2015 AAW Symposium Report, Pittsburgh, Pa.

I have been very fortunate to attend the annual AAW symposium each year for many years. This year was right up there at the top with one of the most excellent instant galleries I have ever seen. There were also more vendors than usual accompanied by many more attendees than usual. All in all this was a very impressive event, well–planned, well–orchestrated and well executed. There were plenty of rotations for the attendees but there was also lots of time to see what new items were available for inspection and hands–on evaluations. This excellent symposium bodes very well for 2016 when it will be held in Atlanta where I live.

There are a lot of very talented people in this world. Sweet Janice and I found time to visit the instant gallery. It is very easy to forget how incredibly talented some turners are. This year’s instant gallery was one of the best I can remember and we took away lots of new ideas. When you see that much talent on display in one place it is a very humbling experience.The AAW symposium committee apparently listens to our feedback. There seemed to be more time for attendees to visit the vendor area this year than in the past. The vendor area was extremely well attended with more vendors than I remember at several of the past symposiums. As a vendor I am not able to attend any of the rotations which are always excellent, but I heard nothing but good reports from my customers. There seemed to be a better flow than in some of the past symposiums.Every skill level was represented and there seemed to be something for everybody. We found turners with a wide variety of skill levels from basic beginners who were pretty well awestruck to seasoned veterans and everything in between following the typical bell curve. There was literally something for everyone. Sweet Janice and I always enjoy this symposium in particular because it gives us an opportunity to stay current on the newest innovations and trends on the product side of turning. We took full advantage of this annual opportunity to visit with as many of the other vendors as possible. There are a lot of very smart people in this world! Some, of course, are old friends and we made some new ones.Our new line of laser cut glue up kits did very well. We are still feeling our way with the brand–new line of laser cut glue up kits, but they did extremely well and we are looking forward to bringing more designs to market as well as expanding most of the designs to be compatible with segmented turning. I welcome your suggestions for designs you would like to see made available.Our new line of “Made By Medallions “were an instant hit. We are delighted to report that our line of product identification medallions was very well received. We offer discs in 1 inch and 1 ¼ inch diameters 1/8 inch thick as a way to permanently identify your precious plates, platters, bowls and other turned items using common forstner bits. This is a very easy way to provide contact information as well as a very readable Makers–Mark for any item you turn. With the cost of less than one dollar each this becomes a very viable method to identify your turned items. We handed out free samples and were a little surprised that this method of identifying your custom turned pieces was new to so many people. More information here.Pennsylvania really is incredibly beautiful this time of year. Our woodworking show season brings us through Pennsylvania in the wintertime usually with lots of snow and ice and trees with no leaves. It is very different in the summer! This area is beautiful indeed. After the symposium we were able to stop by our supplier a few hundred miles to the east and pick up more colored plywood mostly in the natural tones, brown, black and camo. We were able to get a small quantity of bright colors which we will be offering in the future. Watch your mailbox for news of salt and pepper shaker blanks, Peppermill blanks, bowl turning blanks, and various other colorful laminated plywood Stratabond blanks.

Lastly, it was great to see so many of you who stopped by the booth and introduced yourself so we can put a name with a face. I appreciate your comments, your support and your continued patronage as we strive to keep you on the cutting edge. One other note you may find of interest is that I will be working with a national book publishing company in the near future and that means I get to cross another item off of my bucket list. I will keep you posted as the book projects develop.