Today marks the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. When we went to Vietnam (1966) the aircraft carrier steamed past the monument as we pulled into port at Ford Island. The monument was very new at the time. Unfortunately, our stay in Pearl was short and busy with "carrier quals" so I never go onto the memorial itself. As with all WWII veterans- there are very few left. The heroes of the Greatest Generation deserve our thanks, gratitude and respect- Bravo Zulu!

 

The Woodturning OnLine newsletter arrived this week. One of the articles is about Ron Layport. Here's a video of some of his artistry. It is amazing.

 

And here is a link to his website-

http://collectorsofwoodart.org/artist/portfolio/18

 

Need a quick turned Christmas gift for someone in the family? Here is the featured project from the Woodturning OnLine newsletter

 

http://www.borouz.com/oak-candle-holder/

 

I can see where this could be scaled up into a cake presentation stand and then add a glass dome.

 

We often talk about what makes a good design in a turning. Of course, much of a "good design" is in the eye of the beholder. I found this link to The West Bay Woodturners. The materials are from a presentation on  Woodturning Design and there are some good ideas and references. Everything is in PDF format.

http://www.westbaywoodturners.com/tutorial/design.htm

 

Patriot member GrandpaDave52 posted information about a Woodworker's Journal article on Mr. Gene Kelly. Mr. Kelly is an awesome turner and furniture maker. You can read the article here- http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/gene-kelly-sculptured-furniture-segmented-turnings-always-learning/

 

In case you're looking for a few additional Christmas gifts, here's something from Carl Jacobson-

 

Safe Turning

Lew, that kitchen utensil display didn't have one of our Celtic rollers!! 

Since you have one of your beauties on every post, I'll post a specialty

small roller my wife wanted.  Of course you know me well enough that

it wouldn't be made of ordinary wood 

4 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

Of course you know me well enough that

it wouldn't be made of ordinary wood 

   I'd love to see one of your glue-ups before you start to turn!

Thanks Lew.  I like seeing what info you come up with each week.  I enjoy going through it. 

Going through Layport's site, my gosh, what you wood turners can do, or think up. Some much of it leaves the viewer wondering, how the heck did you do that? I wonder how many chunks of wood Ron Layport had to witness flying off his lathe since he started turning those wild live edge blanks. I bet a lot.

Thanks for the great Wed topic Lew, loved it and enjoyed the video and links, you always find the good stuff.

Viewing more of Laypor's site, he has some collections in museums where he shows solid turnings, that are displayed as sculptures, like this one:

 

I never thought of that, my mind has always been fixed on vessels, plates, bowls, spindles, this is really cool.

Thank you all for the kind comments! They are truly appreciated.

 Great video. It is amazing the vision and talent to turn a log into a piece of art.

In the picture of implements for Carl's video I wondered what the fifth tool from the left was.  Carl says it is a bottle opened that a local blacksmith makes.  I thought it was cool that he showcased another artisan in his video.