Join me for a class at Marc Adams!

If you've ever wanted to learn how I go about making wood art, you have a chance at the end of May. I'm teaching a class at Marc Adams School of Woodworking May 24-28, 2021. Here's a link to the class (Beyond the Form: Exploring Texture, Carving, and Color in Woodturning).

This class will start with wood turning and progress into surface enhancement techniques. I’m anticipating a very fun week and would love for you to join me there. Let me know if you have any questions.

Here’s an example of a sampler bowl that we’ll do in the class.

Earth, Water, Air, and Fire

I just finished my mixed media piece for the AAW POP Exhibit, Elements. The size is 5.75 X 5.25 inches. My title for the piece is Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.

Camphor burl, ink, and glass; turned and carved. I turned the piece and then carved the swirled beads and the inset area for the glass. I fitted and installed 82 pieces of sculpted glass I made in the OSU Sherman Studios hotshop by coating a gather of clear glass with red transparent frit. Then I manipulated the glass into the shape I wanted for this work.

This was a big challenge for me. Not only did I learn a new medium, every element of the work was somewhat experimental for me. I am pleased with how it turned out. This will be on display in St. Paul, MN at the Gallery for Wood Art beginning in March. Then it will travel to Omaha, NE where it will be in the POP exhibit and auction. I'll post the auction link when I have it.

Back view

Detail.

Meet the Woodturner Interview

Pat Carroll has a wonderful series of interviews with woodturners from around the world. He recently invited me to be featured in his Meet the Woodturner series, which was done on January 3, 2021. It was fun to be the first interviewee for 2021. I hope it was an auspicious start to a better year than 2020 has been for most of us.

Here's the link to the promo video, which is basically a slide show of some highlights set to music: https://youtu.be/7dt8WNfJWlg (2:42).

Here's the link to the actual interview:https://youtu.be/ZFSJRiniMKU (1:40:29). You'll need to skip ahead to 26:20 if you want to get right into the interview. Otherwise you can watch the show-and-tell segment of the recording.

If you'd like to subscribe to this series (it's free), email **meetthewoodturner@gmail.com**. Pat will add you to the list.

Thanks, Pat, for including me in this nice series of interviews.

'Elements' Work in Progress - 2

It's a good thing I have a couple of months in which to finish this piece. Sanding the beads takes an incredible amount of time. I sit at my carving bench with my magnifiers on in order for me to see all the little flaws. Hand sanding is relaxing but very time consuming.

I'm adding glass pieces as I go, just to break up the sanding chore. Each glass piece is custom-fit into a carved hole, and I have to keep track of what piece goes where in the turning. This is an iterative process. I have my tile clippers at the bench so I can adjust the stem height of each glass "flower." I'm using a piece of foam to keep things in order.

I need to make a lot more of these glass pieces, including some tiny ones to fit in the spaces between elements. I also have some final adjusting to do before setting the pieces in their final configuration. There is a lot of fiddling with this ahead...

New Directions

One of the things that has happened during this pandemic tragedy is my branching out into experimenting with glass. This adventure started before the pandemic, as I was enrolled in a beginning glass class at Ohio State University. Part of this class was an introduction to glass blowing. We had half a semester before the university had to shut down due to a stay-at-home mandate that was initiated in early March.

With the university shut down the glass studio was closed and that was the end to glass blowing for the semester. We had just started to learn about warm glass techniques (e.g., glass fusing in a kiln) right before spring break (the university switched to online following spring break). I was able to borrow a small kiln to continue my exploration at home so I started to make 4X4 inch glass tiles for a remodeling project. I enjoyed glass fusing so much that I ordered a kiln for myself, which took nearly three months to receive because all the factories were closed during the early surge of the pandemic.

