This is Dale Nish's firm. He opens up the facility to all. There is a huge sale of goods as well as demonstrations by well known turners.
I got a lift to Craft Supplies with Gorst du Plessis while Andi and Gigi went off to Salt Lake City Airport to collect Paul Fennell and Don MacDougal.
You must also see Andi Wolfe's blog post of Super Wednesday. She has quite a few pics of us in our hotel room with Paul Fennell 'showing and telling'. It was wonderful to hold one of Paul's pieces in ones own hands and to hear, first hand, his stories about the inspiration for each.
Craft Supplies USA
Just to the right of the main Craft Supplies building
On the opposite side of the road is the training facility where the clearance sale was held.
All sorts of goodies
I bought myself two three inch faceplates for my Stubby - whew, the thread size was correct for my 'baby'
Like kids in a candy store
Many of the 'sheds' were used as demo areas
Unfortunately I'm not sure of the names of most of the demonstrators but Andi has some of them on her blog post
Nick Agar
Nick Agar - multi-centre turning and decorating with an angle-grinder ...
and blow torch
This event is very well attended
Lots of people chatting and catching up with old friends
At about this time John Wessels from Wilderness, Western Cape, arrived to join the happy throng
Dale's son owns Treeline, just down the road.
Treeline focuses on woodcarving supplies and has a wide range of great equipment in their catalogue
Gorst du Plessis in the doorway
The wood lot used a a parking area
I only saw the piles of wood in there the following day after all the cars had moved out!
And cars in the road
Provo reminded me a bit of Stellenbosch
A university town with mountains as a backdrop. But that is more or less where the similarity ended!
That evening Andi took us along to the home of Mike Mahoney and his wife Jen
Andi and Mike
Photo - Andi Wolfe
In his beautiful garden he and Jen entertain the demonstrators and their friends and their friends friends
Of course no home visit is complete without a visit to the 'shop'
Mike's two Vicmarks - the one permanently fitted with a vacuum chuck for instantly reverse chucking the bowls that are produced on the other
Pillar drill and buffing system for polishing the interiors of bowls
Mike is a prodigious producer of beautiful functional bowls as well as artistic pieces and I learned more about production bowl turning in this one visit than I could have in years back home
One must be able to keep warm in the workshop in winter
The 'messy' area around the lathe can be curtained off
Beautiful slabs of burl in Mike's workshop
Now we visit the basement under his home and this is where one really begins to understand the term 'production' turner
You can see the results of Mike's skill with the Kelton bowl saver
And yes - I mean serious production
Mike's bowl blanks hang around down here in this nice stable basement atmosphere for a couple of months before being final turned and polished
Another room in the basement where Mike finishes and photographs his pieces
Look at that nested burl set
Bloody marvelous nested sets
Gorgeous small hollow vessels
Mike's photography set up in the same room
A bowl on a pedestal in Mike's home
And a turned wooden hat
part of Mike's collection
What I loved to see was Mike and Jen using beautiful wooden platters and bowls in their daily life
This is how fine wood should really be oil finished
Heirloom bowls in cottonwood
Each knob is threaded and held on by a recessed wooden washer and threaded nut inside the lid
Mike and Jen's home
This tree in Mike and Jen's garden is a national monument
Jen is an environmentalist working in compliance and enforcement in a field very similar to that I worked in until a couple of years ago. Their gorgeous garden is a testament to her green fingers.
Thanks Mike and Jen for opening up your home and so generously sharing - even with strange visitors from so far away
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