Florida West Coast Woodworkers

General Meeting – April 2018 – Kate Swan, Florida School of Woodworking

Aprils meeting was attended by 56 members and 2 guests. Tony D’Alberto and Ed Columbo won tonight’s raffle.  The quarterly show and tell was won by Larry Simmons.

Don Herndon, the principal of the high school at Easter Seals, thanked us for the 10 weeks of woodworking training that John Philips, Neil McCullough, and Terry Bair have provided to some of there clients. He emphasized the pride these people feel in making something with there own hands.He also told us about all the services they provide for there low IQ clients.

 

Program

The meeting quickly moved on to the featured speaker, Kate Swan founder of the Florida School of Woodwork, whose website is available at: schoolofwoodwork.com.

 

Ms. Swan said her knowledge of woodworking started with the renovation of an old house where she went from fixing one emergency to fixing another, and then she went to a school for building furniture.  As she found more and more of her time spent teaching others her new found knowledge and after finishing her degree, she decided to concentrate more on operating a school.  Her school has a focus on wood-turning, making furniture, and wood carving.

 

 

Her talk soon went on to her real passion, which follows mostly along the lines of wood carving as she spoke of surface embellishment. Adding line, texture, color, and shape to woodwork adds a tremendous dimension one’s work.

 

 

For instance, using pyrography, one can use a photocopied image and carbon paper as a guide and burn in detail or even an entire picture onto a piece.  The same technique can be used with a word processor to add text to a work by printing out the desired words and using them as a guide. 

 

With a small collection of carving tools one can add surface texture to portions of a piece of to the entire object.  Similar to carving, she stated that by using inlay one can also add line color, shape and dimension to a piece.  She illustrated a piece made with an epoxy fill and sand technique, and said that color can tell a story.

Kate Swan concluded her presentation by contributing four scholarships of various denominations to the assortment of door prizes.  Thank you for the gifts and for your talk.

Club Business

Spring Picnic 2018: In other business, based on 52 people attending this years spring picnic, next year’s picnic will be moved to the Farm Bureau property off Fruitville Road and East Street.  According to president Joe Mannke, this venue can hold many more people and will be more comfortable, at a slightly higher cost.

New Logo:  The contest for a new logo is not yet firmed up with rules or prizes, but that did not stop Tony “The Needle” D’Alberto from presenting his entry complete with color silk screening on a tee shirt.  Not everyone feels the logo should be changed, so the membership indicated the existing logo should be included as a choice versus a new design.

Joe Mannke announced he has decided to peruse a charity contribution at the day care center run by Advantage Lumber in Brazil.  Member Sid Mann said he will personally contribute $100.00 in hopes that his lead will induce others to contribute what they can.

Show and Tell

 ( Please note that tonight’s show and tell was limited to participants in the 2 x 4 contest and those entries were noted in the write up of the spring picnic also posted on the website)