First quarter 2019 Presidents Challenge!

The Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation,  a non-profit historical organization near Newtown Square, to whom the Club has offered help in the past, had a 250 year Sycamore tree fall during the last storm.  The fallen tree has prevented safe access to the Plantation entrance and resulted in the closing the site for several weeks.   In addition to the loss of revenue,  the substantial tree removal cost has severely strained their budget and their Director has asked if the Keystone Woodturners could help in some way.  The Plantation would like to offer bowls we’ve made from the wood of this historic tree to twenty or so of their largest donors as they solicit funds from the community to help cover the costs of the tree’s removal. Use your imagination,  bowl, hollow form, vase, or box the Plantation will use our donations in some form to off set the cost of the tree removal.   Your turned Sycamore items will be due April 2019.

With the approval of the Keystone Woodturners’ Board, it’s been decided that we will provide turned bowls from the fallen tree as a Presidents Challenge for the Spring of 2019.  The wood, in the form of pre-split logs, will be distributed at the next two meetings and our members, we hope, will rough-turn the wood, allow it to dry, and finish-turn in late spring.  The bowls will be collected at a spring meeting devoted to comparing the creativity, forms, and uniqueness of our members’ talents, all using the same wood. The finished bowls will then be presented to the Plantation for them to distribute to their major donors. As mentioned at the October meeting Jennifer Green, director of the Farm, will provide a one day pass for four to all who donate a Sycamore item 

Larry Soma was kind enough to pick up for members a few more Sycamore logs from the downed historic tree at the Pennsylvania Plantation (logs which we understand are already lightly spalted) and will truck them to the January meeting.  Anyone interested in obtaining wood from this tree in order to meet our Summer Challenge should arrive early and look for the wood on the ground near the shop entrance.  We’ll try to have help available to get the wood into your trunk if required, just ask Tom Sell or Bob Antonishak.

If anyone has several pieces of the Colonial plantation wood that they will not be using for the challenge, please bring a piece back to share with other members.
Even little scraps that can be turned into bottle stoppers!