International Wood Collectors Society

The Annual Meeting was held August 15-20, 2010 at the Ridgecrest Conference Center, which is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains just east of Asheville in the arts and crafts community of Black Mountain, NC. A beautiful mountain setting, excellent facility, and temperatures in the eighties easily overcame some humidity and a few short mountain rains. The 100 plus who attended the meeting were enthusiastic and engaged.

The opening session was convened by Tom Kinney the Program Director who read Proclamations from the Mayors of Asheville and Black Mountain declaring it Wood Appreciation and Identification Week, and letters of greeting sent by several US and state legislators. Kim Spangle, Commander of American Legion Post 526 presented the colors for the pledge. The session featured remarks by IWCS President Garry Roux on priorities, appointments, and direction for the organization. A board meeting followed.

The IWCS annual meeting program had 14 concurrent sessions divided into three tracks with 38 presenters or demonstrators.

The Wood ID and Technology track had microscopic hardwood identification by Elizabeth Wheeler from NCSU, winter tree identification by Ron Lance, chemical wood identification by Mihaly Czako PhD, importing wood by Fabs Corte of Cormark International, recovering wood from buildings by Zac Guy from Appalachian Antique Hardwoods, a company which provides recovered American Chestnut wood, and tree ID tour on hiking trails by Alan Curtis.

The Demonstration track had sessions focused on woodturning, woodcarving, and embellishing turnings. The program saw member demonstrations from Ron Odegaard on turning a magnetic paperclip holder, Bob Chastain on inside/outside turning, and Jim Zoellner and Ron Odegaard on a segmented, stacked ring vessel.

In addition, there were several invited local turners and carvers. Members of the Carolina Mountain Woodturners demonstrated. Tucker Garrison showed how to turn a natural edge bowl and ornament, Don Olsen focuses on making new turnings from old, and Joe Ruminski along with Bill & Tina Collison did a chalice and surface embellishments. Several members of the Western NC Carvers Club demonstrated various kinds of woodcarving, including Steve Quinn, Doug Arrowood, Don James, Linda Kuhn, Cecil Medford, Rob Merolla, Tom Motzko, John Nieberg, and Clark Rosenberg.

Other presenters in this track included Ted Lawshe who demonstrated marquetry and Alan Hollar did a session on making legs and feet integral parts of bowls or hollow vessels. There was also a Turning and Carving - Show and Tell session - where attendees brought their items to share.

The Craft Program tract had 11 sessions. Local quilters Julie Bagamary and Carol Ruminski spoke about contemporary quilting techniques, while Rita Williams discussed quilt collecting, labeling, and storage. Judy Chastain did sessions on making a grape vine wreath and gift bags. Kris Troyer demonstrated weaving. Lucy Cruise conducted a session on making a journal. Sonya Barriger led a session on bracelet beading. Marilyn Nunan showed how to make lye soap. Shelly Roux demonstrated sewing the fastest table runner. Joanne Schrepfer coordinated Bingo. There was also a show and tell session for quilts.

The Evening Feature Presentations included the Special Guest Speaker, Bobby Goodson, owner of Goodson All Terrain Logging and a fourth generation logger.

He is the star of the Swamp Loggers program on the Discovery Channel. He started out showing segments from a couple of his TV shows, then described the shovel logging process he uses in the hardwood bottom lands and swamps of eastern NC. He described how he got into logging, the working conditions, his leadership and management style, his highly skilled crew, the special equipment needed, and the challenges of the current economy and meeting the demands of the mills. He talked about how a family-oriented approach and caring about and respecting employees were significant factors in his success. He donated several autographed pieces of wood and hats to the Craft Auction. For more Information,
see: http://goodsonsallterrainlogginginc.com/.

Dr. Paul Sisco presented on the tree-breeding program of the American Chestnut Foundation to create a disease resistant American chestnut tree. The American chestnut was native from Maine to Georgia and west to the Ohio Valley, and represented one-quarter of the hardwood trees. It was one of the best trees for timber growing straight and branch-free, for up to 50 feet. It was straight-grained, relatively light, and was as rot-resistant like redwood. The chestnut blight struck in 1904 and by 1950, 30 million acres of eastern forests had been eliminated. He provided the details on the backcross method of plant breeding to transfer the blight resistance of the Chinese chestnut to the American chestnut. This method entails first crossing the two species, then backcrossing repeatedly to American chestnut. For additional information about the American Chestnut Foundation, go to http://www.acf.org/.

Bill Moore, the owner of Cape Fear Riverwood, spoke about recovering old sinker pine logs from rivers, building musical instruments, and thin wood use. He described how pine logs were found using old maps and sonar as well as how they were recovered and processed. He said the beauty of this old heart pine is its color and growth rings, often up to 60 rings per inch. He donated several pine log ends, probably dating from 1750 to 1850, recovered from the Cape Fear River that had the v-groves or chevrons cut into them for harvesting pine pitch or tar for shipbuilding. He also offered a 10% discount for 90 days to members on wood from his thin wood website. Log on to his websites for more information: Cape Fear Riverwoods -- http://capefearriverwood.com/, Papas Boxes for musical instruments -- http://www.papasboxes.com/, and Thinwoods.com at https://thinwoods.3dcartstores.com/.

The Mystery Wood Spirit Identification Contest began at the Opening Session with members asking each other the question -- Are you the Mystery Wood Spirit? This continued until the Mystery Wood Spirit (Paul Troyer) was identified. Joe Sanders won a hand carved wood spirit walking stick for finding the mystery wood spirit. The top two scores in the Hardwood Identification Miniature Golf Putting Tournament were by Shelly Roux and John Mounts. Each received a hand carved face in a golf ball.

The Sawmill was set-up in the parking lot next to the Building where the sessions were held. Sawmill duties were expertly handled by John Roper, Alex Sutton, and Bob Schrepfer. The Wood Auction and Craft Auction went very well under the guidance of lead auctioneer Harry Wheeler.

A number of participants took advantage of the full-day tour of the Biltmore Estate, including the house, gardens, and winery, and then the Folk Art Center.

There were organizations that provided support for the annual meeting such as speakers, catalogues, informational materials, discounts, gift certificates, or door prizes.

01. 02. 03. 04. 05. 06. 07. 08. 09. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. Logger - Bobby Goodson and his wife Lori