The Woodworker's Challenge (the club contest) was held on Saturday, November  12th. Below are half of the photos and descriptions of projects entered by members in this event.  The second half can be found HERE.

Best in Show 2022

Terry Dote won Best in Show with his Greene & Greene style floor lamp, his first floor lamp.  Terry is redoing the Dote living and dining rooms in the Greene & Greene Style, a prime example of the American Arts & Crafts Movement.
He designed this lamp is an integral part of that renovation.  Terry made the base of the lamp a hollow beveled tapered tube that allows hides the cords.  This section is made  from cherry and he ebonized with India ink several parts to create a pleasing look through the highlighted areas.  He finished the wood with about 10 coats of shellac and Liberon wax. 
     Terry designed and built the stained glass cherry shade as well as all of the metal work (except the welding).  Hardware purchased from a company in Connecticut. 
    He indicated that the hardest part was creating the angles on the lamp shade.  His experience with this lamp will be great experience for when he makes the dining room ceiling lamp.

Furniture - 3 Entries

First Place - Terry Dote
Terry entered this cherry floor lamp as described above.

Second Place - Bill Keller
Bill's primary woodworking focus is on Shaker style pieces.  Building on his focus, Bill created this "Crossed Canoes" oval side table (2' x 4') which incorporates the Shaker style in the top.  The top is veneered with Tamo (Japanese Ash) providing a water like background.  The crossed canoes in the center are of Walnut and Sapele.  The outer band is a dual band of cherry and maple.  The underside is Walnut veneer.  Bill added the veneer to a core of 3/4" MDF for stability.
     The legs are Sapele and the stretchers and rails are Ebonized Maple.  Bill uses a traditional mixture for ebonizing with white vinegar and steel wool pad plus a South American wood.
     Unlike traditional Shaker style pieces like boxes, baskets, and such, Bill did not need to bend the outer rim as it is not a tight bend (only 56 degree) and the thickness was perfectly sized.
     The entire table is finished with Behlen Clear Gel with Renaissance Wax added for some protection.

Third Place - Tom Lawlor
Tom designed using Sketch-Up (after learning it) this TV Stand, adding drawers and shelves based on the equipment he needs to store with the TV.  He used red oak  He started with 2 rough sawn planks.  The drawers have hand-cut dovetails.  The joinery is all mortise and tenon.
     He has trap doors underneath to capture the cords underneath.
     The finish is Shellac then Waterlox.

Large Accessories (pieces bigger than 1 cubic foot)- 1 Entry

First Place - Jim Kent
Jim made this lidded curly maple pentagon box, finishing it with an oil finish and then buffed with the Beale system. 

Small Accessories (pieces smaller than 1 cubic foot)- 7 Entries

First Place - Tom Cooney
Tom likes to create small, detailed projects.  He made these small lanterns in using Japanse Kumiko techniques inspired by a Fine Woodworking article a few years ago.
     The "glass" in the left lantern is pear from a branch that went down at his home. Its frame is honey locust.  The larger piece is cherry while the right one is walnut and maple.
   The "glass work" is unfinished.  For the frames, he used Minwax antique oil for a finish.

Second Place - Barbara Raymond-LaPrease
Barbara scrolled this desk top small nativity from Walnut and live-edge Big Leaf Maple.  The creche with baby piece spells out "Hope".  A small dowel in the bottom of the "O" gives the piece more stability after gluing. Barbara finished the piece with Danish Oil.

Third Place - Tom Lawlor
Tom created this beautiful walnut mantle clock with drawer.  It is his first band saw box.  He used Waterlox for the finish.

Bill Keller
Ceramic tiles set into a oak frames form these great trivets from Bill.  He found the left tile at a garage sale and purchased the second one from a big box store.  He finished the wood with Behlen Clear Gel and several coats of Renaissance Wax.

Jim Kent
This cute walnut webble wobble box by Jim has a friction fitted lid and an oil finish. He started with an octagon  piece that he turned and shaped.  The bottom was sanded specifically to create the wobble. 

Robert Love
A piece of figured maple forms the basis for this stunning Sierra-style pen presented by Robert.  He dyed the piece in a multi-step process, dying it black first, sanding it back, adding yellow, then sanding and adding red before adding a coat of lacquer as the finish coat.  The stand is another smaller piece of burl on which he mounted two scrolled stands for displaying pens.

