We are thrilled to welcome you to the Museum for Art in Wood! Access to our exhibitions and permanent collection is free of charge to all visitors.

…. without Merryll Saylan, who has decided it’s not best for her health to join us (hahaha! it’s her, not us — she’s recovering from two recent surgeries, one shortly after the other — hip and back) The long flight from California to Philadelphia might be too stressful. Merryll is 80, after all. As much as we are disappointed, we support her need to take care of herself. We are thinking of you and wishing you the best for a full recovery.

 

UArts Woodshop

I’ve written before that the shop facilities at UArts are fabulous. To achieve that, the machinery and equipment need continual upkeep, repair, and monitoring. Tara Inman-Bellfatto is the woodshop supervisor and every day we sincerely appreciate her attention to helping make our time in “her” shop go smoothly. She is literally and figuratively the grease that keeps the gears running smoothly. Thank you Tara!

Tara Inman-Bellfatto oils one of the machines in the woodshop.

 

A Visit From Jack Larimore

Jack Larimore is a local artist who has been supportive of and involved with the Windgate ITE Residency for many years, and he is on The Center’s Windgate ITE selection committee. He stopped by to talk with us Wednesday about the residency and how it’s going. He asked excellent questions and listened intently to our responses.

And … he brought pizza!!! Thank you, Jack.

 

Intense Work Days

Pizza notwithstanding, we have just a few days of shop time left before we need to finish our projects, pack our tools, inventory the Center’s tools, stow everything away, and clean up the shop.

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Nuch, sanding furiously, would not even stop to pose for a photo.

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Neither would Katie pose for a photo. Jar of white milk paint in one hand, brush in the other, it appears as though she’s more than half finished with this step of the process.

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I caught Rebecca sitting down on the job. Oh, wait … not true! She’s testing the feel of the chair she’s making. Thumbs up, indeed!

A day earlier, Rebecca’s chair looked like this.

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Seriously?! Yes, seriously, I admire Ashley’s determination to upgrade her skills at woodturning. It might look like it, but she was not posing.

These two items are (or will be) joined together, a heart with wings that flap and … what?

 

Various Bits and Pieces

The next series of images are of various parts that will all come together to be exhibited on pedestals, carefully lighted to be admired at our exhibit opening … in less than a week!

I’m not sure what the double spoon is for, but it keeps appearing here and there, next to one item or another on Ashley’s workbench.

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Ashley’s fabulous IKEBANA !!!  …. (That’s how you singsong ikebana, loudly, with accent on “ban”) Singsong it for us one more time, Ashley …. IKEBANA!!!  It. Is. Fabulous!

 

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Michaela’s chest for a drawer … deconstructed so glue-up can take place.

 

Amy’s unfolding city/countryside is in the painting stage. I love her winding, twisting “highway”!

 

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Add buttons, connect the pushers to the little boxes with springs and twine, and Katie’s jewelry box is coming alive! Clack, clack, clack has replaced the scritch, scritch, scritch of sanding ….

 

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Katie’s Scissors Box stayed up later than we did one night, playing ….. and winning!

 

Yesterday Michaela and Nuch delivered a van load of finished work to the Center. Installation begins Monday! Karen Schoenwaldt is directing that activity. We can help if we want, but instead, we will be in the studio finishing bits and pieces.

–Betty J. Scarpino, Photojournalist