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
