Portland Insights and Ah Ha's?

[Ed_McDonnell]

Now that everyone has had a chance to get their grumbles and other thoughts off their chest, does anyone want to share something that (for you personally) really made the trip to portland worthwhile? Something that is going to have an impact (hopefully positive) on your (or even someone else's) turning? It could be a piece in the instant gallery or exhibits that has inspired you. Or a new technique or approach you picked up in a demonstration. Whatever you care to share.

I didn't get a chance to go to Portland. Maybe those who did can help those that didn't share in the excitement vicariously.

Ed

 

[David Somers]

Ed,

Great question!

This was my first woodturning symposium of any kind so I don't have any comparisons to make, but it compared quite well with other similar events I have been to.

In terms of the rotations, the ones that did the most for me were the ones Alain Mailland did. I attended his first demo on turning trees and was fascinated by what I saw, so I juggled my schedule to catch his slide show on inspiration and left that absolutely stunned and inspired and a touch brain numb at his approaches and his ideas and implementation. I still have nightmares about his mounting BIG offcenter hunks of wood on his big lathe and having them whip around like a one bladed plane prop. And then having the guts to approach it with a piece of sharp metal!! And still make something absolutely amazing. After that I juggled my schedule again just to catch his last demo on turning and just sat back and enjoyed his process and results.

Another rotation I enjoyed a great deal was Melvin Fermiger. He was showing how he makes his sea flowers and I had been assigned to him as a room assistant. I have to admit that the sea flower idea never quite grabbed me compared to his other work, but as a demonstrator he was delightful and I really enjoyed watching his approach and techniques. I would gladly attend other sessions by him and learn a great deal and enjoy the time spent.

Christian Burchard's demo on turning a sphere between centers was niclely done and delightful in its simple approach to something I had always envisioned involving jigs and other aids. I work in IT and tend to be a bit of a gadget freak so periodically I need to be pummeled soundly about the head and shoulders with an organic carrot and reminded there are really simple and efficient ways to do things with basic tools. This was a great example of that. Christian was a fun demonstrator too. Very enjoyable.

And finally, I enjoyed Ryozo Kawikita's talk on Urushi and the bowls it is often used on. It focused more on the history and use of the bowls than I expected but the talk was a great look into the Japanese culture and how the use and finishing of these simple bowls came about. We were also shown a very brief example of their lathes and cutting techniques which was really intriguing.

Of course, being a gadget freak I had to spend time in the vendor areas. I had been saving up purchases of "stuff" since I decided to attend the symposium not quite a year ago with the idea that I would actually be able to lay my hands on some of the items I was considering. That was really valuable. Some items I thought would be terrific didn't impress me after seeing them, and other items I hadn't considered leapt out at me. Lots of ideas, and obviously....too many purchases. My credit card is still being bathed in liquid nitrogen as we speak. Its down to a dull red glow now. <grin> Seriously though....the vendor area was a great resource for being able to see and handle things before buying.

And lastly......and this may seem a bit silly, but spending a big chunk of time on the registration desk Thursday and Friday was pretty neat. I got to meet a bunch of folks whose names I recognized from the forums, plus a bunch of new folks. And I even "remet" a family I had run across in Hawaii while they were on vacation. It took us a couple of days to figure out where we both knew each other from, but it was a great AHA! moment when it finally came.

Overall, the whole affair was a great experience that I will eagerly do again when the symposium comes to the West Coast again.

Dave

 

[Brodie Brickey]

Symposium thoughts and observations - AWESOME!

I attended demos from Christian Buchard, Michael Brolly, Don Dery, Mike Jackofsky, Melvyn Firmager, Kirk DeHeer, Keith Gotschall, and Alan Lacer.

I learned a lot with a focus toward hollowing. I assisted with a couple demos and that allowed me to spend a little time talking with the demonstrators. Christian Buchard besides turning a sphere, also showed how changes in position and presentation of the gouge would ease some of the difficulties I have with rough turning blocks of off balance wood.

My best experience was assisting with the Junior turners program. Now I can't deny it, I cheated a little, I helped with the last class on Sunday, so they were all pretty well trained by then, but Nick Cook's demonstration to them on honey dipper turning gave me some close up looks at his gouge handling that I'm sure will help my spindle turning greatly. It was also fun working with kids that were enthusiastic about woodturning.

The instant gallery was very inspirational and some of the more "mixed media" pieces have given me ideas for taking my turnings to the next level. The turner with the ants and a tree holding a saucerlike hollowform with the branches of the tree changing from wood to silver which inlayed into the hollowform to hold it was extremely inspirational.

