March 6 2018 – Professional Demonstrator!
Monday- 6PM- March 12, 2018 Enchanted Woodturners Meeting
We will meet at Santa Fe High School Woodworking Shop, see driving & parking diagram attached, and look at the high school’s location on Google Satellite to see it better.
Subject: The Life of a Bowl with Presenter: Mike Mahoney
Watch on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_0jHdjdh0
Mike’s presentation will be live over the internet. He will show video material about the life of a bowl, but he will simultaneously be available to stop the video and answer our questions.
Mike Mahoney is one of the best known individuals in the woodturning world; he is an in-demand demonstrator and he is famous for his work with the annual Utah Woodturning Symposium.
Mike’s main business starting back in early 1990’s was a production bowl maker in Orem, Utah, where he turned out some of the best functional bowls and lidded containers in the world along with burial urns and art pieces. Mike has also developed six widely known finishes for applying to daily used bowls and he has produced many videos for bowl making.
DON’T KNOW MIKE: Mike and his wife, Jenni Prince-Mahoney, were raised in rich agricultural regions of the foothills of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains southeast of Sacramento. They have always had a dream of returning to the area to find some land and do farming, even though they had very successful careers in Utah. Jenni was an archaeologist for an environmental consulting company in Salt Lake City. So around 2012, Mike and Jenni decided to make the move and they purchased a farm near a Mount Aukum, California. They spent most of their time for a year or so remodeling and expanding existing farm buildings and prepping land for new plantings. They are about 20 miles south of Placerville (50 miles west of Lake Tahoe) where there are a lot of great small wineries.
So after 22 years of making salad bowls for American Crafts Galleries wholesale, his current production work is selling roughed out bowls to woodturners. Mike no longer wholesales finish bowls to galleries. Commission work is also keeping him busy for burial urns as well as furniture design and prototypes. Mike now spends about 20 hours a week on the lathe. The rest of his time is spent working on their farm where they grow Pistachio’s, walnuts and olives. Mike and Jenni have about 250 trees, many planted from seeds. Most of their orchard trees are dry farmed. Jenni & Mike are trying to create a sustainable farm. So between the trees, managing irrigation, fire protection, grass mowing, and pest removal Mike has a full-time job.
Frequently asked question: Do woodturing rock stars ever get nervous?
By necessity, Mike’s work with the Utah Woodturning Symposium brought him into contact with one of contemporary woodturning founding fathers, Dale Nish. It was many many years ago when Dale Nish came to a demonstration Mike was giving for his local club. Immediately Mike became petrified. He could barely speak and sweat started pouring down his face. Mike threw a piece of bark off of his turning that crashed into the fluorescent light above his head bringing broken glass raining down on him. After that mishap, Mike drew a diagram on the white board in permanent ink. And while Mike struggled on with his demo, Dale made his way over to Mike’s wife, Jenni, to introduce himself. While he spoke to her he reached into his pocket and gave her a roll cash ($3). She said: “What is this for?” Dale said, “I understand your husband is a professional woodturner. You’re going to need this.” Jenni kept the bills. She gave them back to Dale at his funeral at the burial site.
Want to hear more humorous & embarrassing antidotes in Mike’s career, then come to meeting Monday and hear Mike live.
Meeting Format
The first 30 minutes of the meeting will be Show & Tell. So put your pieces on the table and gather around the table and Bob will start the meeting.
Next we will watch Mike’s presentation, live over the internet.
And last we will have our business meeting, announcements and drawing.
Of course, before Show & Tell, any new attendees will be introduced.
We will all have a wonderful time, so don’t be late and come early to visit with friends.
See you there, Bob Seigel, President, TEW
SFTurners.org 