The Rapid City Woodworkers Association's first ever Woodworking Show was in the planning stages for three months. A press release to the Rapid City Journal resulted in a very well written and informative article written by Cindy Card Buchholz that was published on Wednesday, April 15th, three days prior to the event. At 10 am on Saturday April 18th, RCWA members began arriving to setup for the show. What a super display of team effort, as the tables were arranged, covered with cloth, and the woodworking displays arranged. By noon, the stage was set and the Show began.
THE SHOW
For those of you who were unable to attend the Woodworking Show on Saturday April 18th, you missed a good one. The weather threatened to spoil the day with a little cold rain, but no snow, so we were overjoyed. The show featured woodworking projects made by members, demonstrations of woodturning and scroll sawing, and concluded with a family potluck.
Displays of a large variety of turned bowls, hollow vessels, platters, segmented bowls, turned pens, and other exquisite items made on wood lathes covered more than ten tables. Members Dave Dittman, Wes Murphy, Rick Wolke, Rex Briggs, and Roger Bares displayed their completed projects. Rick Weisbeck brought in a few examples of fine furniture to display including a dining room table and an end table. Bob Buchanan brought in some shop accessories including a shaving horse for building Windsor chairs and a saw bench, which was required equipment for carpenters not too many years ago. Bob also brought his display of six wild Rocking Horses with Bears ranging in size from 1 inch tall to 12 inches tall.
Roger Bares filled a table with his very impressive collection of scroll sawn clocks, and scrolled text messages including John 3:16 and the 23rd Psalm. Rick Wolke provided a display of samples of exotic woods from all over the world, as well as several of his exotic wood projects. Rollie Lynde presented his woodworking interests and accomplishments via a photo album, while Harley Schmadeke illustrated his hot tub-gazebo building saga on poster board on the wall.
A scroll sawing booth was set up featuring Roger Bares cutting fretwork patterns and Bob Buchanan cutting names for kids. This production line was a real team effort with one person taking names, another drawing the names on the wood, another cutting the names, and another sanding the finished product. Everybody helped in meeting show-goers and telling them about the group. Rick Weisbeck, Gary Graves, Harley Schmadeke, Bob Buchanan and Ron Golin assisted on the name cutting production line, and setting up and tearing down the booth. Nineteen names were cut for kids who came by the booth.
Several woodturning demonstrations were presented on the patio outside the Woodworking Show displays. Rex Briggs, Dave Dittmer and Rick Wolke provided live entertainment throughout the afternoon with chips flying, while answering questions and providing brief explanations of basic turning.
The toymakers filled two tables with samples of the toys built last year and the ones in production this year. The most popular action toy was the dual basketball game, built especially for the show, to give young and old alike a taste of real basketball competition, probably even better than Wii. Kathie Buchanan, Andy Claiborne, and Joan Bares greeted show seekers as they came in the door and helped with the free drawings, and the raffle. Seventy two people signed up ffor the free drawings, and prizes were given away every fifteen minutes during the show. Memories of the day were recorded by member photographer Lon Gose.
It was a very successful event with an estimated 200 Black Hills residents in attendance. I want to extend my thanks and appreciation to Our Redeemer Lutheran Church for letting us host the show in their facility, and to all RCWA members for their hard work and dedication to make the show a big success.
