Gulf Coast Woodturner October 2020 Newsletter President’s Corner I pray that everyone is doing well during this extraordinary time. I'm aware of only one couple in the club that has caught the virus and they have fully recovered. In lieu of our annual picnic we have a great demo scheduled for our October 17th general meeting. It will be an IRD with Nick Agar and his Viking bowl. We also have our Second Tuesday Open Shop virtual meeting on the 13th featuring Mike Peace turning ornaments. You will have to bring your own popcorn and soda. Please have your camera on during these sessions so that we can see each other. It has been determined that turning the cameras off has no detectable impact on the Zoom performance. Presently we are working on two programs to make our extensive DVD library more accessible to our members. The first program is to put them online. Then you can select and stream a demo at any time. We envision that you will login to the Members Only section of our website and make your selection. There are still technical hurdles to overcome and several members are working on them. The second is a pilot program where you request that DVD'S be mailed to you. The titles would be available on our website. We will have details in the next newsletter. Our Pens for Vets program has been very well received. Walter Mooney has collected over 350 pens including about 100 donated by Woodcraft North. On the 8th a small group of us delivered about 120 of the pens to Camp Hope, a facility treating veterans with PTSD. Enough for each of the vets and their staff. Look for a separate article in this newsletter about members helping members. ID cards are available on our website for you to download and use at Woodcraft and Rockler stores to receive a 10% discount on most items. Although, items that are on sale and large equipment are excluded. GCWA awards two $1,000 scholarships each spring to recent graduates. Start planning early who you would like to sponsor as it will take the applicants longer than usual this year to get the records they need to complete the application. The Art League of Baytown is having an exhibition and auction in January. The deadline for entries is October 31st. The criteria is anything related to tea. Contact me if you are interested in participating. It is encouraging that some Farmers' Markets are opening and restrictions on restaurants are easing. I look forward once again to being able to meet in person. After years of wanting to thoroughly clean my shop but lacking the time before the virus, I discovered that wasn’t the reason. In the meantime stay safe, wear your mask, get your flu shot and have fun turning. Chuck Graham Page 1 of 17 September Presentation - John Beaver In case you missed September’s presentation John did an excellent job demoing his Wave Bowl project. This is an interesting process to enhance a bowl where people will ask, How Did You Do That. It is a process I plan on trying. Many more pictures can be found HERE on the GCWA website. Page 2 of 17 General Information - George Kabacinski Open Shop Night - Cypress The October Virtual Open Shop is coming up quickly. It will be on … wait … Second Tuesday. That is Tuesday, October 13th for those without a calendar handy. Our September event featured Kirk DeHeer doing a demo on Air Brushing Techniques from his shop in Provo, Utah. It was a good demo and Kirk is always a fun guy to spend some time with. Craft Supplies no longer sells the pre-made airbrush templates that a number of turners have used. During the course of the interaction Kirk divulged a source for the materials and suggesting for creating our own templates. Kirk does not allow recording of his demos. However, he did agree to having his demo recorded for a one-time rebroadcast. This will allow club members who were not able to attend our Virtual Open Shop to still see his demo. The rebroadcast is scheduled for 3:00 pm on Sunday, October 25, 2020. So, mark your calendars. For the October Virtual Open Shop we will be joined by YouTube celebrity turner Mike Peace. Mike will be demonstrating a holiday ornament project. This is well timed for getting into the holiday turning spirit. So join us on Tuesday at 6:00 pm and interact with Mike. Check out his YouTube channel Mike Peace Woodturning and his web site at http://www.mikepeacewoodturning.com Doing a quick video of your shop, a special tool or jig are all excellent ways to bring others to your shop using the wonders of virtual meetings. If you have any suggested topics for future VOS Zoom sessions, would like to be a presenter, or wish to submit photos or videos for inclusion in an upcoming VOS ring up George Kabacinski or drop a note to [email protected] GCWA 2020 HOW Class Update - George Kabacinski It has been a few months since we have had anything in this space. And, frankly, there is nothing definitive to share currently. But I do want to let you know of a concept being explored. Will it pan out? Who knows, maybe yes, maybe no. Will it be sometime a lot of members will want to participate in? Maybe not, but that is pretty much true for a lot of our hands-on classes. That is why we have always attempted to schedule classes for different skill levels. Many clubs have jumped on the Remote Interactive Demonstration bandwagon due to the almost universal shut down of face-to-face woodturner meetings. As the months have progressed the number of turners able to provide IRDs has also steadily increased. There are several benefits for clubs having remote demos in terms of cost, availability, and scheduling. Those benefits were explored by GCWA even prior to the pandemic. And, of course, nothing is perfect so there are drawbacks as well. One of those drawbacks is the lack of hands-on classes that we typically schedule with visiting demonstrators. One of the questions that has haunted me is – How can we have live, remote, hands-on classes? Recently I’ve raised that question again in several discussions with other turning clubs and demonstrators. Most recently I have had more serious discussions with a couple of demonstrators and have found some receptivity to the concept. The GCWA board of directors has granted permission to explore the concept and to schedule an initial pilot class. Yeah! Clearly there are a few roadblocks to overcome. I am convinced they can be overcome. It will not be suitable for every class and it will not be embraced by everyone in the club. And that’s fine. Yet some will benefit and I suspect, it will become another area were technology overlaps with traditional crafts such as woodturning. Is this a concept you might be interested in? Do you have ideas on how we might implement it? Or concerns we should consider (I have a list going on that one!)? If so, drop me a line at [email protected]. We can schedule a Zoom session on this topic with those who might be interested in advancing the idea. As always, if you have an idea for the GCWA HOW class or would be interested in teaching a HOW class please contact George Kabacinski or Chuck Graham or drop and e-mail to [email protected] Page 3 of 17 GCWA Meeting Presentations - George Kabacinski Our September meeting featured John Beaver showing us how he makes his Wave Bowls. We did have a bit of an issue with some of the audio which was traced back to John’s microphone. Technology is not perfect with regards to remote demonstrations and since they are indeed live everyone must adjust on the fly. And that’s exactly what John did. The demo proceeded forward with a slight change to his plans for audio. The level of expertise demonstrators, and others, have gained during the pandemic is amazing. We are fortunate to have enjoyed several top- notch remote demonstrations over the past several months. And we have more to come! Upcoming Meeting Presentations include: • October 17, 2020 – We will be joined by Nick Agar with a demo of his Sunset Viking Bowl. This is a signature product for Nick and is sure to be an amazing demo. For those who may not know Nick, check out his website at https://nickagarstudios.com • November 21, 2020 – Our November meeting will feature Glenn Lucas demonstrating from his new studio / school in Ireland! Glenn has not been doing demos for a couple of months while the finishing touches are being made to his new building which looks amazing from the photos I have seen. His topic for our November meeting has not been finalized. So, stay tuned. In the meantime, check out Glenn’s web site at https:// www.glennlucaswoodturning.com Please note that Glenn does not allow recording of his demonstrations so if you want to see Glenn in action and be able to interact with him be sure to get this on your calendar! • December 19, 2020 – Fog Tanner was scheduled to be our demonstrator for the December general meeting. Unfortunately, Fog’s demo will be rescheduled for a later time. We are in the process of locating a substitute for the December meeting.