(Long)A biased review of what you missed at MPG 2012

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low_48

Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Messages
2,175
Location
Peoria, IL, USA.
We had an attendance of nearly 60 people on Friday. I thought I would be lucky if 30 showed up, so doubled my expectations. Gerry Wilhite gave another masterful presentation. If we could get that guy to write a book on marketing pens, we would all be the better, and we could all be selling $300 pens. Maybe when he switches to another art form, we can get the book! Curtis Seebeck gave the second demo on Cactus, nope, wood stabilizing resin. A very tempting process to a wood guy like me. If I could only get the cousin price...........Then Ed Brown closed the demos with a closed end pen demo. Ed works from a standard adjustable collet mandrel, and smartly used a clear cast pen to make it easy for us to understand. We also learned that Ed must be much taller than he appears. His lathe is on something like a 5' tall bench.LOL Many of us other demonstrators could have used drywall stilts to get to our normal turning height! I'm glad he did bring his lathe since my van was pretty loaded down, so no major complaints from me! Getting the sandwiches for the light dinner was tough, but it made for a nice social time. What started as an expert roundtable, turned into a time for everyone there to take a few minutes and talk about how or why they turn pens. I loved that segment.
Saturday morning rolled around, and the crowd poured in. I didn't get an exact count, but others counted several times, and we are sure that more than 90 people came in. I ran around in circles for quite a while, really just like I did Friday when we were setting up. Sure glad I had so much great help. I opened the day with a general discussion about tools, sharpening, and handy tools to have for pens. It felt a little unorganized to me, but it seems like that is how I roll lately. Bob Jackson showed us how to work with polymer clay. His pen display was fantastic, and it almost made a wood guy put on sunglasses to look at the flash of color. Jonathon Brooks then talked about polyester resin casting. If anyone made their demo look like anyone can do it, it was him. But I'm smart enough to know that it would take me gallons of material to ever get close to what he does with color. No sandwich disaster for lunch, but I had something like 15 minutes to eat. Even with a day and a half for the event, there is never enough time to talk about pen turning. Jeff started after lunch with a talk about our beloved IAP. He also donated a bunch of caps and safety glasses for door prizes. Mike Broberg gave us a great demo on some basic turning techniques and tool technique with the carbide tools. Mike, you shouldn't have worried so much, I learned a lot. I've never turned between centers, but will switch. Curtis stepped up again and this time talked about Alumilite and Cactus, nope, wood stabilizing resin. If you need low odor casting material, that is the product for you. Don't worry about time, Curtis played with the Alumilite and it had not started to set. Alex Pomykalski gave us a masterful demo on snake skin casting. He really knows his stuff, but I was rolling something else like that when I was just a little older than he is now. It did remind me a little of the 70's. His casting skills are great. I came home with a big batch of his and Emma's work. Ed Brown was to give us a demo on fountain pens and nibs. But he planned a masterful program when he also brought Gerry Wilhite to the table to discuss these "writing instruments". It of course led to two master salesman helping us all out. The Woodworkers Shop almost had as many turning tools as I had wood blanks, I know you are all laughing, nobody has as many anythings as I do wood blanks. Exotic Blanks had a great display, and I'm not sure Dawn moved from behind the tables for the entire day and a half. Someone was always over there getting advice or product. A new vendor to me, Phil Miller, came from La Crosse with his wonderful sitting base for the Delta Midi. Curtis had some fantastic blanks besides the resins, my local friend Terry Quiram had some beautiful celtic cross blanks for sale, and Gerry Wilhite had a great table of kits, cases, and blanks. We raised $138 for our local charity, Baby Fold, with the charity raffle of Rick Herrell's beautiful tool rest. Everyone's generosity at the MPG tip jar was greatly appreciated. My good local friends, Terry Q. and Larry M. stayed to the last minute and mopped the entire hall. Special thanks to Eric B. with all his help with contests, audio/visual, door prize announcements (yes we still had enough so that everyone there got a gift and some got two) and general announcements. I couldn't have done it without him. Oh yeah, special thanks to Eric's wife. Unless you eat gluten free you won't understand how good a homemade GF chewy chocolate chip cookie can be. I hope I know I missed some of the guys that help set up. It was a job to get tables and chairs set up for a 100 people. THANKS EVERYONE, and if you couldn't or didn't make it, too bad for you. Now the biggest penturning gathering in the United States will be back for 2013.
Rich
 
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bobjackson

Passed Away Mar 5, 2020
In Memoriam
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
4,271
Location
Elyria, Ohio, USA. 44035
Rich, thanks for all that you did to make the MPG a huge success. If I can help in any way next year, please let me know. There was a lot of interest in the polymer clay work, and hopefully more turners will try it.
 

76winger

Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
2,784
Location
Lebanon Indiana
Sorry I missed it. Hopefully I'll be able to next time around and get the pleasure of putting some faces to all the names here.
 

grb

Member
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
7
Location
Jerseyville, Il, USA.
2012 MPG

I just offer a BIG THANKS to everyone who made this event possible. I know it was a lot of work. I really enjoyed the event. It was great to visit with and get to know other pen turners. The demos were great! I picked up several ideas for pens and saw several things that I want to try myself.
 
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