Once my kiln arrived I was able to make space in my detached garage for a glass workshop. I've been doing lots of fun things in glass, including a technique called "fossil vitra." This is essentially converting organic material into glass fossils. I've been playing with leaves and inflorescences. I really like the result of these experiments. (Check out my Etsy shop for my fused glass work: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtByAndiWolfe?ref=seller-platform-mcnav).

This semester I was able to enroll in another glass class at the university. The studio was able to implement safety protocols that allowed us to get back into the hot shop for glass blowing. I had a weekly blow slot to myself, which resulted in a lot of experimenting. One of those experiments is being used for a new piece that I'm working on for an AAW exhibit next summer. The exhibit is "Elements," and I'm one of the invited artists. For this piece I am combining woodturning and some glassblowing work. I have to say that I am really, really enjoying this work. I sketched out my idea, gave a lot of thought to what I wanted to make, and it's actually happening.

Small fossil vitra dish with Japanese maple leaves.

Small fossil vitra dish with Penstemon.

Elements–work-in-progress.

Elements–work-in-progress.

Elements–work-in-progress.

Elements–work-in-progress. I’ve started to fit my glass pieces to the woodturning.

AAW Symposium 2020 has been cancelled due to COVID-19

I received the following email today from Phil McDonald. I know this was a difficult decision for the AAW board to make, but it was the right thing to do to ensure the safety of the AAW members who would have tried to attend the symposium in Louisville, Kentucky.

The cancellation is unfortunate on many fronts: 1) for the revenue loss that AAW will face, 2) the revenue loss by venders and artists, 3) the economic impact the loss of a large convention will have on Louisville, 4) the loss of opportunity faced by the demonstrators, and 5) the loss of community for attendees. This symposium is a highlight of the year for many woodturners from around the globe. I know I will miss seeing everyone. We live in difficult times right now, and I hope everyone is staying safe, social distancing, and practicing good hygiene.

Here's the letter from AAW:

Hello Andi:

Speaking on behalf of the Board and staff, we are humbled by the outpouring of support we have seen since announcing the cancellation of the AAW Symposium. I thank you for the patience and empathy you offered while the AAW went through the process of making this difficult decision.

While the financial outcome of the symposium cancellation remains uncertain, we are confident that any negative effects to the AAW organization will be manageable. The AAW Board provided strong leadership under difficult circumstances, working with experts who helped to guide us through the process. We are heartened by your offers of financial support. AAW is gracious for all charitable donations and please keep us in your plans during our fall 2020 fundraising campaign.

At present, there are many others who will be impacted more severely than AAW by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the AAW Symposium cancellation. Now is a time for all of us to focus our emotional support where it will be needed most, on friends, neighbors, and families who may fall victim to the virus.

The AAW Symposium cancellation, together with proper social distancing, is impacting the livelihoods of our vendors, demonstrators, and artists, and has disrupted our local chapter functions. Think about spending part of your symposium fee, airfare, and hotel to support our vendors, demonstrators, and artists, or organizations working to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Your online purchases could tip the scales for small businesses, keeping them afloat in these very challenging times.

Here’s how you can help: Make online purchases from businesses who would have been exhibitors in the 2020 AAW trade show (see attached list). Make online purchases from woodturning artists. Gift an AAW membership to a friend or colleague to keep them connected as part of the woodturning community. Purchase gift certificates to support the businesses you care about. Encourage your chapters to look into scheduling demonstrators who are available to deliver interactive remote demonstrations. Donate any unused N95 masks and respirators, and eye protection to local hospitals, medical facilities, or organizations. Donate blood locally. Thank grocery store clerks, nurses and doctors, police officers and fire fighters, sanitation workers, delivery people, and the list goes on. Check in with elderly friends, neighbors, and chapter members by regularly calling, video chatting, or sending a text. Support your local food bank.

In the coming weeks, we will be staying in regular communication about alternative ways of offering woodturning content and engagement online to keep the AAW Symposium spirit going strong. Let us know your creative ideas by sending a note to memberservices@woodturner.org.

