Meeting, Greeting, Teaching and Traveling—Helping Us Plan

ByPaul Sellers

Over the coming year

p1160647 It’s that time of year when we need to plan my schedule for  teaching, talks, meetings and greeting my fellow woodworkers wherever they might be in the world. Nothing is set in stone as to where or when whatever might happen and your input often influences our decision making.  This link will take you to a form for you to let us know who and where you are and what you would like to see happen. Whereas for centuries woodworking remained very much a more static craft reserved for practicing artisans earning their living from working with their hands, today that has very much changed and never more than in the last decade and less. Today and going forward I see future of woodworking is an ever changing culture. p1160645 I see it carried forward more in the realms and ranks of the amateur woodworker ever searching for answers that may not even exist any more. The internet has changed training of course. Even apprenticeships in the fulness they once were are an ever diminishing realm and yet woodworking remains important to millions of amateur woodworkers around the world.

Helping Us to Plan

img_7264 If you are interested in our planning for future events including meeting opportunities, open houses, teaching locations and speaking engagements please let us know by filling out the form. I want to know where you are, what woodworking events you are interested in. p1210613

11 Comments

  1. Hi Paul, ive filled out you survey, but would like to add we’ve seen a few questions on the forum about knowing true sharpness. Id like to propose a “sharpening clinic”. Since having a sharp plane sets you up for success in dimensioning and finishing, and a sharp chisel for so many other tasks, perhaps a live demonstration and “apprentice assessment” could be arranged as part of your tour, even as part of the talking events. Students could bring one or two home items to get trained on. (Im thinking Lee Valley has the meeting and workshop rooms at each location in Canada)
    Food for thought.

  2. Speaking for myself, and I suspect many others, there would be definite interest in any potential events for Australia. The tyranny of distance exists in my own country let alone the relative distance of England to Australia. If capital cities are to be the location Perth Western Australia is 2500-5000km away from the relative capitals of each state/territory. Logistics as always, are a bit of a challenge so plenty of forewarning would be welcome if it were ever to be a possibility. The guys at Veritas did a presentation which covered most capital cities and as far as I know were swamped with interest and bums (posteriors not tramps/delinquents) on seats 😉

  3. I did the survey. It would be great for you to come to Atlanta Georgia and demonstrate some of your expertise. I will surely attend. Hopefully there will be room. Thank you for all that you do handing down your knowledge.

    1. Paul, I’m near Atlanta, Georgia too and would love the opportunity to learn from you.

  4. I, too, filled out the form. For your additional consideration:
    In the spirit of BrianJ’s note, a sharpening clinic (and/or treatment of other relevant topics) might also get a great turnout at Lie-Nielsen’s annual open house (usually a couple days in July on weekend) in Warren, Maine USA; or at Handworks 2017 in Amana, Iowa USA which is in May this coming year (and is held biannually). Both are well-attended events that strongly emphasize hand work, where many Neanderthals (loving term used by our machine counterparts to refer to hand-woodworkers) gather. I would make a special trip to either to meet you (and I’m in New Jersey, USA 🙂

  5. It’s getting harder to travel, but I just got back to Philadelphia from Maine. On the way back, (on the way back!) I learned that deadfall sticks on the ground are fair picking in Acadia National Park, where we were staying. The Friends of the Park gathered about 50 good solid Maple sticks to make into hiking staffs, short and long) to raise money.
    I couldn’t turn around: it’s a 12-hour trip and it’ll have to wait until next year, if I can make the trip I’ve been making for over 25 years.
    Arghhh!

  6. Filled out the form, but wanted to put in a word on behalf of the Washington, DC, area. Forced to select a state on the form, I chose Virginia, where we reside, but the part of Virginia we live in is actually a suburb of Washington, DC. I am a member of the Washington Woodworkers Guild, which has members from Virginia and Washington, DC. http://washingtonwoodworkersguild.org/ There are about 150 active members, and some members travel as far as 60 miles or more to come to our monthly meetings, in which we share what we are doing, trade tips, and try to learn from our mistakes. We also have guest speakers and have arranged master classes. I am quite confident that there would be enormous interest in a master class, demonstration and/or talk by you. We could probably even get a few Marylanders to cross the Potomac to see you.

  7. I could not access the form (probably because of add-ons I’ve put in Firefox), but I know that you will always be welcome in central Texas, Paul. If you come through this way, I shall be watching your channels and reading your blog to find out where and when.

  8. Forgive me if this has been suggested or you have already done it. Perhaps you would consider making a more persistent or visible link to the survey on your site so as to more continuously gather data. I missed this blog post when it first came out and just happened to come back to it while searching. I am very much looking forward to attending either a demonstration or class of yours in the near future.

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