Category: Meetings/News/Events

May 1, 2024 meeting

Our November meeting was a different format from our regular meetings.

One of the founders of our club, Harvey Fein, had a gallery exhibition of samples of his incredible body of work at the Peters Valley Sally D Fransisco Galley. Harvey also had a feature article about his work in the American Association of Woodturners in the October 2023 issue of American Woodturner. Our club met at the gallery at 5:00 PM

Meeting attendees were: Steve Ackmann, Rick Wortman, Jack Delaney, Carol Paster, Jim Cerra, Joe Kopec, Dave Robinson, Scott Hendricks, Mark Wallace and Patty Jennings. Special guest was Harvey Fein who talks about some of his works and his process.

After our session with Harvey we adjourned to the Peters Valley Wood Studio at around 6:00PM for our regular meeting.

Rick Reported our checking account balance remains the same as previously reported, however, that is a large improvement for us at this point in the year.

Show and Tell: this will be updated

For our demonstration this month, our member, Scott Hendricks, did a presentation on turning with Cork. Scott had taken a weekend course on cork turning and put together a PowerPoint presentation that talked about the cork product and how it’s made, and showed pictures of some of the pieces he and other class attendees made during the course.

Scott also brought several pieces he made with the material at the class and at home with additional cork material he acquired from the instructor.

Many thanks to Scott for a great presentation and for showing us a new medium that has interesting possiblities.

Our October meeting was held on October 4, 2023 at the Peters Valley Woodworking Studio. Attendees were Steve Ackmann, Rick Wortman, Ed Nikles, Jim Cerra, Scott Hendricks, Joe Kopec, and guest and potential new member Mike Baklarz.

Steve reported on the activity at the Peters Valley Craft Fair and Rick Wortman reported that the treasury was the same as last month.

Show and Tell

Rick Wortman show the finished product on his Cherry salad bowl nested set. He also brought along some fine examples of offset turning he has completed. He also brought the finished platter that he had started at the June meeting.

Ed Nikles brought four nut bowls made of black birch. it was noted how heavy and dense the wood feels, and the beautiful figuring in the wood.

Scott Hendricks brought a larger walnut vase.

Joe Kopec brought a small laminated bowl of cherry and walnut that he has started at the craft fair and finished at his home machine. He also brought a small offset turned sculpture .

Jack Delaney brought several yoyo’s he made following Dave Robinson’s demo at the last meeting

Steve Ackmann brought a small bud vase made out of highly figured Norway Maple that had recent fallen in his yard.

For this month’s demonstration we tried our hand at offset turning as shown in our August meeting with Beth Ireland. We brought some square blanks and with the help of all of the members we figured out how to mark the rounded blanks to make a nice offset. Then new members Jack and Mike took the marked blanks and worked to make an offset turning. Results below:

The meeting adjourned a little after 9:00 pm. Next meeting is November 1, 2023 at the Woodworking Studio.

September 23-24 2023 at the Sussex Fairgrounds.

Scott Henricks, Joe Kopec, Rick Wortman, Dave Robinson, Steve Ackmann and Jack Delaney showed up on a mostly rainy weekend to staff the table at the Fair. We were undercover in the demonstration pavilion and all of the vendors were repositioned to in-building locations, so the Fair went on as planned. We demonstrated all day, and in-spite of the weather, we had steady crowds most of each day. Additionally we collect names of people interested on learning woodturning and we will contact them with information about our club.

Our September meeting was held at the Peters Valley Woodworking studio on Wednesday, September 6, 2o23. in attendance was Steve Ackmann, Rick Wortman, Ed Nikles, Dave Robinson, Jack Delaney, and Joe Kopec.

Steve reminded the group that the Peters Valley Annual Craft Fair at the Sussex County Fairgrounds is coming up on the weekend of September 23rd and 24th, 2023. We will again have a table at the demonstration pavilion and would like to have turning demonstrations going on throughout the weekend. Steve will be in contact with members about staffing the table and bring a blank or two, as well at their tools and some of their work to make things interesting for the craft fair attendees.

Rick Wortman reported that the treasury has a balance of $336.35 and we’re in the best shape cash-wise as we have been at this time of the year over many years.

Show and Tell.

Rick Wortman showed a set of nested bowls made from Cherry that he will sell in the Peters Valley gallery. He has had success selling these and they are out a the moment

Jack Delany showed a set of snowmen and Christmas trees that he made and painted.

Dave Robinson showed yo-yo’s he’s made from kits acquired from Craft Supplies and Penn State Industries

Steve Ackmann showed a couple of small bud vases made from cherry. One had some “Kintsugi” repairs to fill and highlight cracks in the grain. He also showed a small apple wood bowl

The demonstration this month was Dave Robinson showing how the yo-yo’s are made. The kits he bought from Craft Supply provide the axles and strings and the skill and creativity of the piece come from the turning of the halves of the yo-yo. The Craft Supply axles are more simple, and the Penn State axles are built with ball bearings, enabling more tricks. Wood selection, shape and decoration provide for much creative variety in the end product. Dave purchased numerous kits to we plan to produce several of these at our annual toys for tots turning day in December.