Update on turning project for the blind

[sbwertz]

Our turning project at Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. (ACBVI) is going strong!

We have been invited to include some of our turnings in a Southwest/Cowboy themed show running through February. All the items will be turned by the blind/visually impaired turners. We will be sending pens and the steampunk peppermills to begin with, then maybe add some other items.

Then in February, we have been invited to display our turnings for sale in the gift shop at a local Duck and Decanter! These opportunities are mind boggling to us at the center! These people do an amazing job. Some of them have made more than 15 pens, peppermills, etc. They have become confident and skillful turners. The sensitivity in their fingers is amazing!

Thanks to the unbelievable generosity of one of the IAP members, we have a large number of higher end kits. (Jr gent style, Sierra style, Cigar style, etc from various makers.) He generously donated almost a thousand dollars worth of high end kits, even including a BUNCH of his custom made PR blanks. We will be using a lot of them for the gallery and gift shop. In addition, I have bought them some high end southwest/cowboy themed kits...bolt action deer hunter, cowboy kit, southwest kit, etc.)

One of our visually impaired turners with macular degeneration has very good periphal vision, but no central vision. He is now one of our instructors. It is amazing to watch him work. He does all the detail work strictly by touch. But he is able to cut, drill, tube and turn a pen by himself! In addition, he has turned more than 30 pens for the troops.

We suffered a serious setback last month when Tom Beatty, who is the head of the crafts department and my main instructor, was suddenly hospitalized and had surgery for a brain tumor! He is doing well, is on chemo and radiation, but still comes in every day to supervise our volunteer turners. (Fortunately he lives just across the street from the Center!) He isn't turning himself yet, but we hope he will be fully active soon. We really miss him. But because of the wonderful volunteers from the local chapter of AAW, we were able to keep the turning project going in his absence.

I want to thank all of you who have contributed to our project again. Without all of you, this would never have got off the ground! I'll post pictures of the pens we are making for the gallery. We are starting to turn them next week. (I'm busily cutting, tubing, rounding and milling blanks this weekend.)

Sharon

 

[KenV]

Desert Woodtuening Roundup the end of February will be another place to display the work being done. I strongly suspect your AAW volunteers are thinking that way.

 

[bobleibo]

Sharon
That is a wonderful thing you are doing to help these folks accomplish more and more each day. I can only imagine all of their smiles that fill the workshop.
You will be repaid for all that you do, you just won't know when or how....that's what makes it special~ KARMA
Bob

 

[oneleggimp]

Thanks for keeping us updated on this wonderful project. So good to read all the good things that are coming because of it.

 

[KBs Pensnmore]

Keep up the good work Sharon, it's very fulfilling seeing what people with disabilities can do.
From Down Under
Kryn

 

[sbwertz]

Believe me, I am taking away more than I am giving! I come home tired but amazingly uplifted, every time I go down there! One of the amazing things to me is the wonderful training and behavior of the guide dogs. They lie quietly under a table no matter what goes on around them while their owners are turning. It is NOISY down there, but it doesn't faze them! One of them is a big standard poodle! Most are German Shepherds, goldies, or labs. (The poodle doesn't shed and is hypoallergenic, so his child with allergies doesn't have a problem with him in the house...and is he ever smart!)

The only downside is the hour long drive across Phoenix in rush hour traffic twice a week....the return trip without traffic only takes 25 minutes! My volunteers have even longer commutes than I do, but they keep showing up week after week! Two of them are out with medical problems right now, but will be back soon. We are so blessed by the generosity of the turning community, both in terms of donations and time. (I've even got my husband pressed into service...he has been making me peppermill blanks all week!)

I just discovered the little pen disassembly viselock pliers from PSI. One of our problems has been that we have no vise (and really no room for one) at the center, so it is difficult to disassemble pen blanks. (At home I have soft-jaws in my vise and grip them to tap out the components.) I just bought a pair of the pliers for the center....now I won't have to bring pens home to disassemble them!

 

[Smitty37]

A new MFRB of goodies is leaving today for this project - they are coming to your home address. This is a great thing you are doing. It might be there before Christmas, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

 

[jttheclockman]

Hello Sharon

I follow your updates on this project all the time and thank you for them. It is amazing what you are doing for these people and it is even more amazing to be able to see what they can accomplish. Hope to see some photos and maybe if you can get their permission to also see the members of this group. Their sense of pride of their accomplishments must be beaming as well as yours as you get to see this first hand. Keep up the great work and please keep posting these updates. Uplifting to read.

 

[sbwertz]

A new MFRB of goodies is leaving today for this project - they are coming to your home address. This is a great thing you are doing. It might be there before Christmas, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

Thank you so much, Leroy! We are in semester break right now, but a number of the more experienced turners are coming in during the break to turn pens to go to the gallery sale. I'll get some pictures on Tuesday, both of the pens they are making and the turners working. (I finally got a smart phone, so now I always have a camera with me....except when I forget and leave it home on the charger .)

Classes will resume after the first of the year. I can't believe how many pens and pepper mills we have turned in the last three months. They are so thrilled to be able to make Christmas gifts for their family and friends.

