12 September 2026 Club Meeting

 The met at the St Ignace High School wood shop for the first time this year.   The shops have been remodeled.  The metal shop was transformed into an area where students can build large out buildings and thereby learning construction skills.   We set up in the woodshop with many show and tell items as well as some bring backs for the raffle.  

 Here are some pictures of the show and tell items members made.  

There were quite a few show and tell items of many different types.  

 

This vase was made from a burl and has many natural openings created by the tree.

Two platters were made with an interesting design cut into the inside lip of the platter,  Behind the platters are two cell phone horns to direct and improve the sound from you cell phone.  When placed on their sides the horns have a slot for you cell phone to set in so the sound from the phones bottom speakers are directed out.  This was tested during the meeting and greatly improved the music sound from the phone.

Gary Weirmiller brought in some items he made many years ago.   Four bells and a box with a hole in the top.   Gary said he made it in two pieces and glued them together.   

Archie Patterson made three hollow balls.  The light one, back left, made from oak, did not come out as spherical as he wanted so he made two more from aromatic cedar and developing a method to get them more spherical in shape.

Here are two beautiful platters.  Not the one on the right was made from a crotch and has some of the feathering grain of the crotch wood.   Well done.

There was a variety of bring back items.

This is a round section of maple.

 

This is a round section of Hemlock.

Here are two sections of Apple wood.

These are two section of burl wood.  

This is an old pressure cooker that can be turned into a pressure pot to cure resin.
 

 Jim Rutledge was kind enough to share some of his knowledge on wood burning that he uses in much of his carving.   Here is his presentation.

 Steve Promo also presented how to turn spindles.  He has a current project to turn several hundred spindles for a hotel on Mackinac Island.    Here is his presentation.  

 

Thanks for vising our blog and website.

9 May 2026 Club Meeting

 On 9 May the Club members met at Sam Staffan's shop, in Mackinaw City, Michigan, with Show & Tell and many Bring Back items for the raffle.  Here are some pictures of the items.   First pictures are of the Bring Back items.

Bring Back items on the right.

 

Bring Back items included blanks of Ash and Cherry.

Many of the Bring Backs were finished items to share with members thru the raffle.  This is a top view of some of the items.

Here are some of the many Show and Tell items.

Many of the items have cut and polished stones incorporated.

The diversity and ingenuity are amazing and members freely explain how they did it.

Jim Rutledge is center background.

Carvings added to the items lids add character.  

Steve Promo had an interesting story for this item.  The vase is end grain turned and thru the crack you can see the wall thickness.  However, Steve said he made the top and bottom caps fit snug inside the openings so when the vase contracted it had resistance as it compressed around the caps.  The stress was relieved by the wood cracking.  

  After the Raffle there were two presentations / demonstration of using a skew and alternates to make rounded beaded sections on a spindle.   Part I was done by Jim Rutledge and Part II was done by Steve Promo.  Here are the videos of the demonstrations.   

First Part I by Jim Rutledge.

 Part II of the Skew discussion was by Steve Promo and follows:

 Many thanks to the members who brought things in and to Jim Rutledge and Steve Promo for doing the demonstrations and discussing making beads on a spindle.

Portrait Trio

 A trio of Gambel's Quail portraits.  This time of the year they are pretty plentiful.  

GMC Portrait

 Last Friday Gloria and I visited the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior AZ.  WE had been there before, but it has been awhile.  WE got on the road pretty late so it was nearly 11 am by the time we arrived.  This wasn't a photography outing. so the harsh light wasn't a biggie ...but I did bring a camera.

There are a lot of very large Eucalyptus trees there and in fact Gloria is sitting on a cutoff from a tree that was cut up.  

Dogwood

Our trip to Yosemite was timed for the Dogwood blooms. But the dogwoods were a bit impatient this year and by the time we got there the blooms were wrapping up.  I did find a few blooms still in decent shape.  One is pictured here.  The Pacific Dogwood flowers are quite large, 3 - 6 inches across and are more creamy in color.  

Northern Cardinal

 While not as commonly found here in the southwest as they are in the Midwest, I do occasionally find one in my viewfinder. 

This guy was in some direct midmorning light Thursday morning during a Photoclub outing.  

Nesting Great Horned Owl

 I found out about this nesting site a few weeks ago and didn't have a camera with me.  Yesterday I was back in that area and checked the nesting site and she was still on the nest.  The male was near by as well but in heavy foliage, so no pick.  This was shot with a 500mm prime so I didn't need to get too close.

I grabbed a few quick shots and left the area. Fortunately she was looking my way in couple of them.