Finger Lakes Woodtuners (aka FLWT) are partnering with Rochester Woodworkers Society (aka RWS) to host John Jordan as a national turner demonstrator for the FLWT meeting on Thursday Nov 15, 2018, and John will speak at the RWS General Meeting on Friday Nov 16. Finger Lakes members are welcome to attend the RWS session on Friday evening. RWS members are welcome to attend the Finger Lakes meeting on Thursday.

Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday activities are held at Isaac Heating, 50 Holleder Pkwy, Rochester NY 14615. The Friday RWS meeting is held at St John Fisher College.

For the Thursday Nov 15 FLWT meeting, John will turn one of his teapot pieces. He will turn the body and lid of the teapot from start to finish, and use a previously turned teapot to further the carving and talk about attaching a handle, finishing etc.

Saturday Nov 17 will be an all day demonstration by John, beginning at 9am and ending about 4pm. For the Saturday demo, John will demonstrate the simple way to make a refined and elegant hollow vessel using green wood and simple tools. Wood selection, efficient gouge use and shear scraping will be covered as well. After the piece is turned, John will show layout and carving of a piece, using various hand and power tools for shaping and different surface textures. Also during the Saturday demo, John will be talking about wood quite a lot. The wood and its selection/orientation is the foundation of what John does with his pieces. Simply put, it is a very important foundation to understand how to turn his pieces. There is a $35. fee for the Saturday Workshop and you can register here Lunch will be available, and it can be ordered Saturday morning when you arrive. Lunch will be assorted sub sandwiches, chips, and cookie, from DiBella’s., or participants can bring their own lunch.

John will have some of his hollowing tools for sale, and if there is sufficient interest after the visit, we will organize a group purchase with John Jordan.

Sunday Nov 18 will be a hands on workshop for up to 10 students beginning about 9am and going to about 4pm. During the workshop participants will work on turning one of John’s signature hollow forms. If any participants are experienced with hollowing, they may want to spend more time on carving. There is a $65. fee for the Sunday Workshop and you can register here Lunch will be available, and it can be ordered Sunday when you arrive. Lunch will be assorted sub sandwiches, chips, and cookie from DiBella’s, or participants can bring their own lunch.

If participants want to carve, they should bring a pre-turned piece (or pieces). This can be broken or unsuccessful pieces as we will be trying out different techniques and won’t be making finished pieces. Student MUST have good bowl gouge and sharpening skills, but don’t have to have any hollowing experience. They should bring their gouges, favourite tools, any hollowing tools they may have as well as any hand/power carving tools, rasps etc.

We recommend reading some of the articles on John’s web site regarding hollow turning and wood, in advance of his visit.

Also, there is a lot of other information about John Jordan’s background and work on his web site.