AWA – A Trip Down Memory Lane

This month’s meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association was a trip down memory lane with a review of the year’s 1988 and 1992 that featured a video tour of two past exhibitions. Yes, there was even popcorn!

The exhibition held May 17-28 1988 was hosted at the Anna Leonowens Gallery and the exhibition held in 1992 was held from September 10th to November 14th at the Mary E. Black Gallery. This was the 10th anniversary of the club and it was a juried exhibition.

The amateur video was earlier converted from VHS to DVD and although it is showing its age it is an excellent snapshot into the history of the club and clearly shows the professional level achieved by the members.

What really took our breath away when we first saw this video was not only the high quality of the projects but their diversity. There were carvings, both portrait and wildlife, Windsor chairs of several varieties, formal chairs with ball and claw legs, Krenov-style cabinets, tables with gear driven drawers, boxes, toys, all styles of woodturnings and a lot more.

In addition to the video presentation was a quick review of the newsletters from these periods highlighting the following:

In 1988 –
Meetings were held at Graham Creighton High School in Dartmouth
Dues were $15.00 then raised to $20.00
Cherry and Birds Eye Maple bowl blanks were available at a cost of $1.90 for 6X3 and $3.00 for 12X3
The AWA was a member of the AAW
The AWA was a member of the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council
Tage Frid visited with a weekend seminar and workshop. Cost was $30. per member
Prize awarded just for entering exhibition was a trip for 2 anywhere Air Nova flies
There were 91 members
Attendance at the exhibition was 942 people
The club sold band saw blade for 5.5 cents per inch

In 1992 –
This was the Year of Wood as declared by The Province of Nova Scotia
In addition to bandsaw blades the club sold hardwood (50 cents per BF) and glue ($3.75 per litre)
There was a slide presentation by Michelle Holzapfol
Meetings were now held at the Design and Craft Center
A Shaker box workshop was held with John Wilson
There was a woodworking seminar with Frank Klausz
There was a woodworking seminar with Alan Peters
There was a woodworking seminar with Mike Dunbar
There were 150 members in the club

Comments from the members indicated that the presentation was very inspiring. As one member noted, “Knowing where we come from gives easy direction to where we can go and what we can achieve.”

The meeting continued with a short Show and Tell session, an Ask The Members section and finished with an tool auction and sale that included a LaserKerf laser light for a miter saw, a Milwaukee Digital Inspection Camera and the latest nailer from Bostitch.

There were 22 members in attendance.

Back to the shop…

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