Past Demonstrations

David Ellsworth Demonstration
Demonstration Saturday October 19 2019

It is always a treat to have David Ellsworth show us 'how to'.
Some might call him the father of modern woodturning and he has the look.
His works have been included in the permanent collections of forty-three museums, he has written numerous articles and books and he is the founding member of the American Association of Woodturners. During the day, he turned three pieces.
A bowl allowed him to show us in detail how to use the gouge with the Ellswort grind.
A natural edge turning gave us a look at the fine points of dealing with the edge.
A hollow form allowed him to show the use of his famous hollwing tools. But this hollow form was different...a natural edge hollow form. Who ever heard of such a thing!
See demonstration photos

David Ellsworth Hands-on Class Sunday October 13 2019

Eight SVW and WBW members had an opportunity to spend a day with one of the AAW founders and one of the finest turners you will meet, David Ellsworth. David explained his grind, demonstrated the different cuts he makes, how he makes his tenons and why. He wrapped up showing his hollowing tools and talked about his handles. Everyone had a good time.
Photos and commentary by David Vannier

See hands-on photos

Graeme Priddle and Melissa Engler
Demonstration Sunday September 8 2019

Graeme Priddle has over 20 years experience in the woodworking field, best known for his sculptural turnings/carvings reflecting his life and environments in Northland, New Zealand. Melissa Engler is a woodworker/sculptor based in Asheville, NC. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in sculpture from the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Graeme and Melissa provided a spirited and entertaining demonstration. They showed us woodturning, power carving, burning and coloring techniques. Their skills showed as they worked through the steps of producing special wood art. Embellishment was on display in a very professional way.

See demonstration photos

Andi Wolfe Saturday March 9 2019

Andi is a professor of botany at The Ohio State University.
...and she is a woodturner.
...but beyond that she is an artist.
She demonstrated:
-Woodturning skills
-Using botanical forms to inspire turning art
-Wood carving using power tools
-Pyrography
-Coloring & painting

Demonstration photos are here.

Andi Wolfe - Workshop Sunday March 9 2019

Sam Angelo - Sunday September 9 2018

Sam's presentation was mostly about decoration. He described and demonstrated techniques such as:
-Faux gold metal leaf application
-Metal reactive paint application
-Use of gilt cream
-Texturing using various tools
-Use of dye to color from the inside of a closed form bowl

Demonstration photos are here.
There are a large number but they are in sequence of the demo.

Trent Bosch - Wood Sculptor/Turner - Saturday May 19 2018

Trent is a master of wood turning combined with the artistry of carving and decoration.
He turned a hollow form which he carved to look like a flower bud into which he inserted an internal piece using boiling water and balloon trickery. Hollowing was done using a camera and video monitor to locate the cutting edge inside the piece.
He turned a platter, the edge of which he carved using a variety of air driven cutting, grinding and sanding tools.
He turned a bowl, the side of which he decorated using another variety of tools.

Demonstration photos are here.
There are a large number but they are in sequence of the demo.

Rudy Lopez - Saturday March 10 2018

Rudy did three turnings. He turned a crotch with wings. The outside of the log became the inside of a bowl with natural edge. The three branches of the crotch remained turned thin.
He turned a tall goblet with long thin stem. Starting with a branch he finished with natural edge rim and base.
He turned a large goblet also with natural edge rim.

See demonstration images here

Carl Jacobson - Sunday November 12, 2017

Carl Jacobsen is a prolific YouTube purveyor of woodturning videos, with 166,825 subscribers and 24,486,933 views since April 2007, with projects spanning the interest of beginners to advanced turning.
Carl showed 'basket illusions' using a beading tool, wood burner tool and playing cards.
He made an automotive shifting knob from spalted wood with an over spray paint chip turned into a highlight.
Finally he turned a lidded box. He showed clever techniques for holding base and lid to turn the ends.
The demonstration was held in the SVW shop at the Santa Clara High School.
See demonstration photos here

Sally Ault - Saturday October 7, 2017

Sally covered a range of topics.
Jewelry...she showed us tips and techniques of making small forms that can be combined with in various ways to create a jewelry item.
Boxes...turn a box using wood or a sea urchin. She had a facinating description how to create very artisitic pieces.