The tree/world collaboration done by Bonnie Klein and another turner (i'm sorry I know it starts with a G) was truly inspirational not for the price at auction (which was incredible), but for its intricacies that were displayed at the auction. I'd seen it up close in the instant gallery, but wasn't really aware of all its details until the auction. Simply beautiful. (For some reason it isn't in the gallery of pictures and its not included in the auction video, although it went for the second highest amount of the night). Described: A tree sits on a planet or world, the world unscrews. Inside is a gold ball. The inner lid is gold filagree with a sun at the top, the bottom of the threaded box is blue with the moon. The earth sits inside the gold ball with the continents and a "you are here" poining to Portland. Just a magnificently detailed piece and I'm not even describing it correctly or unfortunately accurately.

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Conclusions - Soapbox mounted
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As seen by some of the more dramatic pieces in the silent auction and the instant gallery, woodturning is moving away from just beautiful wood to more of a sculptured stance. The vibrancy of colors, decoration, inlay, and surface treatments are shifting us to either collaborate with another artist or learn some techniques other than hollowing or off axis turning.

I fully expect that in 5 years the 'high art' turning presented will be almost unrecognizable from the high art turning of 3 years ago. The turning field is changing so rapidly as new people are brought into this craft. Yes, there will still be room for beautiful burl bowls and hollow forms, but the really big dollars will be made in pieces that have more than a shellac and buffed finish on them. Although I like beautiful wood more than fancy surface treatments, I heartily approve of the change if only for where it may direct us in our use of woods. As turners we spend a lot of money on the fancy or exotic wood. If we were able to use plain woods (or pieces of 2x4) for high art, we might have a little less impact on the exotics that take the brunt of our desires for beautiful turnings.

​

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Soapbox dismount (1.5 out of 10 from the judges)
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I missed Alan Lacer's only presentation on "befriending the skew" (my plane was busy landing), but caught Keith Gotschall's "Off Center Turning on Platters" very funny demonstrator and really educational. I don't know how many times I heard "Lets take another bead off and see" and "We have plenty of room for a thinner bottom". I kept waiting for the platter to come apart, but it never did and still had plenty of thickness when he finished. It was a real education in taking a concept or method and pushing it farther and varying it to come closer to making it your own.

The Friday night Special Interest Night was really good. There were a couple I would have liked to attend, but the segmented turning was really instructional.

 

[Steve Worcester]

2 things, I can tell it went better (in general) for the attendees from the forums because there are really far less grumbling postings that last year.

And secondly, I was completely stoked that Michael Brolly and Stephen Hogbin (two turners i have admired for years) picked my "junk mail" piece as one of the instant gallery critiques.

 

[n7bsn]

The Friday night Special Interest Night was really good. There were a couple I would have liked to attend, but the segmented turning was really instructional.

You betcha... learned more in that then in the four rotations I attended on the subject

I missed Alan Lacer's only presentation on "befriending the skew"

I think there was two, as I missed one (see Segmented turning) and went to the other

 

[Rob Wallace]

The tree/world collaboration done by Bonnie Klein and another turner (i'm sorry I know it starts with a G) was truly inspirational not for the price at auction (which was incredible), but for its intricacies that were displayed at the auction. I'd seen it up close in the instant gallery, but wasn't really aware of all its details until the auction. Simply beautiful. (For some reason it isn't in the gallery of pictures and its not included in the auction video, although it went for the second highest amount of the night). Described: A tree sits on a planet or world, the world unscrews. Inside is a gold ball. The inner lid is gold filagree with a sun at the top, the bottom of the threaded box is blue with the moon. The earth sits inside the gold ball with the continents and a "you are here" poining to Portland. Just a magnificently detailed piece and I'm not even describing it correctly or unfortunately accurately.

This superb collaborative piece was done by Bonnie Klein and Jacques Vesery.... Their baseball piece auctioned in Louisville last year was exquisite, with unbelievable attention to small (!) details. This year's collaborative piece that Brodie describes was even more intense, with an even greater level of realism and accuracy, especially with the tree, roots, etc. (I'm a botanist, so was overly impressed with this aspect!). I am sure there will be pictures of the Klein/Vesery piece, as well as the Frank Sudol/Binh Pho collaborative piece in a forthcoming American Woodturner, particularly since these two pieces accounted for essentially half of the $ 100K raised at the auction.

For me, the instant gallery was both inspiring and intimidating at the same time. In addition to seeing some wonderfully creative designs, the "How did s/he do that?" figurin'-out mode was activated many times.

Rob

 

[Ed_McDonnell]

Thanks for all the really great responses. It sounds like deciding how to allocate your time between demos, exhibits and vendors is a major challenge.

Do you get to "handle" the instant gallery pieces? Given the number of attendees, I would guess problably not. I'm not sure I would be comfottable pawing a really nice work of art, but I've learned a lot by being able to closely examine the turnings displayed in the instant galleries at my local chapters. (Just to be clear, I'm not implying that the turnings at my local chapters aren't works of art )

Were the special interest nights hands on events, or were they discussions?

Ed

 

[hockenbery]

Ed,

The instant gallery has roped off tables for really delicate pieces. (an Idea from Totally Turning in Albany, ny)
Some pieces on the other tables had "do not touch".

Many turners encourage the respectful handling of their work.

-Al