Demonstrator Joel Haby kind of blew my mind with his great mesquite burl “bowl”. He must have turned several pounds of air on that one. Jerry DeGroot showed us an “acorn” box of mesquite and a colorful Christmas ornament. James Johnson brought a very nice cherry burl hollow form with lots of natural cracks. I don’t see how he and Joel kept both pieces together.

John Stegall showed a jewelry/ring holder that he promoted as a lesson in what not to do. He just decided to work on the middle ring first, turned it too thin and then had to fight the un-supported outside as he shaped it. He finally got it as far as it could, but still left it quite hefty because he couldn’t remove enough of the outside without chatter damage. Rick Webster had a couple of bowls to show of pecan and also brought, for advice, a wine glass stem. He got lots of advice incluging what glue to use (epoxy) for his cocobolo stem.

Tom Canfield brought two nice lidded boxes, a larger one of spalted Texas olive wood (Danish oil) and a smaller one of mesquite (wax only). George Taylor showed a delightfully off-centered natural edged bowl of pear and a whole colorful flowery bunch of turned plastic wine bottle stoppers.