Events - Login to Register - Future Events View

Larissa is a wood­worker and teacher who makes custom furni­ture and other func­tional wooden objects in Philadel­phia. When she is not design­ing and build­ing custom furni­ture in her own work­shop, she’s on the road teach­ing and making at shops and schools around the country. In 2021, she was as an artist-in-resi­dence at Arrow­mont School of Art & Crafts and in 2022, she completed a fellow­ship at the Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship. You can find arti­cles she has authored in Fine Wood­work­ing and Wood­craft Maga­zine and her work has been on display in exhibitions at the Messler Gallery and Wayne Art Center. Even her days out of the shop are wrapped up in artful wood­work­ing, as she works part-time at the Wharton Esherick Museum.

Larissa Huff will be demonstrating techniques she uses for furniture making. She will have just finished teaching a five day course at the Wendell Castle Workshop.

Barbara Raymond-LaPrease is a member, secretary, newsletter editor, webmaster, and special events
coordinator for the Woodworkers of Central New York (WWCNY), the woodworking club based in
Baldwinsville, NY but encompassing a wide coverage area that includes 275-325 members per year. The club
won the AAW’s inaugural award for Communications Excellence in 2024.
Barbara started scrolling around 1997 around the time Dale Whistler visited the Syracuse club to
demonstrate scrolling. Her first scrollsaw needed to be clamped to a workbench to prevent it from bouncing
and used only pinned blades. Her husband, Charlie, bought her a Delta 16” VS saw for Christmas that year and
the rest is history! Several years later, she added a 26” RBI to her saw collection so she’d have the throat
depth for large puzzles. In 2008, her husband bought her an Excalibur after they tried it at a Canadian show.
She also owns two operating antique scroll saws, the 147-year-old Challenge model from Seneca Falls
Manufacturing and the 120-year-old No 387 Star model from Millers Falls.
Barbara doesn’t necessarily specialize in any one type of scrolled art. One day it could be jewelry like
earrings or necklaces whereas the next day she could be cutting detailed ornaments, pictures, boxes, or
puzzles. Sometimes she combines her various talents, adding beaded accents to scrolled pieces. Recently she
began to add scrolled elements to some of Charlie’s turned platters. Barbara creates whatever she feels like
with most items given as gifts, donated for raffles or special events, or donated for club charitable sales. Since
Barbara created WWCNY’s Crafts for Charity program in 2006, the club donated about $65,000 to local
children-based charities.

The scroll saw is a wonderful, but underutilized, tool housed in most woodworking shops. Why underutilized? Its owners are very often not well versed in its use. This demonstration will resolve your concerns and provide a starting point for attendees to better utilize their saws. Initially, Barbara will discuss and demonstrate the basics of scrolling – equipment, blades, applying patterns, locating patterns, etc. – along with a plethora of tips and tricks she’s collected over her 25 years of scrolling. After you are equipped with the basics, anyone can use the scroll saw to create a diversity of items including toys and an assortment of puzzles. To highlight how easy it is to create puzzles, Barbara will also discuss and demonstrate how to create 3D interlocking puzzles.

In my presentation, “My journey in woodworking and my search for precision,” I will trace my 60+ years of woodworking from my childhood helping to build our family home, to my production of precision pieces for sale and personal enjoyment. Ray Puffer has been an avid woodworker for more than 60 years, and he has produced a broad variety of pieces ranging from custom designed grandfather clocks and furniture, to antique reproductions, guitars and banjos, and award
winning artistic and functional turnings. His turnings have been featured in American Woodturner magazine. Ray is a
member of the Northeast Woodworkers Association, the Adirondack Woodturners Association, the Segmented
Woodturners Association, and the American Association of Woodturners. Ray is a frequent demonstrator at regional
woodturning clubs and international symposia, and he teaches woodturning to individuals in his home shop.
Ray is a Registered Professional Engineer. He served a career as an Army officer, followed by a second career teaching
engineering and leading industrial automation research programs at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.
He exhibits and sells his work in regional art galleries and shows. His work may be seen at: www.RP-Woodturner.com.

Saturday morning: “Basket Illusion.” In this demonstration I will discuss and demonstrate how I produce turnings
that resemble Southwest Indian baskets, from design and material selection, tools and
techniques, sources of supplies, and finishing.
Saturday afternoon: “Embellishment techniques.” In this demonstration I will demonstrate several of the
embellishment techniques that I use to add “pop” to my woodworking, including gilding,
patination, and mother of pearl inlay. While I frequently use these techniques with my
woodturning and instrument building, the techniques can be used to accent any kind of
woodworking projects. I will discuss and demonstrate materials, tools, sources of supply, and
application techniques.

Ben Strano is an editor of Fine Woodworking Magazine. He will tell us how he got into digital tools and incorporated them into his woodworking. He will show samples of things he has made using 3D printers as well as actually making some items during the demonstration using a 3D printer

A look at how the use of inexpensive and readily available digital tools can bring your woodworking to the next level. Focusing on the use of Fusion 360 and an affordable 3D printer, Ben will demonstrate how he makes all manner of jigs and tools that make his woodworking more accurate, efficient and most importantly, enjoyable.

