Gecko bowl ...

Hi again.

I've not been blogging for ages. Total activity overload and sick and tired of pounding a keyboard for a living.

Last thing I wanted when I got home each day was to face a keyboard. Anyway I seem to be over the worst.

Check out two projects I have been working on recently.

The first is the Western Cape Wetlands Blog.

The second is a total reconstruction of the website of the Association of Woodturners of South Africa. This is still a project in progress.

Anyway the bowl above was my first effort with the Powercrafter which I bought while I was at the AWSA Symposium in Portland Oregon last July. It did not last long at Waterfront Woodturners.

TED - Tegnology, Entertainment and Design ...

www.ted.com - just one of the most inspiring sites I have come across in a long while

Here is one reason why:

June 28 - AAW Symposium - Day 1

On June 28 the first day of the American Association of Woodturners Annual Symposium 2007 began in Portland Oregon


With multiple rotations by leading woodturners and a gallery 'to die for', it was totally impossible to take it all in.

One just had to do ones best and make difficult choices.

I'm going to blog these days in Portland more or less as I experienced them. Alternating between attending selected demonstrations an 'cruising' the gallery.

I started off attending a demo by Alain Mailland, a very well known and remarkably talented French turner.


"I just make stuff"

Art Liestman of Canada "just making stuff"











Alain Mailland an amazing French turner

I was highly impressed with Alain's ingenuity and the enthusiasm he brings to his presentations










Alain is one of the true artists in the woodturning field












Such an unprepossessing guy but such a creative mind












He is very dexterous and works quite quickly


















Now off to the gallery

As can be seen it was a huge space!





World Globe by Barrie N Harding

Turned and pierced
















Christian Burchard's green turned Madrone burl vessels












More green turned pieces by Christian Burchard

'Dance' in briar burl
















Art Liestman

'Frolic' the dancing piece in the background

Wonderful whimsical illusion teapots 'Bashful' and 'En Garde'









Ron Gerton













Ron Gerton













Click on the photo to read all about the wonderful piece by Malcolm Tibbetts in the next pic












'Galactic Journey' by Malcolm Tibbetts

Courtesy of the Raymond Wong collection











Ribbon bowl by Malcolm Tibbetts

Lyptus, narra and ebony

Construct, de-construct and re-assemble









'Rocky road ahead' the drip continues by Malcolm Tibbets

A comment on global warming
















I moved on to take some pics of the Chapter Collaborative Challenge

Show-Me Woodturners
Festus, MO
"Life Reborn"













Honolulu Woodturners
Honolulu, HW
"Flower Lei of Hawaiian Woods"

Winner - Artistic Category









Glendale Woodturners Guild
Glendale, CA
"Space Port"











Big Island Woodturners
Hilo, HI
"Waves of Hawaii"











Wine Country Woodturners
Santa Rosa, CA

Winner - Technical Category















Seattle Chapter of AAW
Seattle, WA
"Slugfest in Seattle"

Winner - Best of Show














Central Florida Woodturners
"Planet 0 looking for Planet X"

And one that I did not take a photo of:
Pacific Northwest Woodturning Guild
Portland, OR
here












Three pieces by Michael Werner

Right - 'Mirage Captured' 182 individually turned bowls in curly maple and MDF










Three pieces by Mike Jackofski

The right-hand piece is a colaboration with David Marks










Three pieces in spalted sugar maple by David Elsworth - who else!












J Paul Fennell


















J Paul Fennell


















Three hats by Johannes Michelsen

in red maple burl











Three pieces by Andi Wolfe

Left - 'Imagine the hidden world #3' in Huon Pine

Right - 'Microcosm' in maple burl

Front - 'Leaf saturation series'

See Andi's blog post of Portland Day 1
Part 2a
Part 2b
Part 2c
Part 2d






Stunning pieces by Cindy Drozda

in boxelder burl and blackwood
















I loved this piece by Lee Tannenbaum

in cherry burl and blackwood











Robert Gauthier

'Aladdin bottle' in wenge, yellowheart and bloodwood
















Brian McEvoy

'Peace offering' in Alaskan yellow cedar











Donald Derry

'Glassy bottle and 'Earth form' in elm

Dyed, airbrushed and lacquered










Donald Derry

'Earth form' in elm

Dyed, airbrushed and lacquered








Donald Derry

'Glassy bottle in elm

Dyed, airbrushed and lacquered














Harvey Fein

'Untitled' in cocobolo











John Wessels (Wilderness, South Africa)

Left - 'Twin' in railtie (railway sleeper wood), coolibah and pewter

Right - Box in red ivory (Burchemia zeyheri) with gold leaf

Front - 'Saturn' in hard pear (Olinea ventosa) burl and pewter











Larry Lew

'Breaking out' in black walnut
















'As the world turns green with envy of the sun and the moon'

A collaboration between Jacques Vessery and Bonnie Klein

Carved / textured cherry, swiss pear, glass, 18 kt and 23 kt gold leaf and acrylics

I was lucky enough to have Jacques remove the perspex dome for this photograph










Most of the time it was hidden under perspex to avoid unnecessary handling

















Jacques even did me a great favour by opening it to let me see the inside

















Displayed each side of the piece were photographs of the inside and underneath and in front was the palette that (I presume) Jacques had used when finishing the piece






























The piece, a threaded box itself contained a second essentially spherical threaded box

Both 'boxes' were sculpted inside with rose engine work

The former one is decorated with 'sky' in the top

The latter comprised two hemispheres representing the sun and the moon










The inner sphere contained an ocean blue glass marble etched with the 'continents' and an arrow indicating Portland


The base was decorated underneath with an 'sun and moon ying yang'













Here is the palette


















Here is Jacques and Bill Luce


The piece reached $20 000 on the auction, the proceeds going to the AAW's Professional Outreach Programme














Here are many of the other pieces that were donated for the auction

The auction starts off as a silent auction with bids offered by bidders on the orange sheets

At the formal auction, at the symposium banquet, the bidding starts at the highest value offered on the silent auction






More auction pieces

















Alain Mailland

Amazing art











Alain Mailland piece close up













Binh Pho

'Rickshaw' in boxelder
















Binh Pho


















Binh Pho colaboration with Hans Weissflog

'Cranes and Pine' in poplar wood and acrylic
















John Jordan

Left - 'Black jar' in boxelder and steel

Front - Silver maple vessel









Mike Mahoney

'Filet', a nested bowl set in boxelder
















Mike Mahoney

Five piece heirloom salad bowl set
















Stirling Sanders

'Natures revenge' in walnut, butternut and ebony
















Jason Mast

'Myrtle vessels' in black myrtle (of course)











Mark Kauder

Segmented hollow forms

Left - paduak, holly and blackwood

Middle - zebrawood, blackwood and holly

Right - canarywood, blackwood and holly





An amazingly inspirational slide presentation by Alain Mailland












What Alain gets up to in his workshop really expands the mind












... let alone the technical wizardry













A brief stop in at the trade show (more of that later) to chat to Bill Rubinstein of Stubby USA

Bill was showing off his 'laser guided' boring bar system









The day ended with the WOW dinner at a local restaurant













The WOWies indulge in a gift exchange at the dinner

















The gift exchange table













Some really nice pieces were exchanged


So it was off to bed to refresh for the second day