Photo log

 Tempe Center for the Arts has put out a call for entries to celebrate their 5th anniversary.  Traditionally the 5th anniversary is the wood anniversary so they will be having an exhibit entitled "2012 TCA Biennial: Wood".  Artists are encouraged to submit up to 5 pieces for consideration.

This is my first entry.  I decided to call it 'Round the World as the black line spalting on the top reminds me of a map.  It's spalted figured Maple (half way between curly and quilted) with lots of bug holes and a giant void (not visable in this photos).  The collar is out of Ebony or African Blackwood, I can't remember which.

 My second entry, Acer Falls.  Box Elder burl natural edge hollow form with natural edge burl base.  The bottom on this piece is completely round so a base was necessary.

 Side view.  This wood was part of a trade I made last summer with a guy up in Idaho, I did a demo for the Woodcraft Guild of Idaho Falls while I was in the area on vacation.  I traded some Mesquite, Ironwood, Olive, and African Sumac for Box Elder Burl, Russian Olive, and Osage Orange.  This piece was turned out of the Box Elder burl I received.

 #3 is a 4 piece nested set of Arizona White Oak Burl.  I harvested this burl off of a tree out in the woods and let it sit in my garage for several years.

 I'm calling this set Blanco Arizonica.  Sizes range from 13.75" X 4" down to 4.5" X .75"

4th entry.  60 West.  Spalted and bug eaten Palo Verde.  Roughly 9" diameter and 9" tall.

 This one has a semi pointed bottom so it needs the round donut in order to remain upright.

 This was to be my 5th entry but upon my last reading of the submission guidelines I realized that the pieces had to be made in the last 2 years.  This piece is at least 3 years old so I had to withdraw it.  Because I was so far along in the application process I elected not to replace it on my submission form.

 "Off Broadway" Eucalyptus Burl 9" X 4.75" to 5" X 2".  This blank was salvaged off a tree in the Phoenix metro area.  The cracks are filled with coffee grounds and epoxy.  This piece was included in the 2009 Chandler Center for the Arts "Beneath the Bark" exhibit.

 A few more photos of some recent pieces.  This is from the same tree as above.  I'm still working on the finish.  Approx 15" diameter.

 Sissoo with Macassar Ebony pedestal and finial.  This wood was sourced from Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

 Another piece of Sissoo.  Also sourced from BTA.

Last is a piece of Silver Maple burl sourced from Mike Mahoney.  It also has a round bottom so I turned a small ring out of Desert Ironwood for it to sit in.

Quick update

Quick update and some stuff not even remotely related to woodturning.

The shop is still clean, probably because I haven't been out there for more than 20 minutes over the past couple weeks.

I received word last week that the newspaper article has been delayed until June 2nd. I'll post a copy once it's printed.
Yesterday we made a day trip up to Page AZ to view the eclipse. It's a 600+ mile round trip from our home to the viewing location we chose. We chose that location because of the scenic beauty and because it was so near the center line of the eclipse path.



The crowd at the cliff edge waiting for the eclipse. I estimate there were close to a thousand people there, half down by the cliff edge and the other half up on top of a hill behind us. I've been to this location a half dozen times and have never seen any more than 10 or 20 people at this location, I've even been alone here a couple times. Many people drive right by not knowing what lies less than a mile from the highway.






We brought the kids with us, explaining g how rare this event is, it's likely the only time in their lives they'll see this event. While waiting for the eclipse to progress we caught our daughter climbing on the rocks. I tried to get a casual photo but I was spotted and she decided to strike a pose.















This was an Annular eclipse, this meant that from our chosen viewing location we would be treated to a ring of fire. The moon would pass directly in front of the sun but it was just far enough away from the earth that it would not block out the entire disk of the sun. Most people don't realize that the orbit of the moon varies by as much as 40,000 kilometers from apogee to perigee. If the moon was at perigee (the "super moon" that was in the news 2 weeks ago) it would have been a total eclipse.











A quick photo of a photo for Facebook purposes yesterday.













The main event. From second contact (the moon first passing completely in front of the sun) to third contact (the moon starting to move off of the sun) was just over 5 minutes. Total time elapsed from first contact to fourth contact was a little over 2 hours. Well worth a 10 hour round trip.

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Republic of Mesa

I was contacted a couple weeks back by a reporter for the Arizona Republic. They had heard about the inclusion of one of my pieces in the Tohono Chul Park "Mesquite" exhibit and wanted to do a story on me and the wood. The piece they're most interested in was made out of wood sourced from Boyce Thompson Arboretum. I was expecting the reporter this Thursday so I've been working on cleaning and organizing the shop off and on for the past 10 or so days. To my surprise the reporter showed up last Thursday, right in the middle of the cleaning process. In fact the shop looked worse than normal as I had to tear it apart and make it worse before I could make it better. Thankfully he didn't have a photographer with him, that happens tomorrow. We did the interview anyway with me apologizing profusely multiple times for the state of my shop.

Now the shop is in a half decent state, there's even room to walk completely around the lathe without needing to step on or over half logs or roughed out bowls. I also took some time to prep some bowl blanks for the photo session. The reporter indicated that they prefer action shots so I'm planning to send some shavings flying tomorrow evening.

It looks like the article is currently scheduled to be published on May 16th.

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Location:Mesa,United States