Category Archives: news

November 2018



Elections are in November!
Officer elections are this month.
Tim Kravatz is up for VP and Gary Johnson is up for Treasurer
Our club runs on the hard work of its volunteers. Please give Tim and Gary your support and take a moment to thank all the behind the scene people that make our club happen. Special thanks to our out going officers, Danielle Barbour and Bob Zrebiec who have both given stellar service.

Next Meeting, Wednesday, 
November 21st, 2018 @ 7:00PM

This Month’s Agenda:

Welcome: Doug Davis,
President Keystone Woodturners
Brief notes of interest to all members.
Demonstration:  
Mike Kehs – natural edge bowl

Show and Tell

Bring in your latest turned item and tell the members about it.  Wood type, finish, and any challenges you had with the piece are of interest to us all.  We all enjoy hearing about our members’ turned items. And seeing what you’ve accomplished often gives the rest of us ideas to try as well.

Raffle

Have something that you no longer need, use, or that’s just cluttering-up your shop (or maybe your liquor cabinet?)  Bring it in for the raffle!  Surely, someone will see its value just the way you once did.

The Christmas meeting will be our anual Christmas party, no show and tell, raffle or demo. Just food, friends and of course, our gift exchange. Yak or I will tell you all the details of that at the Nov. meeting so be listening!

Adjourn

Presidents Challenge!!!

Ornaments are due! I cant wait to see all the different ideas you all come up with! the prize for the most Ornaments gets a gift certificate to Craft Supplies USA!!
(prize will be split in case of a tie)
The tree these are all for will be lit on Fri. Dec 7 at 3:00 pm and viewable until Sat. evening.
The event is at Boyertown Multi Services at:
200 W Spring St, Boyertown.
You can buy tickets to win our tree or any other that you choose, drawing on Sat. at 2pm.
Our tree is the best but the others are pretty nice also!

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 

 

Wood from the Plantation will be available at the October and November meeting.  Here is the first load cut.

There are still a few more pieces of Sycamore logs available outside Joe McCann’s shop!

 

Club Membership Updates

YEARLY DUES ARE WELL, DUE…..

Dues for the 2019 calendar year will be due in November. Club Dues remain at $ 20 with a special family rate of $ 30. Members joining in November or December have their dues payment credited as 2019 dues. Dues can be paid at the regular Club meetings to Bob Zrebiec Treasurer Keystone Woodturners. Dues can be paid in cash or check, with checks addressed to Keystone Woodturners.

 

MEMBER PICTURES NEEDED

The Club will be issuing its next membership Directory in December. This directory will have all member contact information plus a picture of each member. With this directory you can use it or your smartphone to scroll through members names and pictures. This will make it easier for members to recognize one another as our nameplates can be difficult to see at times. We are currently missing pictures for 6 of our 70 members. If you have received an email from Bob Zrebiec requesting a picture please send him one by December 1 so your picture can be included in the directory instead of a shadow image. All other pictures were obtained from those taken at our Club meetings.

Community Service Projects Committee Update.

Thank you to all who have donated to the Community Service Projects and Beads of Courage.  All of your donations have been graciously accepted and been used to benefit the non profit organizations.
We have received requests from the following:

  1. Christmas tree Decorations for Boyertown Area Multi-Service’s 12th Annual Festival of Trees.

Please consider bring an item or two to the next meeting for the Community Service Projects donations.   It’s our way of giving back to the community and helping worthy causes.  Our contributions also, showcase the club’s talents and skills in woodturning.

THEY appreciate your help.

Your past donations have gone to the following:

Wig Stand donation to PMH Cancer Center

Left to Right:   Doug Davis, Paula Garton, Vicki Hughes, Susan Zuk, Robert Zrebiec

THANK YOU!

As winter approaches, just a reminder for you to check our facebook page for weather related cancellations.

If we get lots of snow this winter, parking can be an issue at Joes so you may need to park at the Seven Stars and shuttle in.