We’re facing these uncertain times together and are rallying to help the woodturning community stay safe, informed, active, and connected. Please continue to make and create, which will help you keep active and strong.

Yours respectfully,

Phil McDonald, Executive Director on behalf of the AAW Board and staff

American Association of Woodturners 222 Landmark Center 75 5th St W, Saint Paul, MN 55102 651-484-9094 | memberservices@woodturner.org

A Visit with the Chicago Woodturners

I had a nice time doing an all-day demonstration and three-day hands-on class with the Chicago Woodturners at the beginning of my academic spring break time. I stayed with Rich Nye and his wife, Susan. They have a nice menagerie of animals that I enjoyed getting to know in the limited amount of time available. Both Rich and Sue are exotic pet veterinarians - mostly retired now, but still active in rescue, clinical, and volunteer work.

This was the first time I did a three-day hands-on class with a club (I usually do a one-day class, and restrict it to surface techniques), and I really liked the format as it developed. We spent the first day turning forms to use for surface enhancement techniques, which were covered on days 2 and 3.

The Chicago Woodturners are a dynamic club, and I enjoyed spending some time with them. I finished my visit with a critique of turnings at their regular meeting on the second Tuesday of the month. That was also a lot of fun, given some of the turnings that were on the show-and-tell table, plus their monthly President's challenge (egg forms).

If you have a chance to do so, attend the Turn On Chicago event that will take place in July of this year. They know how to put on a good symposium.

Six of the nine students who were in the class. This was from the first day.

Surface enhancement techniques covered included pyrography, carving and texturing, and coloring. In this image, students are applying acrylic paint to their turnings.

Some of the students who were in the class. We had a fun group!

Here’s the demo piece I did. The top surface was textured using pyrography, the sides were carved. Acrylic paint was used to color the piece.

I carved the sides of the vessel, and used acrylic paint to color it.

Leaf saturation motif. I did this demonstration during the Saturday session for the club.

Side view of Leaf Saturation bowl.

A huge variety of pigeon breeds at the Nye/Brown property. Charles Darwin used domesticated pigeon breeds as examples of how artificial selection can rapidly change the appearance of pigeons. All of the diverse breeds of pigeon were developed from the common rock pigeon.

Pouters.

I love the ruff on this breed.

Frilly feathers!

Rich Nye was a pitcher in Major League Baseball after he graduated from college. That’s a picture of him in action. He has some interesting memorabilia from that stage of his life. It was fun to find out about this side of him.

16th Annual Bryn Du Art Show

Granville, Ohio— This March, Bryn Du will celebrate 16 years of amazing artists and artworks at the beautiful, historic mansion. Originally held in 2005 as part of Granville’s bicentennial celebration, the Bryn Du Art Show has become an annual tradition. It has now grown to a national juried show which will host 70 artists and 85 pieces of art this year. This exhibition has something for everyone in the way of visual art including works of oil, pastels, acrylics, photography, ceramics, mixed media, silkscreen, graphite, pen and ink, silicone, watercolor, wood, stone, glass, pyrography and fiber art. The majority of these unique artworks will be available for sale.

While mostly Ohio-based, artists from across the country submitted their pieces for consideration during the fall and into January. Each of those pieces was then carefully reviewed by an expert juror who had the difficult task of choosing the final pieces to exhibit at the Show. Andi Wolfe of Upper Arlington is a member of the Worthington Area Art League, and is one of this year’s artists represented in the Show. Her painting, Bienvenido a Quito, a 2X4 ft cityscape of Quito, Ecuador, will be on display, and she will be doing an oil painting demonstration of a largescale cityscape at the mansion from 3 to 5 p.m. on March 21, 2020.

