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Another student makes her first wand

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Another student makes her first wand

#1

Another student makes her first wand

John K Jordan

I posted earlier about a new turner who turned her first wand after her third time at the lathe: http://www.woodcentral.com/woodworking/forum/turning.pl/md/read/id/502483/sbj/her-third-lesson-first-wand/

Her friend Kristina was there at the time and decided she wanted to try one. This was Kristina's fourth project at the lathe. She too quickly learned the one-handed skew technique with the left-hand steady rest. This was her first try, made from cherry. Her design has four "distressed" texture areas, made by stabbing at the spinning wood with a sharp point tool, each outlined by a v-groove with a friction-burned line.


She was excited to finish it and immediately stated trying to cast spells on me, probably intended to do bodily harm - fortunately she is learning woodturning faster than spell casting!

Now she wants to come back and make another one for a gift. Then she wants to learn to make a lidded box, then a hand-bell ornament, then a...

Watch out if she ever gets her own lathe.

BTW, Kristina said the skew chisel was a lot easier to use than that complicated spindle gouge.

JKJ

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#2

Re: Another student makes her first wand

John C Lucas

Good.job John. See you next.tuesday at the meeting.

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#3

Mike Stafford

Re: Another student makes her first wand

Mike Stafford

You're having too much fun John. It reminds me of JCCFS and you showing people how to turn tops.

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#4

Be careful, she must be a witch

George Guadiane

If she can actually use the skew more easily than a gouge.

OK, not really, but the skew is the bane of my woodturning existence.

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#5

My how times have changed. Gone are the days

Keith Newton

When a shiny new sports car would be the chosen mode for attracting pretty young girls. Now it's a mustard colored monster and a wall full of sharp pointy things! ha ha

Seems like any request I get to teach is from some old geezer about my age. Maybe I should go buy some mustard colored paint.

Congrats, and thanks for sharing. I'll bet your looking forward to seeing what she turns out next time.

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#6

Shiny sports car

John K Jordan

I looked through my directory of photos of students and those who came to the shop to hone skills or just to play. It turns out that the number of males and females were about equal, a wide variety of ages too, from 10 to 70+.

This made me wonder about why there SEEMED to be more girls interested. One thing came to mind - the boys would come, learn and practice, then go away. The girls were more like to learn something, practice a little, then say "Hey, I want to make a _____!" then come back again and again. This gives me something more interesting to photograph than another spindle practice stick! And some girls seem to have more enthusiasm and perhaps a bit more creativity, but maybe it just seems that way when they want to make something instead of just practice..

I consider myself an equal-opportunity shop host without significant gender bias. I'll have to try to pay attention to see if I might encourage some more than others.

Here are some "guy" visits (I wish I had remembered to get photos of every visitor!):


JKJ

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#7

Re: Be careful, she must be a witch

John K Jordan

>>>OK, not really, but the skew is the bane of my woodturning existence.

George, if you live within driving distance of East TN we can change that! Teaching the skew is one of my favorite things, whether to beginners or bowl turners.

JKJ

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#8

Re: Be careful, she must be a witch

George Guadiane

Thank you for your generous offer, but it's too far to go.

I'm CERTAIN I could learn, but I feel about the skew like I feel about Lichtenberg fractal burning.

So far, I'm happy to live without those.

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#9

skew vs chaos

John K Jordan

>>>Thank you for your generous offer, but it's too far to go.

I'm CERTAIN I could learn, but I feel about the skew like I feel about Lichtenberg fractal burning.

So far, I'm happy to live without those.

That's funny!

I think of the difference between using the skew and fractal burning is about like the difference between the wings of an angle and the horns of the devil. Heavenly controlled cuts and beautiful surfaces vs out-of-control fire from the pits of, er, a fiery place.

:)

JKJ

Re: Another student makes her first wand

#10

Re: skew vs chaos

George Guadiane

LOL

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