January 2016

WOW! It was absolutely wonderful to see the turnout for our annual Toys for Tots social. The toys were just amazing in their quantity, variety, and the talent that produced them. The wooden toys will make over 2,600 kids a Merry Christmas. Is was also great to see the cooperation of everybody with the setup and cleanup of the tables, chairs and food. Roy Underhill was most entertaining, and even helped afterward with loading the Marine’s van. A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to all that made this social the success that it was. As we look forward to 2016 we need to be more active in increasing our membership. Getting more woodworkers to participate in meetings and workshops. We all need to step up and encourage others and advertise membership and participation in TWA activities, workshops and management. Yes, management. We will have elections later this year for the Board and other management positions.

Sincerely,

Pete Bucki

October 2014

It was good to see those of you who ventured out in last months storms to see a very interesting presentation on segment turning. Personally I am not sure I could ever produce a usable piece but Charlie makes some gorgeous items. During the break it was hard to get a moment of his time with all the member questions, exactly what TWA is all about -- learning a craft dealing with wood.

August is election month and I would like to take a moment and recognize those that are "out going" for their dedication to their positions. Vice President Jeff Leim- berger has provided the club with many months of pretty terrific programing. This past year especially has been one of the best I have ever witnessed from the club with the number of named speakers as well as the mix of local artists and the wide variety of material that was covered in just a year. Jeff and his team should be commended. Treasurer Hugh Fish is one of the most organized people I have ever met. Not only is he on time for everything he is always organized, prepared, ready with every question thrown his way. He is incredibly talented in his craft, extremely intelligent, gentle and all in all a really nice guy to know.

While I look forward to meeting and working with new folks -- gentleman you will be missed and your service is greatly appreciated.

On another subject entirely ... I am sure you all noticed that this month the newsletter is particularly late and was rumored not to be coming out at all ... actually rumored by me as that is what I suspected was going to happen. Since I saw you last I have had a heart Catheterization, I have been to the cardiologist on several occasions having testing etc. done. I had a terrible reaction to the radiation which caused me to have the antidote injected twice to bring me backaround. I have seen my primary care team too many times, the cardiologist, the neurologist, the neuro-cardiophysiologist, and the electrophysiology folks. I have had test, after test with and mri, and eeg still to come followed by a visit to the syncope clinic. Somewhere in

all of this I am hoping they figure out what is arong with me before I head back to the thorasic folks to see about having my broken sternum fixed. I am ready for all of this to be over and to be fixed. I have other things I would like to do such as be the President to the Triangle Woodworkers Association.

September 2014

 I can hardly believe it is September already. Seems the year is going by rather quickly and yet rather slowly as it has been a harsh year.

Fred has Toys for Tots rolling as production has been going well as I see from his report. My own mother is already fussing over her new pattern as she wants to produce a few toys this year. I have looked in my little shop here in Wilson and have some ideas for a few toys I can do. Toys for Tots is such a rewarding time of year. Everyone at workshops is always in such a good mood. I have heard some of the best stories at break times and lunch time at workshops. We have many woodworkers who have lived quite interesting lives, and do not mind sharing some of their past with us.

I had not heard of our speaker this month so I went looking online to see if he had a web-site and he does. I suggest you all have a look before Tuesday. He does some beautiful work. I am always in awe of the detail work some folks accomplish. It can be explained to me 100 times how you come up with the dimensions to create the angels for corners or connections or whatever the situation is and I cannot comprehend it. It is just not a place my brain can go. Jay has some incredible things on his site and some that put him in my category of wizard as he figured the angels out.

www.jspeetjens.com 

Till next time...

 

August 2014

It was good to see those of you who ventured out in last months storms to see a very interesting presentation on segment turning. Personally I am not sure I could ever produce a usable piece but Charlie makes some gorgeous items. During the break it was hard to get a moment of his time with all the member questions, exactly what TWA is all about -- learning a craft dealing with wood.

August is election month and I would like to take a moment and recognize those that are "out going" for their dedication to their positions. Vice President Jeff Leim- berger has provided the club with many months of pretty terrific programing. This past year especially has been one of the best I have ever witnessed from the club with the number of named speakers as well as the mix of local artists and the wide variety of material that was covered in just a year. Jeff and his team should be commended. Trea- surer Hugh Fish is one of the most orga- nized people I have ever met. Not only is he on time for everything he is always orga- nized, prepared, ready with every question thrown his way. He is incredibly talented in his craft, extremely intelligent, gentle and all in all a really nice guy to know.

While I look forward to meeting and working with new folks -- gentleman you will be missed and your service is greatly appreciated.

On another subject entirely ... I am sure you all noticed that this month the newsletter
is particularly late and was rumored not to be coming out at all ... actually rumored by me as that is what I suspected was going to happen. Since I saw you last I have had a heart Catheterization, I have been to the cardiologist on several occasions having testing etc. done. I had a terrible reaction to the radiation which caused me to have the antidote injected twice to bring me back around. I have seen my primary care team too many times, the cardiologist, the neurologist, the neuro-cardiophysi- ologist, and the electrophysiology folks. I have had test, after test with and mri, and eeg still to come followed by a visit to the syncope clinic. Somewhere in all of this I am hoping they figure out what is arong with me before I head back to the thorasic folks to see about having my broken sternum fixed. I am ready for all of this to be over and to be fixed. I have other things I would like to do such as be the President to the Triangle Woodworkers Association.

Till next time... 

July 2014

I admit that this month the newsletter is late because I have not had anything worthy of talking about ... until today that is. I visited a gentleman that I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with. He and his grandson are very talented chain saw artists. They have a small business in Princeton, NC. They can be found online at www.boonhillgallery.com. The website showcases some of the incredible items they make and gives you a very good idea that this pair knows what they are doing.

There are so many forms of "Art" in this world. Personally I am titled a "graphic artist" -- that is how I made my living. In doing that job I was introduced to the world of publication which I admit, I enjoyed because I felt as though what I was doing made a difference in the lives of others. My proudest moment came with the completion of a novel called "The Docs", it was created for the military in the form of a comic and its purpose is to help those who were in the war zone return to home life. My portion of the book was one of two colorist. It took a year and lots of long hours but 200 pages were created.

If I were to start listing different forms of art it would take days. Art is an expression which can be shown in many many different ways. The sculpting that Corey and his grandfather do is just amazing and definitely an art form that not many can do. They transform a log or standing tree of many different circumferences and turn it into something gorgeous and very interesting, in other words a show piece that anyone would be proud to own.

Take a few minutes and look at the pieces they have put together for their website. The photos I have used came from the gallery of their work.

So -- one more thing I want to learn how to do -- I have a Stihl -- let’s get started!

Till next time...