Alaska Woodturners Association

Arnie Geiger -
President of AWA

Welcome to the
Alaska Woodturners' Association

Our woodturning organization is committed to the advancement of woodturning, by helping all who wish to learn to create items by the use of a wood lathe.

Local Chapter of the American Association of Woodturners

Next Meeting

Saturday, May 19, 2012

to be held at

Jeff Trotter Estate
971 S Joanne Street, Palmer, Alaska

Directions: Take the Glenn Highway to the Parks/Glenn interchange. Take the Parks highway for one mile to the Trunk Road exit (you will see the new hospital to the right of the road). Take right on Trunk. Turn right on Duchess Drive (the first right after you crest the big hill which is Duchess Dr.. by the UAF experimental farm). Take a left on Regents Road (going straight isn't really an option). The next street on the right is Joanne Drive. Mr. Trotter's house is at the end of the street, last driveway on the left.

This is our last meeting until September. The meeting will be held at 10:00 am at Jeff Trotter's Estate in Palmer, Alaska. The event includes a demonstration by one of our local woodturners and an Instant Gallery of members work. Please be sure to bring a couple of your turnings to share with other members.

The meeting and demonstrations will be follo< hr/>wed by the Annual Spring Picnic, which is a potluck. The club will supply brats and salmon. Members are asked to bring a dish to share.

Click here to view map

April's Meeting

The meeting was held on Saturday, April 7, 2012, which was followed by a wonderful and very thorough demonstration by Bill Bowers on gilding and decorating gilding.

The demonstration covered the various gilding supplies that may be used, including what they were made from and where you purchase them. Bill passed around some leafing for members to get a closer look.

Bill placed a leaf of real gold in his hands, rubbed them together and then showed the club members how the gold had totally disappeared, driving home the point that the leaf is very thin.

Bill talked about adding texture, from brush strokes to netting; the various acids and the colors they will achieve on the different metals. He then talked about finishing the piece off with a sealers. Bill emphasized the health risks and how important it is to use a painters respirator when spraying. Acrylic spray dries very quickly in the air and will damage your lungs.

Some of Bill's work with various gildings pictured below.

This months Safety Moment was highlighted by Bob Congdon and Arnie Geiger.

Bob shared story about a bowl that he was working on a couple of years ago. This particular bowl was of wood and epoxy. Bob was wearing his face shield when he got a small catch and the bowl blew apart. Bob tells us that there were hundreds of small chunks of epoxy that hit his face shield in that instant and he is ever grateful that he had the foresight to have instilled in himself the practice of wearing face protection. Bob is still finding small pieces of the yellow epoxy from that piece within his shop. Accidents can happen faster than a blink of an eye, there is no time to react, be proactive when it comes to your safety.

Arnie Geiger shared a story of human nature. One of his students dropped a gouge, and in typical human nature, he used his foot to try to deter the gouge from hitting the cutting edge on the floor. The end result is that the student's foot was damaged, but thankfully not to seriously. It can be a natural reflex to try to save a tool using your foot, so it is something that you should be aware of. It is better to let the tool drop and then put a new edge on the tool.

Madrone Burl now available at Hardware Specialities. These beautiful slabs have been pressure treated and are ripe for turning. The wood will cut like butter now, so be sure to stop in and get some while the supplies last.