October recap

No pictures, so we can't prove anything...

We gathered to a growing crowd of turners, and interested bystanders.  As mentioned, anyone coming to a meeting and thinking about joining, here is your chance!  Join now for 2011, and we will grandfather you in for the rest of 2010!  The best deal in town just got better...

We kept our business and our show and tell to a minimum.  The S&T was about 12 objects made from the cherry that Dick Plog had brought in 2 meetings back.  Ed Brannon mentioned that we might want to do a similar event with the wood from Grey Towers as a potential fundraiser.  Kristin Muller also sent me the following note about Grey Towers locust auction:

Subject: Historic Locust Trees from Grey Towers to be Auctioned

Hi: The attached press release has details about the US Forest Service auctioning off historic Locust trees from the grounds of Grey Towers National Historic Site, home of conservationist and PA Governor Gifford Pinchot, Milford PA. Perhaps your organization might be interested in bidding for use as a fundraiser, or you may have some craftsmen who would appreciate working with this material.

Feel free to contact us with any questions you might have....

Lori Danuff McKean, Assistant Director
Programs, Partnerships and Communication
USDA Forest Service
Grey Towers National Historic Site
P.O. Box 188
Milford, PA 18337
(570)296-9672

Please direct any questions to Lori at lmckean@fs.fed.us .

In addition, Kristin also invites us to the Sussex County Fall Harvest Festival:

Subject: FW: Revised Harvest Festival Registration form


Calling all Agritourism, Ecotourism and Heritage Tourism entities out
there! Sussex County is having a Harvest Festival on Saturday, October
23, 2010 at the Sussex County Fairgrounds and we'd like you to
participate. See the attached registration form. There is no charge for
this event. The Fairgrounds is providing us the use of the livestock
barns, so everyone will be under cover. This event will help get out the
word out about all the good work you do. There will also be fun
activities for the whole family and demonstrations by Peters Valley
craftspeople. This is Peters Valley's 40th anniversary and they will be
celebrating with a separate dinner and auction (fee) that evening which
you can also register for. Feel free to pass this on to other relevant
organizations and individuals. Hope to see everyone there on October
23rd.

Donna Traylor
Sussex County Office of Farmland Preservation and Conservation
DTraylor@sussex.nj.us

Anyone interested in this event should contact Kristin (director@pvcrafts.org)  and Donna about attending (I have a prior commitment.)

Our main topic of the evening was on how to build a lathe with matchsticks and ducktape.  Since there were no pictures taken, you'll have to take my word for it.  Seriously, we need someone to be the official photographer or this blog will be pretty sad (although much easier for me, since I don't have to edit pictures and layouts...).

Our main topic was finishing.  Joe volunteered to lead session about finishing, since he had taken a workshop earlier this year and works at a cabinet shop.  He walked us through a vairety of topics, including burning and wirebrushing to create texture, aniline dyes, and using scotchbrite pads to level the finishes.  He also brought a "reject" from his days at Tiffany, and suffice it to say that we'd all want to be able to produce this quality work!

Our next meeting will be on November 3.  As a reminder, it will include a show and tell as usual, but we are also going to be having a swap meet/tool sale/surplus inventory reduction.  Bring in that stuff that you don't use anymore and see if someone else might need it!  Bartering, cash, trade- we're all adults, and the rules are simple:  if both parties are happy, it's a deal.

Time permitting, there will be a short demo TBD on something... I reserve the right to make up something on the spot...

Safe spinning-

Steve