I remember up North that touching a dollar bill and tasting a pickled
herring at midnight assured we wouldn't be broke or hungry in the new
year. Down South we ate hog jowl, rice and black eyed peas for New
Year's day lunch to assure good luck. Neither tradition is very
appetizing nor as 'lucky' as a good steak with potatoes. I add the
obligatory apology to our vegetarian turners. (not those who turn
turnips) What's on your table for regional New Year's food
traditions?

As for rcw resolutions. I resolve to reread an _entire post four times
before assuming it's in mean spirit or an insult. I will understand
that humor that disrespects another turner is not welcome here. I will
realize that I don't know it all about turning wood and in the scale of
things, I actually don't know much, but whatever I think I know I will
share gladly with anyone. I will really believe that "Manners Maketh
Man"....and congenial turners. I hope to keep my resolutions with some
degree of grace, but I'll sure need your help in the months to come.

Happy New Year from my shop to yours.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Arch wrote:

SNIP

As for rcw resolutions. I resolve to reread an _entire post four times
before assuming it's in mean spirit or an insult. I will understand
that humor that disrespects another turner is not welcome here. I will
realize that I don't know it all about turning wood and in the scale of
things, I actually don't know much, but whatever I think I know I will
share gladly with anyone. I will really believe that "Manners Maketh
Man"....and congenial turners. I hope to keep my resolutions with some
degree of grace, but I'll sure need your help in the months to come.

Happy New Year from my shop to yours.


Beautiful. If you don't mind Arch I will just make your resolutions
mine, too. The one thing that I will add for me is to turn more often
as my flat work and repair work has swamped me this year and I haven't
made that much play time on the lathe. I need to do it for me, but
also for the good it can do others. Here's why:

I have an aunt that is certainly one of the nicest people I have ever
met. Not having a mean bone in her body, she is also one of those that
has been tested in this life beyond the limits that most people can
endure, starting with the loss of her husband when she was in her late
30s. She is now 81. She has raised three kids by herself along with
pulling strenuous grandmother duty, and in addition has been taking
care of her own mother who is now right at 100 for almost 30 years.
Just imagine all the physical illness (hers and others), the loss of
loved ones, and the pain she has endured over the years.... and yet
she never complains. (She is scary like that... I mean NEVER
complains...)

She had emergency angioplasty 2 weeks ago as she was 90% or so blocked.
She didn't want to go in since it was Christmas and she felt like a
lot of people were relying on her for fixing a special meal, decorating
the house, etc. But she had no choice, she was a walking time bomb.
So she went in, and the surgery was very hard on her, and the recovery
was much longer than expected. When I talked to her on the phone, she
was uncharacteristically low in spirits, not complaining mind you, just
low.

So this year at Christmas I sent her a lamp I had made from spalted
maple, nothing too special to one of us, a short squatty piece made
with wide shoulders to show off the grain. I used one of the lamps
from Craft Supply that they sell as their confetti lamps, the same fit
ups I have used in the lamps I sell every Christmas to feed the turning
tool monster that lives in the lathe.

I put a note inside to tell her that what I wanted her to do was to
light the lamp whenever she wanted, but most importantly when she was
feeling down. Then she could look at the light from the lamp and
remember how many people love and care about her.

I got a call the day she got it (still a kid at heart, she opened the
gift I mailed her instead of putting it under the tree for Christmas)
to thank me. She was so choked up at times I couldn't understand her,
and she thought that could have been one of the most thoughtful gifts
she had ever gotten. I was more than a little overwhelmed at her
reaction, and a little numb to think that something so simple touched
someone in such a positive way. That really made my Christmas.

Needless to say, I will be making more lamps for other relatives. I
will make time to turn if for no other reason than to give turnings to
those I care about.

And in ending, I wish everyone a happy, safe, properous new year, full
of good health and positive thoughts!

Robert

I resolve to turn more. 2006 was a bad one for me. Looking forward to
a better 2007.

I resolve to waste some wood in the effort to experiment with form,
ideas, color, whatever.

I resolve to teach my kids to turn. I will hopefully get my new mini
lathe set up and ready for them to try.

I resolve to not take it personally, if my kids don't like to turn.

I resolve to not get more wood from the local tree trimming dump site.
The garage is full of wood. Use that. (OK - maybe if some nice ash
shows up, I'll gather that).

I resolve to turn some Christmas ornaments in June. December is just
too busy.

I resolve to take a multi-day class somewhere with someone be it
turning, finishing, texturing, sculpture, whatever.

