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2024/11/14 - Guild Meeting - Surface, Surface with Graeme Priddle and Melissa Engler

'Surface, Surface!' - A Demonstration with Graeme Priddle and Melissa Engler

Thursday November 14^th
Hybrid: Live at NCSU Crafts Center and by IRD Broadcast via Zoom
Zoom call opens a 6:15 for socializing
Meeting begins at 6:45 PM
Demonstration begins at 7 PM

WGNC is excited to host Graeme Priddle and Melissa Engler for our November Demonstration, followed by a three day workshop, Friday through Sunday.

Graeme and Melissa are both full time wood artists with a combined 40 years of knowledge and experience. In their presentation, they will be discussing:

- Fundamentals of design and influence
- How to come up with ideas to embellish and personalize your turnings
- Wood selection and preparation
- Tool selection, sharpening and safety

In addition, Graeme and Melissa will be demonstrating a range of surface embellishment techniques, rotary carving, wooburning, and pyrography pen tip making. Also, they will be covering the application of acrylic/milk paints, paste waxes and finishes.

About our Demonstrators:

Graeme Priddle has over 30 years experience in the woodworking field, best known for his sculptural turnings/carvings reflecting his life and environments in Northland, New Zealand. He has won numerous awards for his work, which has been exhibited widely in New Zealand, UK, Japan, Taiwan, France, Germany, U.S.A and Canada.

He is very active in the wood turning world and commits his time and talent to many creative endeavours. He has served on the committee of the New Zealand National Association of Woodturners for five years as well as being instrumental in establishing the New Zealand ‘CollaboratioNZ’ Conferences in 1998. And for the last 20 years has demonstrated and taught for numerous woodworking and woodturning groups and at many woodworking events throughout the world.

In 2015 Graeme took up permanent residence in Asheville NC to work with his partner and fellow wood sculptor Melissa Engler. Together they run Half Feral Studio at Grovewood Village and are currently building their own school on land they purchased in Mars Hill, about 30 minutes North of Asheville.

Melissa Engler is a woodworker/sculptor based in Asheville, NC.

Reflected in her work, Melissa notes "I am deeply interested in conservation and the sacred quality of plants and animals. Simultaneously I am fascinated by the cycles of consumption and violence that are inherent in natural systems. Being that these two concepts are somewhat at odds with each other, I feel compelled to create work that allows me to examine these concerns without having to find words or perfect answers. My hope is that the pieces convey a sense of our primal connection to our environment and evoke an awareness of its tenuous state.

Melissa holds a Bachelor of Arts in sculpture from the University of North Carolina at Asheville and is a graduate of the Haywood Community College Professional Crafts Program in furniture. Melissa’s work has been featured in Carolina Home + Garden, WNC Magazine, Woodwork Magazine and American Craft and is held in private collections across the US. She teaches nationally and internationally with her partner and fellow wood-sculptor Graeme Priddle.

For more information about Graeme and Melissa's work, visit their websites at:
www.graemepriddle.com and www.melissaengler.com

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