Intermediate Wood Turning Intensive 1M24
Age Group:
Adults
Now that you have some experience and confidence with your woodturning tools, let’s explore woodturning in a bit more detail. If you are comfortable with simple shapes and desire to add more complicated features, or refine surfaces, or if you cut cleanly with the chisels some of the time and would like to do it more consistently, please join us for this adventure on skills improvement.
The content of the class is largely up to the desires of the students. We begin with each student presenting a list of their desires, prioritizing that list so that everyone gets most of their topics covered. Often the class begins with everyone working on the same project, chosen from the prioritized list. Following that students often choose individual project and work the rest of the week on their prioritize list. It's fun to see what other students are doing and sometimes choose to work on a project suggested by another.
Your topics can be very specific or quite general; they can be simple or quite complicated. There are many general projects useful for building skills such as making a spinning top focusing on fine detail cutting that requires little sanding, spoon making which stresses graceful spindle turning technique, bowl turning where we go beyond the simple bowl shape by adding an undercut rim and learning a variety of chucking techniques useful in making an elegant foot. Additionally, we can make lidded end-grain boxes and goblets where you learn how to control ingrain hollowing techniques. If you want elegance, make a few finely detailed finials to embellish your boxes.
If you have specific projects in mind, I would like to discuss them with you before the beginning of the class. In this way, we can devise a realistic plan to meet your goals as well as allow me to prepare the materials specific for your project. Please call the Eliot School to set up this discussion.
Rick Angus
Rick Angus enjoys turning wood and understanding the details of efficient tool handling. (A sharp tool can be a wonderful dance partner if properly led.) Acquiring skillful technique with sharp tools improved his joy of woodturning immensely and allowed him to focus on design and shape of the objects being created. Having been working wood since his Cub Scout pine-wood derby days, wood shop taught him a lot of furniture technique but curved surfaces he found more interesting. In the 90s, his interest in the lathe was rekindled when a mentor taught him efficient tool sharpening and the fun returned to stay.
His focus on learning technique has paid off as now he can concentrate on design and creation. Most of Rick’s current work is deep cross-grain bowls and end-grain lidded boxes. His most common technique is often called twice-turned—wet wood is turned to a rough (approximate but oversized) shape, dried and remounted and turned to final shape. This technique allows Rick carefully to choose the grain pattern for the desired effect in the final piece. The grain patterns are chosen for symmetry—or not! Recent work incorporating domed lids to these vessels has allowed the expression of a much taller hollow form. Smooth graceful shapes with sharp detail are his hallmark.
Rick continues to learn a lot from great turners, enjoys giving back by sharing his tips and technique with fellow woodturners and encourages questions at any time.
Specialty:
Woodturning
Materials to bring to class:
Students should bring any tools that they would like to use during the class; they may also bring any tools for which they need sharpening instructions. They may bring any pieces of wood that they would like to use during the class as well as any unfinished project to be worked on in the class.
Materials fee will be based upon the individual students usage. In the past, most students paid between $30 and $60.