Greetings to all fellow Woodworkers!
Time passes, but hopefully, as our rather chilly winter comes to an end, you have had much time to be productive in your shops. The early, but lingering February snowfall has kept us from holding a planned wood sale at Frost Fields, but plans are afoot for another sale – possibly in May!
Another planned project at Frost Fields is to clean-up windfalls around the field perimeters in order to allow for easier harvesting of hay in the summer time. That project will provide plenty of opportunity for members to gather firewood for next winter’s worst! This work was approved at our last meeting. Stay tuned for scheduling!
Our regular meeting in February was also postponed for one week because of road conditions and school closures, but we managed to have a great turn-out for the week-delayed meeting on February 20. Jim Dunsmoor gave a great presentation and slideshow on how he creates “scroll-saw bowls”. These bowls can be of various shapes, and include inlays, and segmentations, and even be nested – after doing appropriate calculations of cutting angles.
In addition, at this meeting many members presented their work that was in response to our “Box Challenge”. As always, there were some beautiful pieces brought in. All submitters will receive a chance at a draw prize at the next meeting. The March challenge is a “Shop-made Tool”, with the suggested tool being a marking gauge. (Another box could be created instead of a marking gauge!) Once again, all submitters will be given a chance at the bi-monthly draw prize for participating in the projects.
The Mid-Island Woodworkers’ Guild and the Vancouver Island Woodcarvers’ Guild agreed recently to a merger. As a result, MIWG is now involved directly (along with the Oceanside Woodcarvers’ Club) in the annual Pacific Brant Carving and Art Show on April 6-7 at the Parksville Community Centre. The show is being expanded to include a new Woodworking Show. Members have been asked to contribute time to assist with this show, and Gord Svenson and Len Barnes have volunteered to manage and co-ordinate this participation with Bill Beese (our Secretary, who is also the 2019 Show Chair.) Please mark this event on your calendar (www.thebrant.ca) and register any works that you would like to enter in the show. If you would like to assist with this show, please contact Gord Svenson or Len Barnes (see membership list in “Members Only”.)
The presenter for the March 13 meeting will be Michael Kiss, who is a furniture-maker. (Pictures of his work can be seen on Instagram – michaelkissart).
On unfinished business…there are quite a few members who haven’t signed a current Waiver for the 2019 membership year. This is a requirement for ALL MIWG activities. Please see Paul McCuish if you haven’t signed one, or are not sure! (Also please make sure that your Registration information is up-to-date.)
As a follow-up to the well-attended SketchUp Fundamentals course…those who attended have been offered a second free session on Saturday, March 23 from 9:00 to 12:00. If there are still folks who are interested in taking this course as a first time introduction to SketchUp, there will probably be a few seats available for the $25 course fee. If you are not member, you will have to purchase an annual membership (and initiation fee). Please contact Tony Dobson (or info@miwg.ca) if you wish to participate.
Best wishes to all!
Tony Dobson, Member-at-Large