Florida
West Coast Woodturners ClubFlorida
West Coast Woodturners ClubA Chapter of the American Association of Woodturners
Serving Pinellas County and the Greater Tampa
Bay area
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Now, it's time to teach.
In April, we held a bowl-turning class for the boy's youth group at St. Paul's United Methodist Church. Bob Winter, Wayne Dawson, and I had the opportunity to teach a few young men (plus club member and youth group leader Grant Corrigan) some bowl-making skills on our club's lathes.
By the end of the night, the students had each turned their own bowl, and we had the pleasure of knowing that some of our woodturning knowledge had been passed on to the next generation.
We have plans to hold a pen-making class at the Church for their middle-school age kids this summer during the summer camp. If you are interested in taking a day to help tutor pen-turning, please let me know.
This autumn, our club will be sponsoring weekend hands-on workshops at the Dunedin Art Center. Tony and Karen Marsh are heading-up the effort, and are in the process of writing a syllabus and class plan. Tentatively, we are talking about one weekend per month, for four or five months, starting in September. Once the details are worked out, we will post a volunteer sign-up sheet for instructors and classroom-helpers.
Craft Shows/Art
Festivals
Our club will be taking booths
at two craft fairs in the 2nd half of this year. We will again be purchasing
space at the St. Paul's Church craft fair, and at the Heritage Village Jubilee.
Both are in October. The booths will be open to any club member who wishes to
sell or display their work. As we did last year, the club would also appreciate
a small percentage of any sales as a "commission" to help cover the cost of the
booth. If you would like to donate turnings for the club to sell, that would be
appreciated as well. We don't want to set any "rules" as to what percentage of
your sales should be contributed to the club, but a 10% to 15% cut is usually
considered appropriate.
The FWCWT demonstrated our
SPRING/POLE
LATHE
at the Pinellas County FOLK
FESTIVAL
On Saturday Janurary 28 at Heritage Park in
Largo
This annual celebration featured
traditional Florida folk music, storytelling, and pioneer crafts performed by
skilled artisans.
Near PERFECT weather
conditions induced an estimated 4,500 to people to attended the
event this year.
Volunteers from FWCWT
demontstrated this pioneer-style spring/pole lathe to curious onlookers,
recounting the methods and practices of woodturners from long ago.
The Pole lathe
was designed and built by club member Steven Marlow, based on historical
drawings found on the internet. It will be used as a
means to educate the public about the history and traditions of the woodturning
craft.
Club Members busily pumped
the treadle (foot pedal), telling stories to the eager and responsive
festival-goers, as they created a handful of turned obects in the traditional
style of the pioneer days.
"How did you make this?" and "I'd love to learn to do this" were heard throughout the day from the throngs of onlookers who trafficked past our booth. The club handed out over 100 flyers and brochures, inviting the curious and the creative to attend our next club meeting.
For a more complete set of pictures, click HERE to visit the photo gallery.
Members
of FWCWT regularly help out and mentor at evening "Personal Enrichment" classes
at
CLEARWATER HIGH SCHOOL WOODSHOP
Clearwater High School Woodshop (Personal
Enrichment Class registration 727-469-4190) is held every Wednesday evening,
during regular school session, from 6:00PM-8:00PM.
There is a nominal fee of $2.00 per class hour, approximately 30 class hours
(15 classes) per school session. Classes are prorated for those individuals who
have registered after the school session has begun. There is no formal
instruction but the woodshop teacher (Paul McDermond) is available to help you
with your project, or show you how to use the equipment.
There is no attendance requirement,
you can arrive or leave at anytime, or not at all.
The woodshop is fully equipped, well lighted, air-conditioned, and has an
awesome dust collection system. For those interested in woodturning, they
have 12 Jet Mini lathes, 2 large professional lathes, 12 chucks, and 12 chisel
sets.
Clearwater High School is located on
the South side of Gulf-To-Bay Boulevard and Hercules (between Belcher Road and
Keene Road).
CLICK HERE FOR MAP The woodshop entrance
is located on the far West side of the school by turning South at the traffic
light onto Arcturas Avenue. Go past the Clearwater Adult Education Center
building (on your right). Take the first left through the gated entranceway (the
running track will be on your left side, and the swimming pool will be on your
right side).
The woodshop is in the white
building with red letters “JROTC”. Walk around to the East side of the
building. Mr. McDermond’s name is over the door that you should enter through.
You can take a look around at the equipment and talk to Mr. McDermond before
deciding to register.
The Registration Office is on the
far Southeast corner of the school. Don’t worry, everyone gets lost the first
time.