Overview:

Donald Derry was born in 1956 in Othello, Washington and educated at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. His works are in many collections throughout the USA. He has exhibited extensively and has won numerous awards. Don is a member of the AAW and demonstrated at the AAW National Symposiums in 2004 in Orlando, Florida and in 2005 in Overland Park, Kansas.

Donald has been a woodworker for 35 years. Initially he produced fine furniture, cabinets and guitars. In 1993 he began to teach himself the craft of woodturning. In 1994 he attended the AAW Symposium and after viewing the Instant Gallery he noted that two artistic areas were not represented. These were vibrant colors and optical quality finishing which he explored and quite successfully mastered. More often than not his pieces are thought to be Fine Art Glass and not finely crafted wood.

Presently Don is working with Chinese Elm because the open grain structure and neutral wood tones lend well to the coloring process he is developing. The colors used are aniline dyes and metallic pigments. Don states that “coloring, finishing and polishing easily take more time than the woodturning.”

Morning Session:

Don began his demo with a discussion of shape and form. The understanding of shapes and forms begins with simple shapes and then progresses to more detailed or complicated forms. Practice is of prime importance. Copying the work of master turners is not an efficient way to learn the rudiments of form. "Don stated" Its better to emulate and practice the building blocks of basic common shapes like the sphere, egg, cone and pear, then move up the skill ladder till you are able to understand the work of the masters."

A 4"x6" poplar cylinder was placed between centers. The goal was to produce a sphere from this cylinder. Neither calipers nor cup centers were used. Don used a parting tool to define the portion of the cylinder that would become the sphere. Even though the defined part of the cylinder was the same size as the cylinder’s diameter it appeared longer. This was purely perceptual and not actually real. The parted end sections were then turned away leaving only that portion of the cylinder that would become the sphere. A spindle gouge was used to knock off the corners of the piece and begin the sphere formation. What was actually being formed was a hemisphere which is much easier to turn than a sphere. However, when two opposing hemispheres are made one has a sphere.

When working between centers turn to your weak side first. After each cut a portion of the hemisphere will have been made. Once one side has been shaped it is time to do the other side which will result in a rough sphere having been made. Now thinking has to be more refined. It must be decided which side of the sphere, i.e. which hemisphere has to be refined. At this stage one may ask, "What do I do now?" – not good. One must really ask, "Where’s the high spot?" because the high spot is where the next cut needs to be made. The low spots are not really important because they represent the final surface. Wood cannot be added back onto the piece. To correct the high spot do not start in the low spot. Start at the high spot using a shear scraping cut. This completed the sphere formation.

Next the egg form was defined. A poplar cylinder was placed between centers. As with the sphere the ends were parted off. First a hemisphere was turned on the "weak" side. Then the curves at the other end were defined producing a more egg-like form. This was refined producing the final egg form – much easier than the sphere because opposing sides do not have to be identical.

Don then turned to his finishing and coloring process. He feels that coloring is a very difficult process – much more so than form and shape. He starts with a good form and then bleaches it to provide a satisfactory canvas with which to work. If the wood is open-grained black pigment is smeared all over it to fill the grain with pigment. Don then sands to the desired level of contrast. The bleach process is then repeated. This does not affect the pigmented areas. Dailey's bleach is used (one part A – three parts B). It is applied to the wood and the piece is air-dried. Further bleach applications can be done until the piece is basically black and white. Color is then applied. Don uses an airbrush but other techniques can be used. One color is applied over another to achieve the desired shade and effect. He uses aniline and metallic based dyes. Top coat is then applied (Magnashield by Hood Finishing Products). No sealer is used. This provides depth to the surface. Once he is satisfied with the color and all the top coats of finish have cured, Don hand polishes the piece to give it a glass-like appearance. Don uses Meguiar’s automotive products to do the polishing if done by hand. He uses the sequence of H4 Heavy Cut Cleaner, then H9 Swirl Mark Remover, then H7 New Car Glaze. During the process sanding is done initially, as noted above, with 180 grit before any topcoat is applied and then a final sanding of 500 grit to level the last top coat. Machine polishing could also be done with the power buffing wheels like the Beall system . The top coats are done at the rate of one coat every 24 hours. Don cures it in an old refrigerator with light bulbs producing about 110 degrees F.

Don mentioned that with burls he uses the double-dying process. He applies red, then sands most of it off. The remaining is in the end-grain areas. He then applies yellow dye. This makes the burl almost look like it’s on fire. To obtain more detailed information on Don’s coloring and finishing you can e-mail him at Donald@donaldderry.com. Tool information can also be requested.

