Our WGO meeting, and last of this year, was

Thursday, June 12th and, featured

Wyatt Walkem demonstrating why

"The Skew is your Friend"

Wyatt Walkem is a fulltime furniture maker and professional woodturner, he began woodworking in high school in where he furthered his education for three years graduating from Sheridan colleges Furniture craft and design program in 2014. He has spent time at Arrowmont school of craft in Tennessee both learning and assisting in teaching, has also run numerous hands-on classes at LeeValley tools as well as teaching private classes from his home studio. Wyatt has taken part in hands-on classes with many other professional woodturners over the years from people such as Warren Carpenter, Glenn Lucas & Michael Hosaluk to name just a few.
He likes to live by the motto of "Never stop learning" & "Practice makes you better, not perfect"
Wyatt's early turning years focused primarily on variations of bowl turning such as live edge and winged bowls. Over the last 5 years he has been moving into the direction of being a full time production spindle turner. Creating custom items such as stair spindles, custom table legs, and large structural columns exceeding 8 feet in length.
Wyatt will be sharing his use of traditional spindle turning tools such as the skew chisel, and spindle gouge to create a duplicate of an existing spindle.

For more insights visit Wyatt's web-site here

The Salon had number of very interesting well-turned items that can be viewed here
and the winners list is here

Thursday May 22nd was our WGO Annual Meeting and Grand Salon

The Annual Meeting was called to order at 7:20 by Jack and reports were heard from

• the President
• the Treasurer
• the A/V and IT directors
• the Membership director
• the Librarian
• and the Program Director who reported
  
  • we had 3 demonstratons by international turners
  • 2 by demonstrators from other Guilds/li>
  • 6 by our own members

The Salon had number of very interesting well-turned items that can be viewed here
and the winners list is here

Thursday May 15th was
Eli Avisera from Israel
demonstrating
a Trembleur
and Mr and Mrs offset pens.

Eli Avisera is an internationally renowned woodworking artist and a world-class expert in woodturning, carving, wood sculpture, and chair making. He is also a luthier (violin maker) and has an extensive background in classic carpentry, cabinet and furniture making. Eli was born in 1960 and grew up in Jerusalem. He attended “Kiryat Noar” school in Jerusalem, specializing in their artistic woodcraft study program. He graduated in 1977. After working in traditional carpentry for about a decade, Eli founded the first professional woodworking school in Israel in 1988. Between his school in Jerusalem and his international teaching programs, thousands of serious students have studied with him, and hundreds graduating after years of extensive study.
Over the decades, Eli has lectured, demonstrated his methodologies, and tutored students throughout the world. His classes include his creative turning concepts, furniture construction, wood carving, and sculpture.
About a decade ago, Eli began a comprehensive study of fine art of violin crafting, and now teaches those stringed instrument making skills to his luthier students. Eli’s attention to detail, creativity, and artistry speaks for itself. His vast woodworking talents and artistry can be seen in museums and treasured personal collections around the world. The world is Eli’s classroom, as he has taught and continues to be invited to teach in countries such as Japan, UK, China, Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, New Zealand. In the United States, Eli has taught and lectured in over 25 states, including prestigious organizations like the Marc Adams School of Woodworking and The American Association of Woodturners (AAW). Even though he is a master woodturner, woodworker, and violin maker, Eli continues to experiment. From his years of R&D, Eli has developed a series of specialized and signed woodturning tools. These tools are manufactured by specialized international companies such as Ashley Iles Ltd. (UK) and Glaser HiTec (USA).

See Eli's web-site here

Thursday April 10th
Jim Williams demonstrated turning Beer Steins

Jim is a relatively new member to Kawartha Woodturner’s Guild but he has obtained a great deal of experience and knowledge in a very short time. He just started turning in 2019 and at that time attended a hands on retreat in Texas. Later in 2020 he did one on one classes with Chris Ramsey in Kentucky and in 2022 he also did classes with JoHannes Michelson in Vermont. All of this has helped to hone his skills in making unique wooden hats. He has attended a number of AAW regional symposiums to further his woodturning education and his pieces were featured in the AAW Journal in Oct 2022. You can find out a bit more about Jim and his work from his website and Facebook page.

Also, this month, we’re trying out a new twist on Show & Tell.
I’m calling it “a blast from the past”: Woodturning is a journey; our skills improve, we learn new techniques and the things that inspire us change.
Bring in one of your older pieces and tell us something about your journey.

For those of you who are unable to attend in person, we are hopeful that you will be able to join via Zoom.
A Zoom Invitation is available from Juanita

Thursday March 6th
Our demonstrator was Steve Mushinski with an introduction and demo to Irwin Siedman's Emerging Bowl Technique.

Steve Mushinski has been a member of the WGO for 25 years.

He retired last year, from a varied career as an electrician spending most of his time in Automation and IT. Last assignment included Project Management specializing in robotics and welding. And he has demo'd locally and international with his late wife Sharon turning and embellishment technique of marbling. Studied and also taught at Arrowmont School of arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg TN.

There is a 1 page document on this technique Here