Vic is an editor of Canadian Woodworking Magazine where he has written many articles. He will discuss how to get the most from bench planes.

Vic will be demonstrating two different topics. In the morning he will show you how easy it is to make your own hand plane and in the afternoon he will hold a design class for non-designers.

Educated in Iowa and Illinois, I had a ten year career teaching
English and Drama at international schools in Taiwan, England and
Morocco. In 1985 my late wife and I relocated to Chestertown, New
York where I taught English at North Warren Central School from 1985
until retirement in 2002.
Shortly after retiring from teaching, I attended an Arts and Crafts
Fair in Ludlow, Vermont and saw the beautiful chip carvings of Wayne
Barton, a teacher at the school. I had always loved wood, appreciating
its finished beauty and appreciating the opportunity to learn to carve
it. Later I took Wayne’s class, Introductory Chip Carving, and was
“hooked!” During subsequent summers, I took several of Wayne’s
advanced classes and during the last few years have carved over two-
hundred pieces including breadboards, lamps, stools, geometric floral
and free form plaques, jewelry boxes and decorative plates. I have
become a chip carving teacher myself. In June, 2016, I taught an
introductory chip carving class at the Adirondack Folk School and will
teach several classes at AFS this year. I have also been invited to
teach chip carving at The View Art Center in Old Forge, NY, and at the
Fletcher Farms Arts and Crafts School in Ludlow, Vermont.
I reside in Chestertown and am a member of NorthCountryARTS in
Glens Falls and a former president of the Our Town Theatre Group in
North Creek. I am also a Board Member of the Adirondack Folk School
in Lake Luzerne. My carvings are for sale in the Adirondack Folk School gift shop, in the LARAC gift shop, Glens Falls, in the McKernon Gallery, Hudson Falls and in the Birds Of A Feather Gallery in Chestertown.

Dennis‘s workshop will introduce members to the traditional craft of chip carving-a type of woodcarving in which a small knife is used to incise decorative floral and geometric designs into basswood, butternut or walnut. The design is created by the removal of small pieces (chips) of the wood. In Northern and Eastern Europe, chip carving is an ancient traditional craft associated with rural life. Chip carved wooden plates, jewelry, keepsake boxes, trays, breadboards, furniture and other items can make wonderful gifts
and home decorations.
As the workshop starts, I will first show pictures of antique chip carving in several books I have, and then discuss some of my own chip carvings which I will bring with me. I will explain the design of the chip carving knife and contrast it with the design of the figure carving knife with which most members will be familiar. I will then demonstrate how to hold the chip carving knife and use it to cut straight lines, triangular shapes and curved lines. I will also demonstrate how to cut the Swiss style chip and how to cut the
Old World style chip. Members will have an opportunity to make these cuts with a variety of chip carving knives I will bring.
I will distribute my class syllabus to interested members so they can understand more about what they will learn in the class. Course catalogs for the Adirondack Folk School will be available also.

Don is a retired Senior Furniture Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution. He will be talking on "Finishes - How to restore projects"

Finishes - How to restore projects

now design and build fine furniture on commission and speculation in my one-person shop in East Gloucester, Massachusetts. I am a member of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters, and was formerly part of Fort Point Cabinetmakers in Boston; in May 2011, I was awarded an Artist Fellowship in Crafts by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. I was invited to exhibit in the Smithsonian Craft Show in 2013, 2015, and 2016, and to participate in Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture, a group of events and exhibits organized by several partnering institutions. My furniture has been shown at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH; the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA; The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, MA; The Gallery at Somes Sound in Somesville, ME; the Messler Gallery in Rockport, ME; the Sharon Arts Center in Peterborough, NH; the Lamont Gallery in Exeter, NH; Pritam and Eames in East Hampton, NY; the Highlight Gallery in Mendocino, CA; the MacKeen Gallery in Boston, MA; and other galleries on the East Coast. It has been featured in the books With Wakened Hands and In the Modern Style, as well as Fine Woodworking, Home Furniture, Woodwork, and American Woodworker magazines. I currently teach at The Furniture Institute of Massachusetts, and have taught at Worcester Center for Crafts and the Boston Center for Adult Education in the past.

Cabinets, dressers, tables and desks are just a few of John Cameron‘s talents. He will demonstrate how some tables are so strong they don‘t need glue such as the Ming Table he built.

Canceled

Describe the speaker here ABOUT OUR NATIONAL MEETINGS: Part of the value of being a member of RWS is the opportunity to hear and see nationally known speakers. These individuals are from all over the country and have done presentations and/or have blogs, YouTube videos, etc. Meetings are usually held once a month between September and May. The presentation is held on Friday evening at St. John Fisher University Basil Hall. From 7-8 we gather, socialize and share projects. From 8-9 our speaker presents. Members and non-members can attend the Friday event which includes networking, displays of members’ works, silent auction items which are typically tools or accessories that members are looking to sell (often for VERY reasonable prices), access to our books and DVD library (members only), a raffle, a brief business meeting followed by the speaker presentation. Finally, the national speaker usually has a table for displaying their work and/or books. National speakers typically facilitate a workshop the next day which requires registration.