The 16th Annual Bryn Du Art Show will once again allow visitors to vote on their favorite pieces through the return of the Community Choice awards. Special events will include artist demonstrations held at various days and times, as well as public art-making activities to be held each Saturday during the 3 week show from 12-2pm. In addition, the Bryn Du Art Show will host “Schools Night” on Thursday, March 12th from 4 to 6 pm where children and their families can visit the art show and participate in an art show scavenger hunt and art activities designed specifically for the evening.

Since 2004, the Bryn Du Commission, with continued support from the Village of Granville, has brought a variety of art works to the Mansion for this free, family-friendly community event. This year’s Diamond Elite level sponsors include GermainCars.com, the Granville Arts Commission, the Ohio Arts Council, Ohio Magazine, Cherry Valley Hotel and Donatos of Granville. The Bryn Du Art Show will open on March 5th at 7pm for an opening night celebration. Open hours for March 6 through 21 are: Sundays 12-4pm, closed Mondays, Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Fridays 10am-3pm, Thursdays 4-8pm and Saturdays 10am–5pm. For a detailed schedule of events, please visit bryndu.com.

ABOUT THE BRYN DU COMMISSION The Bryn Du Commission is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which is charged with maintaining the mansion as a long-term asset for the community that will provide a place for cultural, recreational, and educational activities for people of all ages. Bryn Du also hosts the Bryn Du Art Center, Bryn Du speaker series and the Rendville Art Show, among other community events. For more information or to schedule a private group tour of the Art Show, contact 740-587-7053 or angela@bryndu.com

The Turning World Has Lost a Great Man

Walt Betley (1921–2020) lived a wonderful life, and was a great friend to woodturners from around the globe. He passed away just a few days ago, and he will be greatly missed.

Walt was my neighbor from across the street, and I met him the day we were moving into our house in mid-1996. He saw my tablesaw coming out of the moving truck, and made a bee-line over to meet my husband.

"What kind of woodworking do you do?" he asked my husband.

"None - the woodworking equipment is my wife's," my spouse responded.

From that day on, Walt took a sincere interest in my adventures with woodworking - first with furniture making, and within a couple of years after meeting Walt, woodturning. I took up woodturning on Christmas day, 1998. I had been interested before that, and Walt was kind enough to show me how the tools work, and to introduce me to the Central Ohio Woodturners, our local AAW chapter. Walt was a charter member of the club, and one of the recipients of the club's lifetime member award.

Walt started turning when he was 11 years old. That gave him about 64 years turning experience when we first met. One could not ask for a better neighbor in terms of mentoring. For the first year of my turning life, every project I made was walked across the street so Walt could give me a critique. It made for a fast learning curve, and I certainly gave Walt a lot of credit for getting me started in this wonderful field of art and craft.

Walt was a retired Army colonel, and my kids grew up knowing him as Colonel Betley. He served in World War II, the Korean conflict, and the Vietnam War. During the past decade, he was our resident veteran celebrity for the local Independence Day parade. His nephew would drive him in a WWII jeep near the front of the parade. Walt knew so many people, that the jeep had to zigzag down the route so he could say hello to all his friends.

One could not have met a more loveable guy than Walt. He was always willing to help the club, his church, and his friends. We can only aspire to live such a successful and fruitful life. Rest in peace, Walt.

Here are some of my photos of Walt through the years:

Florida School of Woodwork

A couple of weeks ago I had a wonderful week at the Florida School of Woodwork, in Tampa, Florida. I took a box-making class with Michael Cullen, and eight of my women in turning friends. We used a bandsaw to cut out the box shapes, and then used hand tools to carve textures. The boxes were finished with milk paint. The entire week was delightful.

Kate Swann, the owner of the school, asked me to record an interview. She posted it on YouTube, and you can watch it by clicking on this link:

https://youtu.be/KS0I9-aEbPk

Here’s one of my finished boxes from the class.

Here’s the inside of the box.

Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Competition 2019 - Part 2

In June I had posted about how I had entered "Beloved" into the Ohio State Fair Fine Arts competition, and had been informed that my piece had won an award. I didn't know what it was at the time because awards are first announced at the opening reception. I promised an update, but then my busy schedule made me forget to do so...

