The Nova Woodturners Guild 2010 Woodturning Competition was held this past weekend and like the others before it was a great show! No, it was a fantastic show! No, it was a super show! Yeah, that was it.

There were almost fifty pieces entered by twenty different entrants with styles that ranged from furniture to sculpture and from small to large. It was an excellent representation of the club’s diversity and skill levels.

The most sought after prize, The People’s Choice Award, was won again this year by Don Moore for his Cherry Burl vase with the burned edges.

On winning, Don related the story of how this piece of wood was painstakingly turned. Apparently it had been in a fire and it was quite charred when he got it. This, as you can imagine, created quite the mess while turning. However, like a Phoenix it rose from the ashes to become this beautiful piece here:

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This month’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners Guild focused on chucking options, the upcoming Woodturning Week at Lee Valley and a well participated Show and Tell session.

David Wilkins presented an excellent tutorial on the extensive variety of chucking options available to today’s woodturner.

He spoke at length on the four prong spur drive, the two prong center, the Stebcenter, faceplates, faceplate rings, a variety of chuck jaws, worm screws, the Beall spindle tap, live center systems, vacuum systems and chuck keys. Examples of all these items were on hand with some being passed around for closer inspection.

During his talk on the subject of chuck jaws the use of the available whiteboard allowed him to better explain the importance of cutting a dovetailed tenon:

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The focus of this month’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners Guild was the club’s upcoming 2010 Woodturning Competition.

We were fortunate to have John Macnab speaking on the competition preparation, form and artist’s intent.

John recently won this year’s Lieutenant Governor’s Master Arts Award for his piece entitled CSDC 3-8 (Compound Spiral Double Cone No. 3, 8 Sided). This sculpture is a 25-foot long spiral sculpture turned from red spruce. It is best described as, “Suspended horizontally, it presents a floating form of lyrical grace and simplicity that belies the complexity of its production and its remarkable cross-disciplinary origins.”

John is a self-taught woodturner and machinist and his beautiful turned sculptures have been shown in galleries across North America. Combining his woodturning background and his engineering skills he invented a 20-foot vertical lathe that enables him to turn large spiral sculptures. Here’s a photo of John at work at the lathe in his studio:

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The focus of this month’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners Guild was a journey into the mysterious world of pricing and marketing of craft items. The guest speakers were members Don Moore and Stephen Zwerling who both gave us lots of important and thought provoking ideas for selling our woodturned products.

The meeting opened with an acknowledgement and a big round of applause for Rona, ‘The Canadian How-To People’ for opening their doors to us and allowing us to hold our future meetings here. This was followed by a short business session that included a club financial report and club website update.

From there, Don Moore took the floor and gave us a great review of the marketing options available to us. He interspersed his presentation with hints, tips and information gained through his own experience as a professional seller of art and craft.

Don spoke about many of the different avenues to sell our wares including craft shows, galleries, auctions, agents, collectors and cooperatives. Another very viable option that he mentioned was networking through associations. With each of these options he included an overview of the things to look for. For example, when checking out a craft show look at the floor layout, the displays, your competition, talk to the vendors and even the customers. Then ask yourself, “Is the floor layout conducive to maximum sales?”, “Are the displays of the quality and/or type that you are seeking?”, “Is there a lot of competition?”, Is there no competition?”, “Are the vendors happy with the results?”, “Are the customers enjoying the shopping experience?” “Do you want your products displayed here?”

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