Home - Woodturners Guild of North Carolina

Beyond Natural Edge Turning - with Lars Nyland

Thursday May 9^th
Zoom call opens a 6:15 for socializing
Meeting begins at 6:45 PM
Demonstration begins at 7 PM

For this month’s demonstration, our own Lars Nyland, will be discussing the appreciation of wood in its natural state combined with woodturning. Lars notes that these types of projects create intrigue and visually explain how wood is transitioned from its natural form into man-made forms. Lars will also incorporate some interesting mounting methods for his unique pieces.

Lars offers the following thoughts about what he see's, plans and thinks about as he works through making his pieces. These will be expanded on during his demo.

- Walking through the woods or along a stream, I am looking for downed trees that look intriguing.
- Looking for a root buttress, a root ball or sometimes a crotch.
- Finding where a tree splits into multiple branches and then exploring the texture of the grain.
- Exploring how to keep a major part of the piece's natural surface while also revealing what's inside.
- Keeping in mind that these pieces are almost always decorative and never functional
- Making people think after they have asked me "what is it?" and I just shrug my shoulders.

We hope you will join us Thursday evening, May 9^th for what is sure to be an interesting and thought provoking evening.

About our Demonstrator:

Lars Nyland has been a woodturner for more than 25 years, and has been a member of WGNC for almost as long. His lathe of choice is the Stubby 750 which he bought in 2001 and is still discovering new ways to use it. His work leans toward the exploratory and unconventional end of things. For his day job, he designs the fastest computers in the world.

Late breaking News:

The Bull City Woodshop is hosting a fundraiser on May 4th. They would like to have as many woodturners as possible attend the event.
There will be live music, dinner and a silent auction.
To learn more about the event: About the event.

To donate or buy tickets for the event: Tickets/Donate

Artsplosure – The Raleigh Arts Festival will be returning May 18 - 19, 2024. WGNC, will once again, have a booth where members will be demonstrating small projects on one of the club's lathes. Members will also be exhibiting and selling their work. If demonstrating isn't your thing or you don't want to exhibit or sell, we'd still love to see you. So stop by the booth and take in the entire Artsplosure scene. It's a great event! For more information, see below:

Artsplosure website: Artsplosure

WGNC Article: WGNC Article

Register to exhibit & sell: Registration is closed, all slots filled

Register to demonstrate: Registration - Demo

Breakout Sessions

Emerging Turner Resources

Breakout Sessions are Back

WGNC is happy to announce the return of Breakout Sessions. To enhance the value of these sessions to members, we have established a coordinator to help identify topics, hosts and schedules that are aligned with the interests of members.

As Session details are confirmed, the information will be posted on this web page so that a member can look at available subjects and associated details, and then when a topic of interest is found, simply click on the button to sign up.

Breakout sessions are generally free of charge and are offered on a first come first serve basis. Scheduled sessions will be created as Events and will show up on the Home Page in the "A Look Ahead" table, on the "Events Calendar" and on the "Breakout Session" selection under the "Resources" menu .

To learn more about:
- How to join a breakout session
- How to Host a breakout session
- Review the Breakout Session Schedule
Click here.

Part of the learning process for every turner is to be exposed to all the questions and answers other turners have already experienced. Because when you are first starting out you might not even know what questions to ask, you just are eager to get started and see the chips fly!

Here are some of the questions that might emerge:

· What lathe and tools do I need as a beginner?

· How do I sharpen tools and how often?

· If I don't have a lathe, can I rent one?

· What wood should I start out using?

· What speed should I turn at?

· Are there any safety concerns I need to be aware of?

· Are there woodturning classes available?
· Is there someone who can guide me on this journey?

......and the list grows as your adventure begins with woodturning. It is for these reasons that WGNC has created the "Emerging Turner" section of our website.

To explore the “Emerging Turner” sections just select any of the eight menu items found in the “Emerging Turner Resources” menu.

As a starting point, we suggest you take a look at “New Member Resources”. This page gives you an overview of all the sections and links to each section. To review, click here.

And in other news:

WGNC’s Latest 2024 Breakout Session

On Saturday April 13th, WGNC held our 3rd breakout session of the year at Stephan Moll's Shop. The topic for this breakout was "Finding Wood and Chainsaw Processing". Six members participated in the session. At the conclusion of the main breakout, Stephan added a tour of his shop which allowed the group to ask questions and enjoy some quieter conversation.

More breakout sessions are being scheduled, so check back often to see what's coming up. You can check the calendar by clicking here

WGNC T-Shirts available for sale:
T-Shirts are available to members at any in-person Demonstration or Show and Tell event.
For full details, pictures and availability, please click here.