Craig started off the December meeting by thanking the past year's officers, committee persons and members who worked so hard to make 2004 a banner year for BAWA. He encouraged members to send photos of their work to our Web Master, Jamie Buxton (buxton@tdl.com) for inclusion on our web site gallery. Our Rafflemeister, Stan Booker described the myriad of door prizes to be given away that evening. Such as a piece of Purple Heart, BAWA logo caps, and he was going to give away a piece of wood if someone could identify the wood species. The raffle was for a huge Walnut board. It appeared to be so large that one could build a 3-, no, 2-story house out of it. Announcements were next. Jay Perrine now has caps with the BAWA logo for $10. They were going fast. Bruce Bauer, our Open Shops Chair described the Open shop held at Arnie Champagne's workshop in December. Despite the pressure of the coming holidays a goodly number of members attended. He also said that the January Open shop will be at Gene Wagg's shop in Albany and the February one at Per Madsen's shop in S.F. Mike Cooper brought the previously bought laser name tags. They cost $8 and if you want one contact Mike at 510/471-6934 or mlcooper94555@comcast.net. Yeung Chan talked about some of the classes he will be teaching and Craig added some more classes. You will find his complete schedule in the Classifieds section of this newsletter. Mike Bray is also teaching and you can also find the information in Classifieds. Mike also described a woodworking activity at the Oakland Museum in March. The details can be found on the This & That page. Richard Winslow mentioned that some Teak was available. For the location, contact him at 408/733-9465 or yukon106@comcast.net. Dale Chorney brought in some band saw blades that were placed in the Silent Auction. There are some left and will be available at the January meeting. Tony Fanning asked for volunteers to do the refreshments for the January, February and March meetings. The Reisers graciously volunteered. Arnie Champagne mentioned of a good summer program at the College of the Redwoods from 6/20 to 7/1. Our evening's presenter, Ashley Eriksmoen will teach with Greg Zall. The topic will be Idea to Object. The tuition is $425 and the application deadline is 3/1/05. The applications can be found on their website. www.redwoods.edu/

Tony Fanning then conducted the election of officers. The election was held by a show of hands. The slate of officers elected can be found in the Contacts section of the newsletter. The Committee Chairpersons are not elected but appointed by the Board and they can be found in the Contacts section also.

Presentation by Bill Henzel

Bill gave a nice presentation on the activities of Christmas in April, now called Rebuilding Together. He showed slides of some of the projects. These were accomplished in one day and what was done in that one day was astonishing. Gates (designed by Bill), whole cabinet sections, hundreds of shelves, a Pergola (designed by Tony Fanning) and other projects were designed and built. Toys for Tots was started by Arnie Champagne many years ago followed by Bill Henzel and now Harold Patterson with hundreds of toys being built through the years. Slides showed some of the things made and the participants. Bill then shifted to his work in foreign countries for Habitat for Humanity. Participants pay for their own transportation, for their assigned housing and their food. In Romania, the group built 12 houses in 10 days with 400 people working. In Portugal, the group worked with concrete and steel building condos. In Siberia there was more building including log houses. In each country, the local work methods were used such as log ladders in Romania and ancient tamping devices in Siberia. He showed many slides of the work in these countries. In 2005, he hopes to go to New Zealand. Typically each trip takes 2 weeks and the cost is roughly $1,200 or more. He said it is very satisfying and one gets exposed to different cultures and work tools and methods.

At the break, members and guests attacked the tables groaning with desserts brought by the members. Even after the gorging there was enough left to feed 200 plus the Russian Army.

Presentation by Ashley Eriksmoen

Ashley, a furniture designer with studio and shop in Oakland, joined us to describe in words and show in pictures her approach to furniture design. Ashely graduated from the College of the Redwoods in 1998. Afterwards, she earned her Masters in Fine Arts degree at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Ashley's self described approach is to design and build furniture objects based upon how people behave and connect to the objects around them. Educated first as a structural engineer, Ashley began her career evaluating structural damage caused by the Northridge earthquake. She found herself intrigued by the sort of debris people sought to reclaim from the ruins. What made these objects attractive, special enough to preserve. Her imagination was triggered and she headed off to the College of the Redwoods to study under James Krenov.

Before Ashley builds, she draws. She sketches extensively, examining many facets of the object she envisions. One of her first pieces, "Yeah, But Can She Type", was sketched in an hour, but took four months to build. Once completed, she felt the cabinet lacking, but added stained glass and captured the essence. Its proportions are based upon her own body stature. The question was to bring it to life. In another piece, a bench titled Quarrel, she intertwined 5 lap joints and found the lack of symmetry to be appealing. Another piece examined posture and stance by creating boxes on one leg that lean against each other. Yes, it is called Lean.

In Onward, she constructed a table moving forward on wheels, restrained with a forked pole in the front. "I can't know what they mean until I see it, after I've built it." Free Range Saddle Stools is a ringleader surrounded by sidekicks, executed in bronze. Mammals at Home is a family of fabric padded couch like objects on wood frames, a settee for the husband and wife, and floor loungers for the kids.

In conclusion, she opined that furniture is only half way there. She gets the rest of the way by looking at how people connect to each other through the objects they encounter. Asymmetry and posture help to capture the basic human behavioral responses.

Show and Tell

Mike Bray kicked it off showing a tray and wine stoppers made from a used wine barrel that had red wine in it. Thus the inside of the barrel staves were purple and the outside white. The pieces were very decorative.

Bill Henzel showed some of the toys that were made in the Toy Workshop including a animated turtle (Disney would be proud).

Mark Ferraro showed a mock up of a stool that his daughter needed to get into a high bed at a college dorm. He used the Miller dowels as some of the fasteners.

Arnie Champagne showed a commission which was a half round table made from quartersawn Cherry with a Corian top and a bendable plywood backing. There were decorative insets. Costs were a factor since the customer didn't want to pay much.

Yeung Chan showed a circle cutter jig for a router.

Craig announced that the Fine Woodworking magazine had a spread on Don Naples' Lap Sharp sharpening system.

Frank Cavit showed a dovetail footstool, with promises of showing his invention next month.

The meeting ended with some satisfied winners of the door prizes while the rest of us "unfortunates" munched left over sweets as we trundled to our vehicles.

John Blackmore & Mark Rand