I resolve to clean up the garage/workshop - well, sort of :-)

Joe Fleming
San Diego
=====================
Arch wrote:
I remember up North that touching a dollar bill and tasting a pickled
herring at midnight assured we wouldn't be broke or hungry in the new
year. Down South we ate hog jowl, rice and black eyed peas for New
Year's day lunch to assure good luck. Neither tradition is very
appetizing nor as 'lucky' as a good steak with potatoes. I add the
obligatory apology to our vegetarian turners. (not those who turn
turnips) What's on your table for regional New Year's food
traditions?

As for rcw resolutions. I resolve to reread an _entire post four times
before assuming it's in mean spirit or an insult. I will understand
that humor that disrespects another turner is not welcome here. I will
realize that I don't know it all about turning wood and in the scale of
things, I actually don't know much, but whatever I think I know I will
share gladly with anyone. I will really believe that "Manners Maketh
Man"....and congenial turners. I hope to keep my resolutions with some
degree of grace, but I'll sure need your help in the months to come.

Happy New Year from my shop to yours.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Robert
I am very touched by your story and it was very well written.
To a lesser degree i followed the same lines as you. My nan who has been in a care home for a couple of years and being 95 is now getting very fraile. I decided to make a vessel to hold some nice smelling pot pouri, buying the pewter top to finish it off. Having left it till the last minute i actually had to drop it over to my parents where she was over for the day ( i had SWMBO's parents at mine for the day ). I was told she would be at church in the morning so if i timed it right i could slip it under the tree and make out that it was finished with plenty of time. Mid afternoon my parents phoned up to thank us for the presents etc and to pass on that my nan liked her present and where did i buy it from as they very much liked it. When i told them i had made it (only been turning a year) my nan passed back a message how pleased she was to reseive a present that i had made and how good it looked. This made my christmas, therefore;

I resolve to make more christmas presents next year. I used to think that making something against buying something was not as good, mainly as the wood was free out of the firebox.

I resolve to remake the fairy for the top of the tree. I made mine 2 days before xmas in about 1.5 hrs, a very scary looking tree decoration.

I resolve to have made some toys for our first child before its born in may.

This will do for now, have a happy new year and please all keep your advice and wisdom coming for us newbies

Mark

Woodborg wrote:
Robert
I am very touched by your story and it was very well written.

Thanks - sometimes I get inspired to share something that seems to me
important. Such a small thing on my part to mean so much to someone
else was too much to leave alone. I am often inspired by the work and
efforts of others, and that is what I was hoping to do when I typed all
that out.

I resolve to make more christmas presents next year. I used to think
that making something against buying something was not as good, mainly
as the wood was free out of the firebox.

Most of the people in my life that I care about have received handmade
gifts from me starting literally when I was a child. I guess it was my
Mom that started me on that. She always felt that soemthing that
someone took the time to make was much better than something you could
walk over to a shelf and purchase. She alway emphasized the uniqueness
of my gifts, and I can assure you that in my youth some of my gifts
were the type only a mother could love. After all these years,
unbelievably enough, both of my sisters have gifts I made them 40 years
ago... take that department stores!

I resolve to remake the fairy for the top of the tree. I made mine 2
days before xmas in about 1.5 hrs, a very scary looking tree
decoration.

I think most of us busy with work, family, and all the other things
that the season brings wind up turning until the last minute. And no
pun intended, but the lathe is the perfect last minutes solution to
tree ornaments, planned or not. You will probably be turning until the
23rd as long as you turn! I hope you read Joe Fleming's resolutions
above about turning in June... I am adding his to mine and Arch's.

I resolve to have made some toys for our first child before its born in
may.

You have to do that. You must. I turned a rattle for my nephew's
first Christmas (he was about 6 months) and hollowed it out and put
about 5 little wooden balls in it for the rattle noise. I carefully
wrote in indelible ink "My first Christmas, December 25, 2000" and his
name on the other side. Since he was tool old for a rattle by the
second Christmas, I drilled a small hole in the handle and put a hanger
in it, and it now is a Christmas ornament that my sister is very proud
of hanging every year. Those simple, thoughtful things given as gifts
just seem to be the best.

This will do for now, have a happy new year and please all keep your
advice and wisdom coming for us newbies

Mark

There are a lot of really good folks that hang around here, and there
is a lot to be learned from everyone that participates in this NG. I
would love to see more folks voice their opinions and experiences as
this has always been a different kind of NG. Most of the time the
folks are more pleasant, moret thoughtful, and more patient.

As I have said before, years ago when I started turning, this group and
its people inspired me a lot more than anything else in the local
turning community, and thankfully a couple still participate regularly,
and some from way back still drop by now and again.

Post away with any of your questions and thoughts Mark. Glad to have
you on board.

Robert