Slightly Skewed Newsletter

President's Message

A huge shout out to the Glendale Woodturners Guild on our 30th anniversary, the first meeting was on June 13, and acknowledged as Chapter # 60 with AAW, on June 16, 1993.

Many thanks to Bill Hrnjak and Leslie Parsons for all they have done, along with countless others, to make our club what it is today! WOW, 30 years!

One of the original members, Brian, was at the meeting and talked a little bit about the good old days.

I interviewed several people about their why, their passion. Bill Haskell how he started turning and how he met people in the guild who were so welcoming, and helpful. Bill Loitz talked about the purpose of the club being education, and how he enjoys showing people what not to do, and to be safe.

Many thanks to Jim Hurst, who brought us up-to-date with our website! The guild has decided to stick with Tony, who has done an amazing job, helping the club for so many years, and volunteering his services.  Regarding the website, we MUST support Tony, and provide him with basic information so he can do his job. This has been an issue for some time, let’s resolve it!

Bill Haskell, very kindly and generously donated a gorgeous olive hollow form to raise money for the club. There was a bit of debate regarding the best way to do it, auction it or sell raffle tickets. In the end, we sold raffle tickets for $10 apiece and generated $420 for GWG! Incredible Bill, thank you so very much!

And the man behind the ongoing Beads of Courage, Bob Clark, produced 10 lidded boxes to donate, excellent job! Not sure what the total count was, but we were down a bit. Let’s step up next year and make many more please.

Goeff, the president of a woodturning club in Melbourne, Australia was our guest, along with his friend Meg. Also new to the club was Lexi and Gracie, welcome! When asked how they found out us, they said the Internet.

So, the Internet, OUR WEBSITE is critical for us to grow and keep this fantastic art going.

And yours truly did a last minute presentation on shape. This generated some conversation about what the ideal shape is, and various tools to check your work. A well done, and appealing piece is one that compels you to pick it up, and hold it.

We always need people to do a presentation, even if it’s a brief one.

Here’s to another 30 years! Who will be President in 2053? Probably Zane….geeze he’ll be 40!

Thomas

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE AAW

(Excerpt) AAW policy initiative on fractal burning (also known as "Lichtenberg Burning"), which advocates safety and helps to protect lives.

AAW POLICY ON FRACTAL BURNING

The AAW has always been a faithful advocate for woodturning safety.  Recently, the subject of fractal burning has been in the news because of another tragic death.  The AAW Safety Committee has studied the issue and concluded there may be a distinct influencing benefit in adopting a policy against the use of Fractal Burning and publicizing it immediately to chapters and members.  As a result, it was recommended that the AAW Board adopt a new policy against the practice, which was unanimously approved on May 17, 2017.  The new policy is as follows:

It is the policy of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) that the process known as Fractal Burning is prohibited from being used in any AAW-sponsored events, including regional and national symposia, and that AAW-chartered chapters are strongly urged to refrain from demonstrating or featuring the process in chapter events. Further, the process of Fractal Burning shall not be featured in any written or online AAW publication, except for within articles that warn against its use. AAW publications will not accept advertisements for any products or supplies directly related to the process.

Additionally, the Safety Committee recommended that an article be published in the August 2017 issue of American Woodturner to highlight the dangers of the practice and publicize the new AAW policy.

AAW Membership

•  To join AAW you can visit:  Join AAW

• Information on AAW Member Benifits can be found at:  Member Benefits