First State Woodturners Awarded 2016 EOG Grant

First State Woodturners has been awarded a 2016 AAW Educational Opportunity Grant! The grant – in the amount of $1370 – will be used to purchase a portable mini-lathe, accessories, and safety gear which will facilitate our efforts to re-introduce woodturning into two local Delaware high schools. The two high schools are Mt. Pleasant High School and Wilmington Friends School, located in northern Delaware.

Both of these schools have full Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) design lab programs. However, rather than just focus on robotics and 3D printing, we are working with the teachers to also incorporate woodturning into the curriculum. We are presenting our craft as an elegant blend of engineering and art. Our club will be providing volunteers and materials on-going during school sessions, and also for summer camps.

I am actively involved with, and currently serve as an Officer for First State Woodturners. Congrats to the Club for winning this award!

Alan & Lauren Zenreich to Demo at First State Woodturners

Alan and Lauren Zenreich will give a demonstration at First State Woodturners‘ March 2nd meeting. This husband & wife team create unique woodturned jewelry.

Alan demonstrates ways to create pendants using multi-axis turning, boring, and beading. A feature of the demonstration will be the use of the Joyner Off-Center Jig Chuck.

Lauren has an extensive crafts background which she employs to enhance the pendants. She has worked with paints, stained glass enameling, wirework, precious metal clay, polymer clay, and beading. She will be demonstrating a number of these techniques.

This demo will be ground-breaking in that Alan and Lauren will actually be demonstrating live from their studio in northern New Jersey via Skype. The goal is to test the concept of using the Internet as a more cost-effective way to hold live demonstrations. Teleconferencing would provide other woodturning professionals the opportunity to give demonstrations from their own workshops. Alan has been testing this technique and he hopes the AAW will adopt and promote it. The savings in time and travel expenses would be enormous, and it would open up more demonstration possibilities to local chapters across the country and around the world. First State Woodturners, in cooperation with Woodcraft of Wilmington, will be the first test of a full demonstration.

Please join us on Wednesday, March 2nd, 7 PM, at the Woodcraft Store in New Castle, Delaware for the meeting and demo.

AAW 2016 Symposium in Atlanta, GA – Registration Now Open!

AAW’s 30th annual international symposium will be held at the Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart, Atlanta, Georgia, June 9–12, 2016. The connected Atlanta Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel will be the host hotel.

AAW’s symposium offers you the opportunity to enjoy the beauty, intrigue, and Southern charm of Atlanta, while enhancing your woodturning experience and enjoying the company of others who share your enthusiasm. The symposium offers three-and-a-half days of classroom-type demonstrations and panel discussions led by internationally known woodturners, veteran instructors, and top woodturning talent. No other event offers as many opportunities to learn from the world’s best.

Special Group room rates at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel start at $125 per night. Rooms will book up fast, so make your reservations early!

Learn more, book your hotel, and register for the symposium here.

 

A New Chapter…

After 30 years working in Research & Development at the DuPont Co., I have elected to accept the generous “early-retirement” package currently being offered by the company.

I am honored, grateful, and humbled to have known and worked with so many talented, caring, intelligent, entertaining, helpful, and neurotic people over the years, and I wish all of my former colleagues at DuPont the very best in the years ahead.

I look forward to pursuing my artistic passion through woodturning, expanding my skills and techniques in the craft, and sharing my work (and other woodturning news and events) here on this blog, on Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook.

If you haven’t already, please sign-up on the Subscribe page for an occasional newsletter that will have details on my latest work.

Instagram: @joewoodturner
Twitter: @joewoodturner
Flickr: nestlerode
Facebook: @jwoodturner