See demonstration photos here
Jewelry demo handout here
Embellishing lids handout here
Making a sea urchin box handout here

Don Petit - Saturday April 29, 2017

On April 29, Mr. Don spent the day with us discussing bandsaws. We spent the morning covering how to tune up the bandsaw. Everything from blade selection to crowning the tires. By lunch, we had a smooth operating saw. One tip we all walked away with was use BladeCoat.
After lunch we covered the jigs that Don is selling. The jigs are made for easy customization to fit any bandsaw. Helping with resawing, circle cutting, as well as making it possible to cut repeatable curves for things like Justin Beaver demonstrated for us a few years ago.

See demonstration images here

Derek Weidman - Saturday April 1, 2017

The demonstration was held in the SVW shop at the Santa Clara High School. Derek surprised us by asking what animal we wanted to make. Among local choices, the bobcat was chosen. For those doubters among us, it seemed an impossible task. Starting with a block of wet Maple, Derek shaped the bobcat. Constantly remounting the piece, turning away some wood and remounting again, the piece took shape. Visualizing where to cut and how to mount to make that cut was an art. Each mounting was a nerve wracking experience because of concern that the piece would become air borne. But, it did not. Derek was particularly carefull in placement and locking of the headstock and tailstock

See demonstration photos here

Brad Adams
Saturday October 29 2016

The demonstration was held at the Bridges Church. Brad focuses on bowls and hollow forms with emphasis on esthetics. The wood he uses either attracts interest in itself or is decorated to create that interest or both. The demonstrtation was much about process, the how to, the descrition of tools and equipment. But it included actual turning demonstration. If you do it right, it goes quickly and easily with good results.

Sharon Doughtie - Saturday July 30 2016

The demonstration was held at the Bridges Church. She did no wood turning, but instead she showed us how to create Celtic knots and to do specialized carving. The Celtic knot is an interesting example of artwork to grace the surface of a woodturning. Sharon is an expert at creating the outline and implimenting it by burning and she showed us how. Much time was spent discussing the burning tools and describing and demonstrating burning the design into the wood. Additionally she demonstarted power carving, an example of which was the carving of feet on a bowl.

See demonstration photos here

Ashley Harwood Sunday April 10 2016

Ashley Harwood is a good study on technique. She provided detailed instruction on all aspects of bowl turning. Tool grinding and angle, standing, holding the gouge, tool selection and other aspects were covered. It was good instruction and good review for advanced turners. Interesting how every professional has his/her own method of grinding. Pieces turned during the demonstration had good finishes, requiring only light sanding before finishing.

See demonstration photos here

Eric Lofstrom, Saturday, February 20, 2016

Did you make it to Eric Lofstorm's demo? If you didn't, you missed a a good time with several projects. His tool control, particularly the skew, was definitely impressive. He started showing us "the dance" and comparing the body motion to Japanese woodworkers. Unfortunately, it is a very hard motion to duplicate. He then turned a top, using just a skew, but one with his grind. He showed us a cheap homemade chatter tool, and some SeaHawk coloring. Next on tap was a lidded box, with a really nice feel for the lid. All this in the morning! Two more projects wrapped up the afternoon.

See demonstration photos here

John Beaver, Sunday, November 15, 2015

Held at the Santa Clara High School wood shop in conjuction with the Silicon Valley Wood Turners.

John brought us into the world of wave vessels. He created and in clear detail showed us how to create such vessels. Turning the rough vessel appeared normal enought. But then he showed the the fixture used to hold the work on a bandsaw. As part of the demo he cut the wave with the saw, showed how to return the piece, re-assemble and finish. Wow!

See demonstration photos here

Glenn Lucas, Saturday, Oct 12, 2015

Held at the Santa Clara High School wood shop in conjuction with the Silicon Valley Wood Turners.

