On this Saturday Gary Gardner from Turning Leaf Wood Art Gallery in Blue Ridge, GA gave us a presentation. Go to see www.turningleafwoodart.com for some of Gary's work as well as other artist that he represents in his gallery. Gary talked to the members present about how to get your work into a gallery. Then he stayed around after the regular membership meeting for the Woodturning SIG meeting. For this meeting he talked about sharpening woodturning tools. Gary did not leave until almost noon that day. We appreciate Gary coming to Atlanta and giving us that much of his time.
In the first part of his presentation, Gary discuused art galleries and the accepted procedure for getting you work displayed in a gallery. He first mentioned that you have to go about it in a professional way. You need a portfolio showing your typical work and you also need to contact the gallery owner in advance to set up a convenient time to meet and discuss your work. In particular, he mentioned mulitiple times "Do not show up on a Saturday and try to talk to the gallery owner at that time. They are typically very busy at that time and can not talk to you." Another reason for contacting the owner in advance to schedule an appointment is that they are often traveling to visit other galleries and looking or visiting nationally known artists.
Gary went on to talk about a typical contract with a gallery and the split between the gallery and the artist. He further discussed some of the other issues involved in displaying your work in a gallery. He also talked about the liability issues and who gets stuck with the bill if an item is damaged or the gallery is destroyed by fire or some other natural disaster. I will not go into these issues because there is not enough space here to do that.
In the second part of his presentation after the regular membership meeting, Gary talked to the Woodturners about sharpening bowl gouges, spindle gouges and skews. As part of this he discussed grinders, grinding wheels and sharpening jigs. Gary mention that he almost always uses a jig for sharpening. It just easier to set up and maintain the same profile on a tool that way. There are only a couple tools that Gary sharpens free hand. He also talked about the various gouge profiles that various turners like. The most common one being the fingernail grind. He also mentioned how to tell if a tool is sharp or not. Do not use your thumb nail or try to shave the hair from your arm as a test of sharpness! What you should do is to look at the cutting edge under a direct incandesent light. If there are any reflections from the cutting edge then the tool is not sharp yet. So go back to sharpening until there are no reflections from the cutting edge. This check also works for other wood cutting tools such as plane irons, chisels and carving tools.
Gerald Jones, President
