As an AAW member we get a short monthly newsletter from the Association that has links to articles that have been written and published in the past journals of the American Woodturning magazine. This month there was a reprint of an article written by Mark Sfiri in 1993 and highlighted an initiative that was started by Michael Hosaluk in 1992 regarding ‘Collaborations”. Michael had made 52 pieces and sent them to artists all over the world and asked for them to be decorated or changed and then sent back to him for a show that he had planned. He got 42 pieces back and since then Michael has been known for his generosity, sharing and creative thinking.

After reading the article I thought that we could do something similar as a Guild so ‘ lets do it”.

We are asking members to produce a piece and then we ask you to submit a picture of the piece to our President, Bill Gilmour by email. That will confirm that you are in the mix and we will have a record of the piece for a before and after picture. Bill will then make a draw of each piece and it will go to another member who has submitted a piece. The receiving member can then finish turn, burn, cut, add to or subtract from the piece that they receive to make a finished piece.

 

 

 

 

The guidelines will be that the piece can be anything that you turn on your lathe, a bowl, vessel, spindle, box, candle stick, hollow form, pot, platter or anything that you chose.

The piece needs to:

    1. Be turned from dry wood.
    2. Does not have any cracks, for safety reasons.
    3. Should still have a tenon attached so that the piece can be remounted in a chuck to enable remounting.
    4. Does not have any finish, the pieces can be rough turned and then submitted.
    5. Must fit on a lathe that has a 12” dia limit as there are a good many members with smaller lathes that we hope will participate.
    6. Must not be exotic wood to ensure no allergic reactions, I am allergic to Katalox, etc.
    7. Once the piece gets turned over you have no say in the outcome.

The maker will be notified of the person that their piece is to be given to and you can contact them for the handover. I suggest a phone call and then do a front or back porch drop off, similar to Uber Eats or Door Dash except no cash involved, win-win I say.

The recipient can then:

      1. Finish the piece as started.
      2. Add to the piece with burning, painting, embellishing, adding legs, carving, cutting etc.
      3. Must finish the piece in some way.
      4. If a disaster happens then the pieces or fragments must be submitted at the end.

The finished pieces must be brought to our next in person mtg but if we are extended then pictures should be taken and submitted by the due date.

Important dates to remember:

        1. The pictures of the initial pieces should be submitted to Bill by Friday, April 17th.
        2. The pictures of the finished pieces should be submitted to Bill by Friday, May 8th.

This will give you two weeks to make a piece and then 3 weeks to finish the piece which will allow a few days for the coordination of who gets what and the handoff. Probably two weeks to finish once you receive the actual piece.

The short timeframe is designed to let you decide quickly on the finish process and often the creative process happens easier if you just jump in and do it.

We are hoping for at the very least 20 pieces to be completed so are asking both novice and

Intermediate turners to participate.

Benefits to all who participate will include the surprise of seeing how their piece is treated by someone else, of seeing how pieces of others are treated and changed or finished. This is a chance for all members to be a part of something new and challenging and it makes no difference what your skill level is, the challenge is to participate. How cool would it be to have 50 pieces show up at the end.

If there are any questions please call or email Bill for clarification;

Looking forward to where this takes us,

SSWG Executive Team.