Glenn Lucas is from Ireland, a production turner who uses choice Beech from the Irish woods. His demostration consisted of turning a plate and a bowl mixed with a slide show, video, comprehensive discussion of tool sharpening and a good dose of Irish talk and humor.

See demonstration photos here

Jason Breach, Sunday, May 24, 2015

Held at the Santa Clara High School wood shop in conjuction with the Silicon Valley Wood Turners.

Jason Breach is from Devon England. He has done well to maintain the excellent woodturning reputation of the English. He showed tools, boxes and creative shapes during his informative presentation

See demonstration photos here

Mike Mahoney on Saturday, November 8, 2014

Mike is a professional wood turner who is featured in galleries across the United States. His day long demonstration was instructive and entertaining. It was also inspiring. More than one of us ran home and turned an urn, resharpened our gouges, practiced our bowl turning, checked out our McNaughto coring tool or tried cutting threads. If he can do it in one hour, why does it take me three?

The turnout was great. Sixty turners and would be's watched for 6 hours and would have stayed longer if the schedule allowed.

See Demonstration photos here

Ray Key on Sunday, May 11, 2014

Ray is a wizard with boxes, platter rims and bowls those who went came away with a world of knowledge..   

David Ellsworth on March 9, 2014.   

46 woodturners turned out to see master woodturner David Ellsworth on Sunday, March 9, at Covington School.   

David entertained u res, taught us andfreshed us on how to turn wood. He turned two natural edge, one rimmed bowl and one hollow form.

Mark Gardner on November 8, 2013

Hollow forms without hollowing, surface embellishment, and square bowl turning with multi-axis. 

See his website; Link

Doug Fisher on May 3, 2013

Off center and textured turning.  Pictures at:  Link

See his web-site:  Link

Mike Jackofsky on March 10, 2013

A link to his website is here

Tom Wirsing on November 9th, 2012

A link to his website is here.

Video and brief report:  Here!

Brochure:  details and report added at this Link.

Jimmy Clewes on July 21, 2012

A link to his website is here.

Demo page:  details and report.

Graeme Priddle on May 5th, 2012

Joint with SVW.   A link to his website is here.

Priddle demonstrated off-center turning like the piece at right.  Pics by James on the demonstration:  Link

J Paul Fennell on Oct 9, 2011 - Hands-on session on Oct 10.

See the report and videos here.

His website is here.  He makes hallow forms with carved outer surfaces.

Paul did a fine job of showing how he accomplishes the pieces shown in the pics at left and right. 

Thanks to Lonnie for hosting and to Paul for a fine demonstration of his work and methods. 

Michael Hosaluk demo on August 12, 2011

See this link for more details on this demo.

Thanks for Jim and Dan and others for hosting and setting up this demo.

Art Liestman on May 10, 2011

Location: Vannier's garage

Art has been a frequent demonstrator at the Utah symposium as well as AAW. His work is in the del Mano gallery, and attracts hefty prices.demo_reports

His website: Click here.

Chris Pytlik on Mar 13, 2011

Location: Los Altos Multi-Purpose Room

Chris is the all-round woodtuner artist. An excellent and creative turner, bleaching and dying expert, painter and finisher. His pieces are true works of art, prompting wonder, respect and inspiration in all of us.

See this report

And this report

Mike Mahoney on Oct 17, 2010

Mike is a two-timer at West Bay Woodturners. But always interesting, instructional and insprational, come as often as you can, Mike, We'll come to watch.

See Demonstration info here

Malcolm Tibbets Aug 7, 2010

With Malcolm it's about segmantation. He is a master.

See Demonstration info here

Stephen Hatcher on Mar, 2010

This demo had a short slide presentation of his work, hand-outs for the material source, and a demonstration of the inlay process. His work includes coloring and stone inlays that go far beyond just filling cracks. He uses a number of different kinds of stone.

See Demonstration info here

See his website here

David Ellsworth on March 15, 2009

David is also a two timer. Always a pleasure, David!

See reports on this demo