Happy Thanksgiving. Hope your lives are filled with friends, family and food.  For those in Pennsylvania, good luck on the first day of buck season on Monday.

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

Last week, @RustyFN showed us his basket weave illusion vase. He added to his post the jigs he used to create the weave lines-

 

 

@Gerald posted a Christmas tree turning that he embellished. Check it out. I really like the star topper!

 

 

 

@Steve Krumanaker makes items for a local artisan who works in wool. Steve found the perfect adornment for the drop spindles he makes-

 

 

In his post, Steve tells us where he got the inspirations-

 

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

Click on the image for links to registration and more information-

 

 

 

Cindy Drozda's Live Online Woodturning is this Friday November 24.

 

 

 

For The Newbies-

Tim Yoder turns some recycled plastic! Some fun with messy stuff all over the shop.

 

 

The link to getting the plastic blanks is below the video's description. Click on "Watch on YouTube" for all the information.

 

 

Expand Your Horizons-

Lyle Jamieson's ornament video talks about design and vibration reduction-

 

 

 

 

New Turning Items-

Boy, Santa is really keeping any new items under wraps. Can't believe something hasn't been released for the holidays.

 

 

 

Everything Else-

From Ron Brown's weekly newsletter-

 

Easier The Second Time

 

Most folks are afraid to try new things. Turners are no different.

 

1)   Fear of the unknown

    a.   Your imagination presents all kinds of scary scenarios. You aren’t sure how long something might take, or what else you could end up needing. You don’t understand the process.

    b.   You are not sure exactly how to get started or what steps to take and in which order.

2)   Fear of failure

    a.   Probably the number one reason people never get started.

    b.   Your vivid imagination will show you all kinds of ways it could go wrong, how you might get hurt, or how you might damage your equipment in the process.

3)   Fear that it’s not what you are used to and that is uncomfortable

    a.   I know folks that only turn bowls because that is what they are used to. It’s the same with some pen-turners. We all have things we are very comfortable making and have become very accomplished at those items. The thought of making something different seems uninviting.

 

When you finally work up the courage to try something different, you are stepping out of your comfort zone. Since we are all creatures of habit, new stuff isn’t what you are used to and it feels awkward. The first time you try, it is usually as hard as you imagined it would be.

 

In Order To Learn New Things, We Must Be Willing To Fail.

 

The first time you mainly learn what not to do. The second time you already know mostly what not to do and you can think about improving your sequence to gain a better result. From the third time on, you can focus on alternative techniques and tools. After that, if you are still interested in making more of this new item, besides improving your techniques and methods, you can work on variations, larger, smaller, additional elements, etc.

 

John Jordan, a very well know turner who recently passed, always said “Life is too short to turn crappy wood.” I recommend you actually do use crappy wood the first couple of times because failure is part of succeeding. You shouldn’t have to fail with expensive materials.

 

I recommend that you step out and try something new this week. I think you will be surprised at how much fun it is. You never know what you might like making once you try it.

 

 

 

Safe turning

Thanks Lew. Great post as always.  Blessings to you and your family this Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving Lew.  Thank You.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Watched Tim make the plastic ornament.  The ribbon shavings reminded me of when I cut some PVC pipe to fit 5" dust collector hose. 

I liked his fish hook idea too.

Thanks Lew.

 

Thanks for the post Lew and Happy Thanksgiving