There were quite a few hurdles to getting the classroom ready.  Bemis does not have a good ventilation system in the classroom, so in order for five people and one instructor to finish bowls, Dennis chose to use an oil finish that allows sanding with the oil to create a slurry instead of dust.

It was also a challenge for the club to select the turning tools.  With limited resources, there was quite a bit of controversy as personal preferences were often mistaken for facts.

The club is now developing more classes, in addition to the basic functional bowls class.

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Dennis makes the snowmen in several sizes, as sculptures,  as 5″ tall upside-down salt shakers, and as Christmas ornaments.

The hats are turned from urban forest trees–primarily walnut.

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A classic peppermill shape with detail created by a laminated turning blank.  The shape is revealed when the curves are cut on the lathe.  They are rarely identical, but definitely members of the same team.

Dennis makes, sells, and teaches peppermills.   These are just one of several classic styles that he prefers.

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In this photo, Dennis works with club member Patrick White.  Before he rolled out the bowls class, Dennis held a training session with a core group of club members to train helpers for the class.  This group, affectionately known as ‘the Usual Suspects,’ has grown to nine members, including the club’s videographer, who donates several Saturdays to providing close-ups of the teacher’s demonstration.  The classes are a six-hour, one-day intense course in bowl turning.

Several things have made it possible to teach students to turn a nice 5″ bowl on their first try.  Most important are the helpers, who act as safety officers and mentors, as well as a set-up and clean-up crew for this multi-purpose classroom.  Dennis also discovered that sanding with mineral oil works effectively to keep down noise and dust.   The tools are also ground uniformly on a Tormek system, which allows quick touch-ups during the class.    The club’s Education Director, Butch Carlson, is the designated sharpener, so that Dennis can have maximum contact time with the students.

Dennis learned to turn this charming furniture leg from the late Allan Batty.  It was a common request in Batty’s day in the English turning shop.

The turning requires cutting off the pommel (square section at top), tapering the leg, and then offsetting it enough to create a dainty ankle just above the foot.  It has been identified as a cabriolet leg, or a slipper foot, but it is most accurately described as a pad foot.

This little lady’s stool is just 10′ square, with a 2″ deep cushion to comfort another dainty ankle or two.  The wood is American cherry from the NW region of Missouri where Dennis grew up.  Greg at Paige Woodworking helped Dennis with the pocket-hole joinery.

Earlier this summer, Dennis met with Richard Pankratz, a bronze sculptor, to develop a convincing patina on urns made of wood.   The happy result is this finish in aged bronze.

The advantage of the faux bronze urn is that the urn itself is lighter in weight, and the use of pine keeps the urns in a very reasonable price range.  Many customers contact Dennis to find a bio-degradable urn that is still beautiful enough to display at a memorial service.

Dennis will probably use this finish on more turnings done in plain woods.  It does not, however, qualify as a food-safe finish for bowls.

The woodturner also faces some challenges turning this piece!  Like the Roman Canteen, the Emerging Bowl requires turning on two different axes.  Dennis has chosen this project as a companion to the canteen for the intermediate woodturner.   It is well within the range of most intermediates, but it has a more advanced ‘wow’ factor.

Like the Roman Canteen, the emerging bowl requires careful planning.  It also introduces some extra safety considerations.  Surprisingly, turning two of them is only a little more difficult than turning one.

Most of the things that Dennis makes have roots in traditional woodturning.  This one goes back to the way Hans Weissflog developed many of his forms in Germany, and has also been popular with turners in Canada and Australia.

In April, he will teach the upside-down salt shaker for the Colorado Springs Woodcraft store (April 18th).  This popular project is a great way for novice turners to improve skills.  It is also a good introduction to spindle-wise turning for those woodturners who have only worked in the face grain direction making bowls.  The tools and techniques differ for the two orientations of the wood to the lathe.   The week of April 19-25th, he will visit two woodturning clubs on the Western Slope of Colorado.

In addition to his public appearances, Dennis also gives private lessons for skills like thread chasing, cutting twists, and hollowing vessels:  719-481-8754

Dennis and two fellow woodturners cut down an ailing honey locust tree in Skyway during a warm spell in October.  This little forest was made from the branch wood.

Branches are always challenging for the woodturner.  They move and sway in the wind, so there may be unusual stresses in the wood.  They are often nearly horizontal, which means that the lower side is more dense than the upper side, creating ‘reaction wood’ on the dense side.  It can sometimes split when the weight of the branch is changed.

These trees are relatively easy for an experienced turner to produce.  Some flaws add a record of the tree’s life to the project.  Others may split wide open on the lathe, or even later as the wood continues to dry out.

Dennis made four different sets of the trees, with crushed stone added on the edges, and a lovely platter to organize the trees as a centerpiece or mantel decoration.  The set pictured here includes crushed malachite.