We only have enough volunteers to turn 3 days a week (two volunteers are out with medical problems) but we keep those two little lathes going from 9 to 3 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! Two of our visually impaired turners are now working as trainers/assistants as well. They also have a huge ceramics program with their own kilns, and a weaving program with six big floor looms.

Most of the staff at the center are also visually impaired or totally blind! There are only a handful of fully sighted people working in the building...mostly in the kitchen. Their IT professional is completely blind! The director, the head of accounting, the kitchen staff, the director of activities and a couple more are fully sighted. They have all sorts of classes to teach the visually impaired to function in society. Most of the instructors are visually impaired themselves, so they can really relate to the problems of their students. There is also a corp of about 40 volunteers that do amazing work. As you can probably tell, I am REALLY impressed by the work this organization does! And even more impressed by the talented, courageous, and determined students they serve.

 

[sbwertz]

As we head into the Christmas season, activity is heating up at the Center for the Blind turning project.

I do prep work for the Center for the blind at home, and my husband does all the drilling for me, because he can sit on a stool at the drill press. He has spinal stenosis and standing is difficult for him. He drills pen blanks, peppermill blanks, stoppers for tapping, etc. We get a real assembly line going on weekends, preparing projects for me to take to the center. (They fill out a form a week ahead saying what they want to make, and what kind of wood, so I can have them cut, drilled, tubed (if necessary) and rounded before their class. I do this for all the volunteers, not just for myself. Since we can have as many as 25 turners a week just before Christmas when everyone wants to make gifts, it can amount to a lot of prep work.

We have two lathes, but right at the moment, we are short of trainers. Two had to quit because of health problems, and one is moving away. I have two new ones training now, but they won't be ready to "solo" for a while. Both have woodworking experience, but not turning experience. At least they can use the chop saw, band saw, drill press, etc. Both the new trainers are spouses of visually impaired students at the center, so they are there regularly, providing transportation for their wives. (I think they got "volunteered" by their wives!) But they seem to be having a great time.

We have two new display cases to put our wares on display for sale, and Duck and Decanter restaurant is now carrying our bottle stoppers, cork screws, and bottle openers in their gift shop. We are in our new room, which is about six times the size of our old turning area in a corner of the ceramics room. (I'm sure the ceramics people are as glad of the move as we are! :biggrin Only problem is that the roof leaked during monsoon, and we had to pull everything out from the wall on one side to keep it dry. They seem to have got that fixed, though.

The laser engraver has proven to be a great hit. Most pens now go out with a name or initials engraved on them. (One fun thing, is gearshift bottle stoppers. We turn the stopper in the shape of a gear shift handle, drill a shallow 1" depression in the top with a forstner bit, and glue in a 1" disk with a shift pattern burned into it.) Looks really cool. I haven't had a chance to get a picture of one of them yet...they don't stay around long. We use Niles stoppers with the flat bottom so they can stand for display. Great stoppers.

I'll get some new pictures up this coming week.

 

[sbwertz]

As we head into the Christmas season, activity is heating up at the Center for the Blind turning project.

I do prep work for the Center for the blind at home, and my husband does all the drilling for me, because he can sit on a stool at the drill press. He has spinal stenosis and standing is difficult for him. He drills pen blanks, peppermill blanks, stoppers for tapping, etc. We get a real assembly line going on weekends, preparing projects for me to take to the center. (They fill out a form a week ahead saying what they want to make, and what kind of wood, so I can have them cut, drilled, tubed (if necessary) and rounded before their class. I do this for all the volunteers, not just for myself. Since we can have as many as 25 turners a week just before Christmas when everyone wants to make gifts, it can amount to a lot of prep work.

We have two lathes, but right at the moment, we are short of trainers. Two had to quit because of health problems, and one is moving away. I have two new ones training now, but they won't be ready to "solo" for a while. Both have woodworking experience, but not turning experience. At least they can use the chop saw, band saw, drill press, etc. Both the new trainers are spouses of visually impaired students at the center, so they are there regularly, providing transportation for their wives. (I think they got "volunteered" by their wives!) But they seem to be having a great time.

We have two new display cases to put our wares on display for sale, and Duck and Decanter restaurant is now carrying our bottle stoppers, cork screws, and bottle openers in their gift shop. We are in our new room, which is about six times the size of our old turning area in a corner of the ceramics room. (I'm sure the ceramics people are as glad of the move as we are! :biggrin Only problem is that the roof leaked during monsoon, and we had to pull everything out from the wall on one side to keep it dry. They seem to have got that fixed, though.

The laser engraver has proven to be a great hit. Most pens now go out with a name or initials engraved on them. (One fun thing, is gearshift bottle stoppers. We turn the stopper in the shape of a gear shift handle, drill a shallow 1" depression in the top with a forstner bit, and glue in a 1" disk with a shift pattern burned into it.) Looks really cool. I haven't had a chance to get a picture of one of them yet...they don't stay around long. We use Niles stoppers with the flat bottom so they can stand for display. Great stoppers.

I'll get some new pictures up this coming week.