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Instead of discussing a project, I would like to
talk about my wonderful experiences at the Arrowmont School of Art in
Tennessee. It was my first formal woodturning course in the USA and the
course leader was Jack Slentz who is best known for his interesting
texturing of turned pieces. Some of his work is shown to the left and
below. The course was titled "Using the Lathe to make
Sculpture" |
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The were 120 students who attended Arrowmont
for the week. Some were doing clay, Fiber, Metal, mixed media, paper,
stone, surface design and 12 were doing woodturning. The woodturning
studio is excellent and is picture on the left. |
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There are lathes from all the major
manufacturers and when you arrive you select the lathe you want to work
on for the week. I selected the John Jordan Stubby lathe as I had never
turned on one of those before. We had turners for all over the USA. Russ
drove all the way from California on his Harley-Davidson. |
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Most days would start with some time in the
excellent library at the school, gathering ideas for the day. Then Jack
would do a demonstration of one of his texturing techniques, then it was
up to the students to do their thing |
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the pictures ion the left show some of the
items the students created during the week. The course was fairly
unstructured so it gave each student the opportunity to let his/her
creative mind. |
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What was particularly good was that Jack has
an irreverent attitude towards beautiful wood and explore wood purely as
a canvas on which to create his own works of art. This allowed the
students to really unlock some of the creative door in their minds. |
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On the left is the first piece I turned
called "The Matador" It was hollow turned and then matted with
masking tape and sand blasted to create a torso texture on one side. The
bulls horns were added to depict the victory to the bull. |
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Having access to a sandblaster for the first
time in my life was fun, so my next creation was "The Seed
Pod". This was turned and painted with Indian ink and acrylic
paints. |
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I then went crazy with the Bosch carving tools
in the studio and carved and drilled this piece, which then got very
heavily sand blasted. It was fun, but not to sure if I will be doing
much more of that. |
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After a tour to the resident pottery student
studio I got the idea for this piece which is a classic potters shape
with a very interesting tick carved pattern. |
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My thanks go to Russ for making the week so entertaining
and the beers to celebrate on the last day |
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My thanks go to Brooke for her friendship and
showing me how to do multi axis turning. |
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My thanks go to Mark for being there whenever
anyone need help. |
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My thanks go to Jack pictured in front of
Brooke for his guidance through the week.
I certainly hope to be back at Arrowmont next year as it was a good
learning experience.
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