Woodturning: Acts of Creation

Last Saturday at this time, we just finishing up the first day of the woodturning class I took at Snow Farm. Shortly after arriving home, I was talking with Nate Bucklin on the phone and he sang the following chorus:

You can tell it on the mountain, in the valley far below,
But you needn't tell the craftsmen what they already know,
From the author at her keyboard, to the woodwright at his lathe
Every act of creation is an act of faith!

Later than night, carbonel sent me more information about "Acts of Creation," the song the chorus is from. It's by Cat Faber, and one Kathy Mar sings.

A bit of web searching turned up the lyrics and a video of Joe Bethancourt performing it. Recommended.

And so it was that I returned for the second day of class with a fitting song in my heart and head. Joy shared is joy magnified. Thanks, Nate! Thanks, Carbonel!

In follow-up woodturning news, on Wednesday night I went over to West Springfield for the monthly meeting of the Western Massachusetts Woodturning Club. Annual dues are a mere $25, so I joined. I also invested $6 in their wood swap and walked away with 9 pieces of wood, 8 of them ready to be turned into woodshavings in pursuit of my developing more comfort with lathe tools. They're a mix of maple and cherry, some dry, some green. 3.25-4.25" square and 5-10 inches tall. A bargain, I think.

The club has a couple of lathes as well as other useful powertools. I don't yet know how it works when it comes to using them, but they did mention needing to schedule a "fun day" where they bring in some more lathes and folks spend the day making things together. I'll find out more along the way, no doubt.

The meeting itself was very interesting. There was a show & tell portion where a few club members showed some of their work, and a lengthy, detailed demonstration about various texturing techniques. The overall quality of work was remarkable and inspiring. There were about three dozen people at the meeting; five women ranging in age from what looked like early 20s to late 60s. A couple of the women were clearly there with their husbands, but they were equally clearly acting and seen as individual members. The other women may have been there on their own; I couldn't tell. During the business meeting part of things and the demonstration, there was frequent mention of talented female woodturners, so the group felt welcoming in that regard.

Dick, the 92-year-old from the Snow Farm class, was also at the meeting. He'd mentioned that he'd just joined; last month was his first meeting. I asked him about maybe coming over to his house sometime, seeing his workshop, and getting his help with a non-woodturning project I have in mind. I want to make a small table/plant stand from one the wood patterns I brought from Battle Creek. It's two half-rounds; I think some decorative hinges and some sort of hook'n'eye mechanism would join the pieces in an attractive manner while still making it possible to open it up and see the inside of the pattern if one wanted to. Or, technically, even take it apart and use it for its original purpose, though I doubt that I'll ever find anyone needing to cast machine parts or even that particular shape.

That sounded good to Dick. We exchanged contact info and I hope to get over visit him within the next couple of weeks.

Anybody need a candlestick?