___________________________________________________________________________________________________

“If Pizza sizes were given in area and not diameter, you’d see instantly that a 7 inch is less than half the size of a 10 inch pie.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is my last post for 2012–I think. My plan is to come back to work on Jan 2 or 3rd and that will be the beginning of our 30th year of tool making.

For the 2+ billion people who regularly follow this Totally Awesome and Worthless Blog, a 35 year retro exhibition of my work–or your tools, depending on perspective–opens in August–it is an incredible honor, with one really cool twist…

As with most museums, the focus is on education and over the duration of the exhibition the educational focus is going to be primarily on the Jointmaker Pro. The cool twist? The Museum has initiated a call for entries to be juried for inclusion in this exhibition. Here are the details;

• All submissions must somehow incorporate the Jointmaker Pro in the process.
• There is no restriction on size, but exhibition floor space is limited.  My advice; smaller is better.
• The potential for your work to be included in the Museum Sales Gallery, on an ongoing basis, is a strong possibility!  That is really cool.
• You will be financially responsible for shipping to the Museum and the shipping costs to return your work–if needed.
• Your entry, or entries must be delivered by March 1, 2013. Winning entries will be included in our book, entries after that date will not.
• All entries will be judged by the Museum Curator.
• If your work is accepted, and it is for sale, you will be sent a check by the Museum sans commission if sold.  (I don’t know what the commission rate is but 40 -50% is the norm.)

The rules are simple. Carefully pack and ship your entry to;

Nicole Nathan
Curator of Collections & Registrar
Museum of Contemporary Craft
724 Northwest Davis Street | Portland, Oregon 97209

www.MuseumofContemporaryCraft.org

Inside the box, include all of your return shipping info and a note that this is an entry for the “Quality is Contagious…” exhibition.

This exhibit is going to travel and if you would like it to come to an area near you, the Museum needs to hear from you. The process of reviewing and receiving grant funds for traveling exhibitions is based in part on demonstrated interest by the public. If this strikes your fancy, please send a brief email to Nicole;

nnathan@museumofcontemporarycraft.org

Lastly, and certainly not least, THANK YOU for making 2012 so different from 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. All of us here at BCTW are keenly aware of your patronage, support and interesting tech calls…

We all wish you a great holiday season and a very happy New Year!

-John

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
“We live in a day and age where pizza gets to our house faster than the police.”

– Tim Wang

___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Well now, been awhile since the Drivel Starved Nation has munched on some drivel–time to fix that!

For the past month I have been immersed in the assembly process of our Precision Fence Systems. It has been so long since I actually got off my butt that I thoroughly enjoyed this respite. I must say, they came out fantastic–and this week I will install mine on one of my three JMP’s. The other two will eventually get the fence system but I have to wait for the next run (sometime next year). (We are missing a crate of extrusions–don’t ask how or why, nobody knows so we are pulling more metal to finish off the metric versions). Check with Michael’s production schedule for delivery guestimates.

I will be teaching two classes at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking next year, one on the JMP where we will put the saw, our new fence system, and your hand planning skills to the test–everybody will make a copy of my contemporary chess set that will be on display at the exhibition beginning in August. As of last week, this class is over 75% filled, I believe there are four openings remaining. FYI.

The second class is on tool making, and will be the third or fourth year for this class. Besides making some cool tools, you will get to spend some time running a vertical milling machine and working dissimilar materials. As of this writing, there are plenty of open spots. Personally, it is way more fun for me if there are only 11-12 students–so I hope it doesn’t fill up–one of the few times Marc and I disagree…

I seriously hope all you JMP owners take up the opportunity to join me in this exhibition and be part of the book. I will tell you where to send your entries at a later date, but the deadline revolves around the book printing date which has not been set yet. As a precaution, I am strongly suggesting that your entries be completed no later than March 1. I will have a more precise date when I know more.

Regarding the Special Edition Rabbet Plane; we have 12 remaining. Sometime this week we will email our entire file and then they will be gone. FYI.

I love “out of the box” thinking and the work by Designer Elisa Strozyk is nothing short of phenomenal in my opinion. I hope you enjoy the video at the end of the images.

Lastly, there is nothing more insidious than land minds–the award winning film below shows how childhood toys can be resurrected with amazing results…

–John