October 2011

To Kawartha Woodturners Guild Members:

First and foremost, we have reached an agreement with the Canadian Canoe Museum here in Peterborough to host our regular meetings for the balance of the season, starting with our November 1 meeting. The meetings will be held in their meeting room on the south side of the museum. The Museum is located at 910 Monaghan Road in Peterborough across from the Evinrude Centre. Access to the meeting room is through the door on the south side of the museum.

We are excited about this move. The Museum will allow us to store our big lathe and audio/visual equipment on site, making our demonstrations easier and better. It is a large room with washroom and kitchen facilities easily available. There are also some long term possibilities which could allow us to reach some of the goals of our strategic plan within the next one to two years.

It will still be difficult to make use of all the equipment the Guild has in its possession. The bulk of the equipment remains in storage, but we have a generous offer from Andy Stevenson to store that equipment in his shop at no charge and possibly use his shop for a spring session of Hands-On. We are taking advantage of his offer and will move the equipment during the month of November.

Our November meeting as noted above will be held at The Canadian Canoe Museum on Tuesday, November 1 starting at 7:00 pm with the doors open at 6:30 pm. Our demonstrator will be Doug McGrath from London ON – Doug will be demonstrating coring techniques using the One Way system.

At our October meeting, we were treated to an excellent demonstration by Morris Young, showing how to turn flowers from green wood on the lathe. Our thanks to Morris, as well as Lawrence Julian who supplied the coffee break at this meeting.

Coffee break at the November meeting will be provided by David Saunders.

On Saturday, November 12, we will be hosting a special all-day demonstration by Kurt Herzog (http://www.kurthertzog.com), one of the premier turners in North America. Kurt currently sits on the board of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) and is particularly noted for his turnings of pens and ornaments. The demonstration will take place at the meeting room in the Canadian Canoe Museum with doors open at 8:30 am and sessions starting at 9:30 am. Tickets are $40.00 and will be available at the November 1 meeting and at the door.

We provided a display of KWG members’ works in the display case in the entry of the Peterborough Public Library for the week of October 11 – 17th. Our thanks to Jack Close, Claude Drapeau, Don McGregor, Charles Murphy and Lorne Hamilton for providing works for display. Our display is one of the most popular displays throughout the year at the library and generates many compliments.

Don’t forget to turn your ornaments for the Festival of Trees! Not only does this represent the highest profile for our Guild in the community, but Janna has that great Easy Finisher tool as a prize for one of the contributors of ornaments. The ornaments are needed by our November meeting as set up for the tree is in late November.

We are pleased to welcome Danny Foster to the KWG Board. Danny will assume responsibility for planning future programming for the Guild. He has excellent connections with the woodturning world in Ontario and recently attended the AAW conference, expanding his contacts. If you are interested in helping develop our programming, please contact Danny and offer your help.

We are still in need of a Treasurer to take over from Larry Sidler, who is continuing to fill in. If you have a financial background, or would like to gain experience using Quickbooks to run an enterprise, we would like to talk with you.

If you have not already done so, please renew your membership in the Guild. With the move to the Canadian Canoe museum, our activities will return to normal and we can put much of the turmoil of the past few months to rest. The Guild exists to serve your interests and can only do so with your support and participation.

I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday, November 1 at the Canadian Canoe Museum! If you have any questions or if I can help in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks,
Lorne Hamilton

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