00 per year for an Individual Membership, $45.00 for a Family Membership (good for you and one other member of your family), and $60.00 for a Business Membership (gives you a free business card size advertising spot in the newsletter). The dues can be paid at the meeting, on the web site or by mailing payment to the treasurer. There is a small fee for paying online via Paypal.

Remember, NWWT members receive a 10% discount at: Crosscut Hardwoods in Portland; Rockler in Beaverton; Woodcraft Supply in Tigard; and Woodcrafters in Portland. (Power tools and workbenches not included; other re-strictions and percentages may apply.)

THE CHALLENGE

For the challenge for March create a ―pourer ‖. What is a pourer? A container from which you can pour a liquid—real or virtual. The tough part may be shaping the lip on your container. Remember the lip must funnel the liquid so it pours where you want the flow to go, and not all over the front of the container. Bonus challenge : create a pourer that is a tea pot. Raymond Overman has an interesting how-to on teapots at www.nakedwoodturner.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/the-wooden-teapot.pdf

APPRECIATION & THANKS TO JOE JEDRYCHOWSKI

THANKS TO OWEN LOWE FOR JOBS WELL DONE

Owen has been doing a triple job: secretary, treasurer and managing the My Family.com. These are extraordinary time con-suming jobs; but his gracious attitude and willingness to help is much admired. Organized and on top of all these functions, he gives us data when requested and can be counted on when needed. Although he will no longer handle the secretary and treas-urer functions , we are delighted he is continuing with the My Family.com . Thank you Owen for your part in helping the NWWT be so successful.

NWWT Wishes a loving fun-filled Valentine‘s Day to all our members.

VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2 PAGE 7

BUSINESS ADS

Band Saw: A large sta-tionary power saw primar-ily used by most shops to cut good wood stock into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the outside edge.

FUN STUFF

As we enjoy the many demonstrations and classes , we can thank Joe for making the arrangements. We have been fortunate to have so many well known craftspeople instruct and show us their techniques. Joe‘s job often included meeting the demon-strators at the airport, taking care of their needs and even providing the tasty lunches during the training days. We know you have spent many hours and we appreciate your dedication and a job well done.

Raymond Overman

13500 SW Pacific Hwy, #185

Tigard, OR 97223

EDITOR ’S NOTE

CLASSIFIED ADS

Date Class/Demo Location Time

2/4 Sorby Demos Demonstrator: Chris Pouncy

Rockler 10:00AM-1:00PM 2:00AM-5:00PM

2/7 Beginning Turning Rockler 8:00AM - 11:00AM

2/20 Turning Pens and scoops Rockler 9:30 AM-11:30AM

2/27 Beginning Lathe Turning Woodcraft 10:00AM-5:00PM

2/28 Intermediate Lathe Turning Woodcraft 10:00AM-5:00PM

Many other fine classes and demos are available from your local stores: Woodcraft Store at (503) 684-1428 Email portlandretail@woodcraft.com Rockler Store at (503) 672-7266 Email store17@rockler.com Woodcrafters Store at (503) 231-0226 Web page: http://woodcrafters.us/

Submissions to the newsletter are due by the 20th of the month. Articles, tips, web links, classified ads, or other items pertain-ing to woodturning are welcome.

Barbara Hall Newsletter Editor Phone: (503) 649-5581 E-mail: barbara@iwci.com

All other business should be directed to:

Northwest Woodturners 13500 SW Pacific Hwy, #185 Tigard, OR 97223

LOCAL EVENTS , CLASSES , AND DEMO ’S

Guidelines for Classified Ads: Ads will run for three consecutive months. Please submit your ad by the 20th of the month. The Editor takes no responsibility for spelling or grammatical errors. All woodworking items, for sale or wanted, are welcome.

For Sale: Wood lathe. I have carbide roughing tools and carbide hollowing tools available with or without handles. If you prefer to make your own handles the club member price is $40.00 each or the tools are $55.00 with a handle. Because the tools are carbide you won't be stopping to sharpen your tools giving you more time to turn wood. The tool comes with one cutter round for hollowing or square for roughing. I also have the cutters $6.00 each for the square cutters and $7.00 each for

For Sale: Old lathe made by Vico. Susan Curington 503-357-4844

For Sale: Pen Blanks, 3/4‖ x 3/4‖ x 6‖, bandsawn about 20 different kinds, 4 for $1 plus shipping. Mix or match depending on supply. Don Woodward woodward@spiritone.com