Doug North
A cherry Shaker-inspired basket was the entry from Doug North.  He used Bush Oil for the finish. 

Wearable Accessories - 3 Entries

First Place - Barbara Raymond-LaPrease
Barbara entered a jewelry collection.  She included 6 pendants, two each of penguins and koala beers and two decorative ovals. She also presented a collection of earrings.

Second Place - Robert Love
Quartersawn sycamore forms the basis for this pendant by Robert which he used the Joyner jig to create.  He finished it with lacquer.  The leather necklace has a sliding knot so it is adjustable.

Third Place - Charlie LaPrease
Charlie turned this pendant from a piece of buckeye burl, finishing it with a buffing.

Scrolled - 2 Entries

First Place - Barbara Raymond-LaPrease
Barbara used a pattern from Shelia Landry Designs to generate this beautiful curly maple sleigh with panga panga runners.  He finished the piece with Danish oil and filled it with Santa and packages.

Second Place - Robert Ward
A plaque depicting Our Lade of Guadalupe was cut by Robert from 1/2" spalted maple.  He added a plywood backer and added a set of battery operated  lights between the picture and backer.  It is unfinished. This become a donation to his daughter's Washington DC area church.

Toys - 6 Entries

First Place - Jim Ruddock
Jim produced this impressive Learning Train adapted from plans in the book "Making Toys that Teach", by Les Neufeld. Jim used walnut, maple, basswood, oak, cherry, purpleheart, and poplar.  He used non-toxic mineral oil for the finish.  The steam locomotive has classic details with a boiler, cowcatcher, funnel stack, walkways, cylinders, and piston rods, and bell dome.  The Learning Train teaches fine motor skills (coupling the cars), hand-eye coordination (loading/unloading the cars, fractions, and shapes in a fun way.

Second Place - Barbara Raymond-LaPrease
Barbara built this fully-loaded fire truck from a variety of woods, applying a mineral oil finish to it.  It is loosely based on plan 212 from Aschi's Workshop. 

Third Place - Rod Castle
Rod used scrap wood from other projects to laminate a blank that he turned into a fun kaleidoscope. 

Chad Dawson
A red oak train whistle that was turned in four parts was presented by Chad.

Charlie LaPrease
A simple, but decorative, walnut top was presented by Charlie. 

Robert Ward
Robert is expecting his first grandchild in 2023.  He's started making a few puzzles for that child - albeit this cherry fish puzzle is for adolescents and adults.  It has no finish.

​

What Not - 7 Entries

First Place - Rod Castle
Rod added bocote finials to a small sea urchin to create this small ornament.

Second Place - Jim & Shelly Kent
Walnut, maple and cherry for the playing surface for this Soviet-style chess set built by Jim.  The chestnut pieces are turned from walnut and box elder.  The horse was turned then carved by Jim's talented wife Shelly.

Third Place - Tom Cooney
A set of maple hollow and round planes were created by Tom.  The blades were profiled, hardened and sharpened. by Tom. Each plane has an antique oil finish.

Bill Keller
A client inspired Bill to make these Shaker inspired boxes that can be used to house a cube box of tissues or someone's knitting project.  The boxes are modified size #4 with added height to make the bands and top.  One box is entirely cherry while the other is maple with a quarter-sawn sycamore lid.  Bill finished each box with Mohawk  Clear Gel and several coats of Renaissance Wax.

Bruce Meissner
Bruce made a cherry pizza cutter with very sharp large blade. He laser-engraved the handle, attaching a stainless steel blade to it with brass rivets.  The wood is finished with mineral oil.  The blade is covered with a one of the plastic holders for a report and then a Velcro band.

Gary Morison
Gary built this cherry shadow box to house various smaller carvings or mostly the flies he creates.  This box has a mirror to highlight the contents but he often makes them without mirrors so the items can be seen from both sides. He finished it with polyurethane.

Barbara Raymond-LaPrease
It's a Mouse!  But, this one made from butternut, and the creature's name forms the body.  This is considered a Woodimal, a form of scrolling developed originally by Jim Sweet and expanded by Harvey Byler.

The second half of the projects can be found HERE.