TOTALLY TURNING - 2004

The 2nd annual woodturning symposium of the Adirondack Woodturners.

SHOP OWNER: Don Orr

LOCATION: Schenectady, NY

Totally Turning 2004, the 2nd annual woodturning symposium of the Adirondack Woodturners has come and gone. The event, held on Oct 30 & 31, 2004 at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, NY, went pretty well by most accounts. Participants and demonstrators gave us decent marks for our efforts. Not all went perfectly but we learned a lot in only our second event. I think most everybody had a good time and got to see some wonderful presentations over the two days. The lead photo is one of Keith Tompkins' incredible spiral-wave piecesin mahogany. This piece earned Keith a nomination for a "Niche" award!

One of the highlights for me was meeting the WoodCentral guru Russ Fairfield. What a nice guy! Other demonstrators included Michael Hosaluk, Bonnie Klein, Clay Foster, Linda Salter of national renown, as well as some outstanding regional turners including Keith Tompkins, Brad Vietje, Ted Sokolowski, and Paul Petrie. There were many others too. Natural edge bowls and spalted vases by our own Mike Kratky.

Demos ranged from beginner level bowl turning to extremely advanced multi-axis work. Some of my favorites were Mike Hosaluks boxes with a twist, Ted Sokolowskis wonderful pepper mills and Peter Extons fantastic multi-axis pieces. Saturdays banquet was a dinner cruise on the Hudson River with a special presentation by one of our local artists and turners, Giles Gilson. His work is just fantastic. The four pieces in the foreground are by Don Orr. The square bowl is a plain old 2x4 and won a club challenge this year.

The instant gallery had hundreds of outstanding turnings representing all levels of skill and artistry. The variety of pieces was incredible, making it impossible to pick favorites. Mike Hosaluk and Clay Foster did a gallery critique for us on Sunday, joined by Giles Gilson. What an outstanding opportunity to get input from some of the premier wood artists around today. The vendors seemed to do fairly well and offered great deals on tools, machines, and incredible woods. We even had a Festival of Nations in the hall next to us on Sunday and were able to try foods from many different cultures for lunch. Our own Don Reids bowls, canes, and hat. The large burned bowl was also part of our club 2x4 challenge and got high praise during the gallery critique.

Overall, the event went well and we have much to take into next year to make it better and better. I believe the dates for Totally Turning 2005 are October 15 & 16 but keep an eye out for the announcements. Outstanding work by Ted Sokolowski. An excellent presenter and a real nice guy, he demonstrated his beautiful pepper mills.

I want to thank WoodCentral for helping publicize our event by letting me post it on the Events Board. What an incredible resource we have here. They even put one of our photos up as a sighting on the Turning Board, which was quite an honor indeed. Some of the incredible work by our own Paul Petrie, who really likes spheres and takes them to fantastic levels.

The symposium committee is having a debriefing meeting this weekend to figure out things that went wrong and how to fix them and start planning for next year. We hope to see lots of Wood Central folks at TT2005, but for now, Happy and Safe Turning!