Apr. 8th, 2014

gerisullivan: (Geri 2014)
Sunday brought another wonderful day at Snow Farm. The wood turning class sped up as we all worked as quickly as we could to finish our projects. There were also fewer "everyone gather around the instructor's lathe" sessions, though there was one highly instructive "everyone gather around this student's lathe" moment while Rick demonstrated why that lathe had been quickly turned off and wasn't going to be turned back on before removing the incomplete cherry bowl being worked on. More on that after the pictures and under the cut.

I am thrilled beyond thrilled with my finished cherry bowl. Yes, I see all the things I'd try to do differently turning a third bowl -- foremost on that list is not using a 10" blank to create a 7.25" bowl. Yes, I see the learning, and what I would have done with this bowl if I hadn't run out of time to work on it. But it's entirely possible that if I'd had that time, I would have ended up without a beautiful bowl at all -- two of the five students ran into problems that damaged their cherry bowls. Two of the students accidentally destroyed their ash bowls. And only two of us went home with two finished, undamaged bowls. Curiously enough, we were the two whose cherry bowls didn't at all match the profile of what we set out to make...and both of those bowls came out completely different flavors of remarkably beautiful, especially in light of our inexperience.

So. The pictures. My cherry bowl almost done, and both bowls finished showing the tops and the bottoms. The first two photos are taking under flourescent lights, the third under 5000K daylight CFLs and whatever daylight came in from outside.

AlmostDone_UnderFlourescentWorkshopLights_2014-04-06 10.34.42
FinishedBowls_atSnowFarm_2014-04-06 15.34.28
BowlsAtHome_Bottoms_2014-04-07 16.13.34

Yes, I made those stripes with the smaller of the ancient tools that came out of the workshop at 22 Grand Blvd. My sister Sue pointed out that Great-Grandpa Charles A. Squier was also quite a woodworker and did lots of carving on the tables and other items he made. It's possible those two little tools came from his workshop rather than Grandpa Waldo Fitzgerald's. It's unlikely I'll ever know, but I know enough and that's good. What happened to that one student's cherry bowl and other tales from Sunday at Snow Farm. )

I left the class with more information about the woodworking clubs in Worcester and Springfield. At this point, what I'd most like to do is make a lot of wood shavings in the process of developing true comfort and competence with lathe tools. I don't know enough to do it safely on my own, but in the company of others who know considerably more than I do? I think I know enough to give it a try.

I also came home with a couple of Snow Farm course catalogs to share with friends and the intention to take a winter workshop class every year or two. And maybe some longer classes if any ever fit with both my budget and available time. Most of those fall during my super-busy season with work.

"Acts of Creation" post coming separately. I think that will wrap up my Snow Farm woodturning adventure. For now, at least.

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