Don put a piece of poplar between centers and formed a cylinder. He then turned a hemisphere on the "weak" end. The other end was tapered and a pear shape slowly emerged. By removing the piece and holding it vertical to the lathe a the shape can seem to change subtly. Don explained, that this is because the relativity of the objects and shadowing near it can affect how it is perceived. Back on the lathe the piece’s shape was refined and the pear completed. This completed the morning demonstration.

Afternoon Session:

Originally Don turned ornaments for the craft fair circuit. After turning thousands he developed the shape and form ideas discussed earlier in this demo. At this point in the demo he began by rounding off a piece of box elder burl and turning a tenon. The piece was placed in the chuck. The tailstock was brought up. When Don was in production ornament turning he used a screw chuck. This was much faster. He noted that just because a piece has a natural edge or defect that this in itself does not mean that it will be attractive. The natural feature needs to fit into the design scheme. One must enhance the other.

Don continued by rounding the tailstock end. A parting tool cut was made to define the thickness of the ornament globe. The end of the second ornament in the piece was rounded which gave him room to work on the headstock side of the first ornament. The shape Don turned for the globe was donut shaped, not round. The top and bottom of the ornament should be flat so that the bottom and top (cap) finials will fit well. Once the shape was finalized the tailstock was removed. A hole was drilled 7/8" in diameter in preparation for hollowing. Don has a wire attached with a hose clamp to his drill bit to show him where or how deep the tip of the bit has gone into the wood. He then hollowed the globe with one of the hollowing tools that he has designed.

It is worth noting here a statement or idea Don made about the drilling of a piece prior to hollowing. You do not drill your hole to the final depth of the interior of the piece. Leave the drilled hole a bit short from where the bottom will be. Hollow out to this depth and then drill the remaining distance and complete the hollowing. This gives stability to the piece in the chuck and will help avoid going through the bottom or lower side of the vessel due to repeated cuts.

When hollowing Don uses a reverse or clockwise lathe rotation. This provides a more comfortable position of the body for the hollowing process. Don makes sure the chuck is properly secured to the headstock. He hollows the areas just inside the vessel opening first, then the deeper areas follow. This also gives more stability. If, in the course of hollowing, fingers are used as calipers to determine wall thickness. Don cautioned that the wall is probably thinner than it feels. (Note: That sentence refers to men’s fingers. It is Don's observation that women’s fingers seem to feel the wall thickness more accurately.) When hollowing the bottom do sweeping cuts from the center to the outside. The final cuts should be from the small hole produced by the center of the drill bit to the outer areas. The drill bit was replaced in the tailstock (Don uses a #2 MT twist drill bit but a Forstner bit will work just as well ) and the hole previously drilled was deepened. If the original parting cut was 7/8" or less the globe would be separated from the piece and move onto the bit. If, however, the depth of the parting cut was less the globe would have to be further parted off after drilling. In this case it was parted off. This completed the globe part of the ornament demonstration.

Next a 2"x2"x10" piece was placed between centers. This piece was intended for the finial and cap for the globe. Don used a parting tool to reduce the cylinder to the 7/8" diameter of the globe opening. A second, similar parting cut was made for the cap tenon. The cylinder was reduced in size using only the roughing till the longer finial was reduced to 1/8" . Even though the roughing gouge seemed ridiculously over sized Don explained that the large flute helped the tool act as its own two point steady rest . A detail gouge was then used for finial refinement. A small groove was cut into where the finial tenon meets the finial itself. This lets CA glue push back into the tenon and not ooze out between the finial and the globe. The finial was then parted off through the tenon. The cut was made on an angle so that the finial would be lighter and add less weight to the ornament. The upper finial or cap was then made. Don drills a hole through the stem of the cap so a wire can be inserted and used as a hook to hang the ornament. As above the groove was cut for glue movement and the cap was undercut for weight reduction.

Don then made similar finials but at production speed. These were fitted into the previously made globe. This completed the ornament.

The final portion of the session was devoted to making a mushroom ornament from a cottonwood tree branch. On the face of it, the choice of a mushroom shaped ornament would not seem special since Don has made some 2000 ornaments of several styles. What is interesting to note is that Don had never made a mushroom ornament before. It was a request from an audience member and he jumped right in to see what would develop on the spot. The branch section was placed between centers and a tenon turned. It was placed in the chuck. The stem of the mushroom was turned first. It was then drilled and hollowed. The stem was parted off from the cap. The cap was shaped on the outside leaving a natural edge. The inside of the cap was hollowed and the piece was parted off. This completed the mushroom ornament and a great demonstration.

For further details Don can be e-mailed as noted above and the DVD of this demo will be available in December in the club library.

--Bob Gunther

Don's web site