Judy Ditmer Demonstration

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President:

Carl Schneider

(561)395-9590

Vice President:

Brian Rosencrantz

(561)818-5379

Secretary:

George Miller

(954)755-2949

Membership Chairman:

Bob Brulotte

(954)428-6060

Treasurer:

Mike Stockwell

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Newsletter Editor:

Dick Snayd

(561)582-2449

Judy Ditmer Demonstration and Hands On Workshops

September 21-23, 2002

By Brian Rosencrantz

By 9:00 AM on Saturday morning the auditorium at the Okeeheelee Nature Center was abuzz with the excited chatter of the crowd gathered in eager anticipation of Judy Ditmer's presentation. In a distinct change from previous demonstrations a large part of the audience was made up of

member's spouses. So many in fact that John Buso was forced to pay off on his bet with Dave Friedman about how many would come to the event.

After a brief introduction by President Carl Schneider our guest took center stage and began her presentation.

Judy began her demonstration with a simple statement, "If you want to be different, be good, and that will be different." That simple statement so briefly uttered is the guiding philosophy of her work and alone was worth the price of admission to this outstanding event.

Continuing, Judy gave a short talk about safety and woodturning. Contrary to most of our

demonstrators to date she actually practiced what she preached, wearing a face shield throughout the entire demonstration. She spoke of the dangers of unsound materials and working when

fatigued.

To begin the day's turning she demonstrated the process by which she makes her world famous jewelry. Turning an Ebony square to a spindle with her roughing gouge she made a tapered spigot on one end to fit it into a glue block. Making a tapered spigot says Judy simplifies the task of fitting the piece to the glue block and saves stock. She turned another spindle from Dogwood by the same process.

Judy explained that she uses a glue block and faceplate for nearly all of her turning because she presses very hard on the tool to make her cuts. She feels that the glue block and faceplate method provides an additional margin of safety over a chuck. Also because of the force that would be

required to clamp her work pieces in a chuck it would wear out quickly and need to be replaced

before it could pay for itself.

At this point Judy showed us the long fingernail grind she uses on her gouges and discussed how to create it. Later in the demonstration she showed the special grind she created for her parting tool. This grind which leaves a sort of "tooth" on the right side of the tool allows her to make finish quality cuts on end grain pieces as she parts them from the spindle.

She then showed how she creates a small shallow bowl shape from the end of the spindle

beginning with the inner concave surface and finishing by parting it off at the headstock end. Sometimes, she says, she puts chatter work or other details on the inner surface before parting off. She then sands with 280 and 320 grit paper.

At this point Judy enlightened us with a little more philosophy. She says that production work is not inferior to making one of a kind pieces because during the process of her production each piece becomes individual and unique.

Taking a break from jewelry Judy used the remainder of her spindle blanks to show how she turns her miniature birdhouses.

She also showed how she uses double face tape to hold blanks for reworking the back or convex side.

Breaking two of the bowl shaped discs she made earlier into remarkably equal halves she showed how she uses carbide sleeve sanding spindles to contour the edges of the segments. After contouring the pieces she paints the edges with paint pens and markers. Then she glues them together in a myriad of patterns with E6000 glue using dots of super glue as a clamp until the other glue dries.

After lunch Judy spoke about the process that led her to become a woodturner. She began her professional woodworking career making custom furniture. She took a course at Arrowmont in 1985. Later she visited the Jacobsen Collection and became truly hooked. Within two years she had given up "flat" woodworking and devoted herself fulltime to turning. Like many of us her first lathe was a Shopsmith. She soon became tired of chasing that machine around the shop and moved on to other purpose-built lathes.

She gave a short slide show of some of her own work and of some the things that inspire her creative processes. Judy imparted yet another piece of her woodturning philosophy saying that she prefers to work with the wood rather than trying to force it to become what it can't.

Afterward she conducted a very gentle critique of pieces brought to the demonstration by club members. Even the pieces brought by Carl Schneider as examples of how not to turn received suggestions for improvement and guidance rather than harsh criticism.

Judy finished the day by demonstrating with a block of Bocote how she makes small ring boxes about 3 inches in diameter.

The following day, Sunday and Monday Judy Ditmer conducted hands on workshops in Dave Friedman's woodworking studio. As a participant in the Monday session I know that she spent the days going from student to student offering help where needed as each worked on the project he had chosen for that day. Some made jewelry and some did birdhouses while others worked on bowls. No matter the project she was able and willing to give each student the help and encouragement they needed.

It became a standard joke during Judy's visit that exotic species like Rosewood and Mahogany were to be found lying by the side of the road here in South Florida. Before she left she was thanked by the membership with so many gifts of exotic wood species that she had to ship it back to Ohio in three boxes.