To my great surprise and delight, my piece won 2nd Best in Show for the professional division. Here are some photos from the opening reception:

The line for the opening reception on July 23, 2019.

The postcard for the exhibit.

2nd Best of Show!!!

I was totally gobsmacked when I saw that I had one this award.

Beloved

My piece was in a nice location, and had good visibility during the state fair.

Do I look happy?

Yes, I was really happy….

Fine Arts Exhibit Reception

My daughter and I did a selfie with my entry.

Awards Ceremony - this way...

Reserved Seating

Catalog

This is the catalog page for the Professional Division Awards. They should have used the photo I had provided for my entry…

Live Music

The music was lovely. They were set up really close to where my piece was on display, so it was kind of hard to talk to people about my piece.

2019 AAW Symposium photo archive

I was the event photographer for the 2019 AAW symposium. I’ve completed the archive for this year, and here are the links to the albums on the AAW Facebook page:

Wednesday: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AAWoodturners/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2624800187564167

Thursday: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AAWoodturners/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2636519016392284

Friday: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AAWoodturners/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2638243199553199

Saturday: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AAWoodturners/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2640191569358362

Sunday: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AAWoodturners/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2641634815880704

Instant Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AAWoodturners/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2643761845668001

2019 AAW Symposium Auctions

I have a piece in the AAW POP (Professional Outreach Program) exhibit, Traces. This is called Vestiges of a Forgotten World, and it's patterned after the leaf scars of a Lepidodendron - an extinct club moss tree that lived around 350 million years ago.

You can bid online until the live auction bidding is done, on July 13, 2019.

Testa series

Many of my biomorphic forms are inspired by seed coat morphology - especially of parasitic plant seeds. Castilleja seeds are interesting to me in that the outer seed coat separates from the inner, which results in a skeleton-like appearance.

I just completed this little form in time for the 2019 American Association of Woodturners symposium, which will take place in a couple of weeks. It’s made from a dogwood end grain turning, which gives the thin-walled elements a lot of strength. It’s 3.75 X 3.25 inches in size (9.53 X 8.3 cm). I will have it on display in the instant gallery at the AAW symposium, in Raleigh, NC (July 12-14).

Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Competition 2019

Well, this is good news:

"Congratulations!

Your Artwork has been Awarded at the 2019 Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition! We cannot disclose which award you won at this time. We encourage you to attend the Opening Reception on Tuesday, July 23rd 6-8pm. Please see invitation given to you at the artist drop-off (or mailed to you) for more details. The Award Ceremony will begin at 630pm in the Rotunda."

I've no clue as to what prize it might be - probably not a major one, though. Still, I'm excited to have an award for the Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Competition - there were more than 2200 entries - mostly 2D works, but a good selection of 3D as well.

I will post an update after I find out what the award is...

Here's my artist's statement:

The natural world offers many inspirations. I am a botanist by day and a woodturner/carver in whatever spare time I can glean from the week. My work has focused on the use of surface enhancements that employ botanical or other biological motifs.

Beloved originated with the loss of a maple tree at an 1800s homestead in Tennessee. The tree was on the property of a good friend whose family has lived in this home from its beginning. The maple was also an original inhabitant of the property. My friend asked artists in the woodturning community to make something from the wood of her beloved tree so that she would have a collection of photos celebrating the life of the tree. I hope my rendering of leaves from the wood of this beloved maple tree has done honor to my friend’s memories of her life-long home.

---

Just for context, this is from Vicki Jordan's tree. She sent out hundreds of wood blanks from her beloved tree. It took me a bit longer than I had expected to finish this piece, because of the deep curve on the rim, plus the wood was rock hard! I can't begin to tell you how many hours of work (and cussing) this piece took, but I'm glad it will have some recognition at this year's Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibit.