Graeme Priddle

Hi everyone,

Sorry it’s been such a long time since I posted something, the last year has been so busy and gone so fast!!

First of all I want to thank everyone who has hosted and looked after me so well on all my travels, with 9 months on the road last year and 6 months this year there are so many to thank. But a special thanks to Maia and Jeff and Donna Turi again for helping me with my scheduling over the last year. Maia has now established her own studio making beautiful jewellery and is so busy with this she does not have the time to do my scheduling any more but will continue to look after the great website she created for me so please direct any work or scheduling enquiries to me at graemepriddle@xtra.co.nz from now on.

This years travels were mainly on the East coast, demoing for clubs from Delaware up to New Jersey, and taking part in the Echo Lake Collaboration hosted by the Bucks County Woodurners at the Bucks County Community College, always a great event! I also taught a week class a Peter’s Valley Craft School, a fabulous place to teach and great to see the school doing so well after a difficult few years. I also had my first foray into Eastern Canada with a whirlwind tour of clubs in Ontario and Monteal.

After that I took a little time out in Indianapolis with Clay Foster and Jennifer Shirley including a weekend trip to Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts for Clay, who is curently serving on the board, to attend a board meeting where Bill Mays was appointed new director of the school and we attended a fundraising auction and dinner which was well supported and also great to see things picking up for Arrowmont as well Then it was up to St Paul for the AAW Symposium which was fantastic.

I went back home after St Paul for a month of winter and to remind my family what I look like!

Then early August I was back in Portland, Oregon for the Northwest Woodturners ‘Frogwood’ collaborative gathering at Dale Larson’s place which was so much fun, I got to play with a little lost wax bronze casting courtesy of Ron Gerton but mainly worked with Dave Williams on a large chainsaw/arbortech carved bowl suspended on a tripod which all who attended put images of their ‘real’ and ‘fantasy’ jobs in mud. The bowl was then burnt with the mud acting as a fire resist, I learnt this technique from Clay Foster many years ago.

Now I’ve just arrived back in Breville, France, where I did the sculpture residency with Michael Cullen in May last year. So good to see everyone here again, after living here for a month and being so well looked after by everyone it felt like coming homeJ and great to see our sculpture installed on the village green.

Exposure to the elements over the last year and a bit has certainly changed it, the milk paint has faded and deteriorated with UV more than I expected but it has given the installation an aged, patinated look that I kinda like and is in keeping with the aged look of the village buildings.

This time I’m here for “Art et Passion du Bois’ a 3 day wood festival that is held here in Breville every August hosted by the Association Art et Bois a Breville. Part of the festival is woodturning competition. The theme for this years competition was ‘Extravagant Balance’ and I had to submit a design proposal for the juried entry.

Now I have the next 3 days to make it. Michael and I were part of last years jury panel and Jean-Francois Escoulen led the judging panel. First prize was won by Binh Pho who will be leading this years judging panel.

The festival will include lots of other wood art, marquetry, sculpture and more, it’s a tent city her right now and looking forward to seeing what goes on over the weekend. There will also be lots of yummy food and beverages, Breville has a lot of organic producers who will be promoting their produce, especially looking forward to sampling some nice organic Cognac and Pineau made by local distillers Jean-Marie and Pascal, after the lathe is turned off of course!!!

And speaking of lathes I want to thank Martin from Magma and his French agent Raymond Bordet for sponsoring me again by providing a magnificent Titan 315 and all the tools I need to play with during the festival

After Fance I’m looking forward to a bit of vacation time with a 10 day canoe trip on the Green River in Southern Utah then I’m heading back to Austria for the Magma ‘Open Doors’ which is always a great event. If you are ever in Europe the last weekend of Sept I would recommend a visit to this event, check out my links page for info about Magma and their ‘Open Doors’ event.

After Austria I’ll be stopping in Israel on my way home for a little work and catch up with friends.

Then will have a busy summer at home getting my current property tidied up and sold and moving my workshop into Whangarei. I’m really looking forward to the change which will give me so much more time to ‘just make stuff’

Cheers

Graeme

Check out a blog written about Graeme’s recent visit to Baltimore, MD

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Hi everyone,

Well, we all survived another CollaboratioNZ, despite the weather, and hope you all had as much fun as I did. Great to catch up with so many friends and meet so many new ones☺ A special thanks to our volunteer committee who give so much time and energy and also to all those who came from around the world and NZ and gave their all to help us and share so much, this is truly an event that is impossible to describe, it has to be experienced. Also a big thanks to all our sponsors and our community for all their support.

Kristen www.kristinmitsushiga.com has set up a photo sharing site, http://www.flickr.com/groups/collaborationz/ Check it out.

I’ve just arrived in Delaware at the start of a 2 month demo/teaching tour, mainly on the US East Coast, details are on the calendar, and especially looking forward to attending the AAW symposium in St Paul. A huge thanks again to Maia and all those who helped put this trip together. Also many thanks to all who supported the recent AAW/POP ebay auction, I always enjoy collaborating with Binh and the response to our piece has been heartwarming.

The most exciting development in my life recently has been the decision to sell the land where I have lived for the last 20 years, a change in personal cicumstances, increasing opportunities for travel and teaching and many other things have made it impossible to keep up with all that is needed to maintain such a large remote property so it will be going on the market when I get home from my travels. Short term plan is to lease a commercial space in Whangarei where I can live and work for a year or two and concentrate fully on ‘making stuff’ and teaching and take a bit of time looking for a more manageable piece of dirt to build my dream house/workshop on, or I might just get used to being a ‘townie’☺

Cheers Graeme

Image of the collaborative piece for the AAW Auction: Blue Angels

Hi everyone,
Just a quick note to thank you all so much for all the thoughts and concern over the
recent earthquake here in NZ, it sure has been a tough coupla weeks and it will be
years before any semblance of normality returns to Christchurch. I am fortunate to
live a long way from the quake area and all my family and friends in the area are ok.
Sadly I know too many that have been directly affected and my thoughts go out to
them, and just when we thought we had it bad, Japan reminds us life could be a lot
worse.
On a brighter note ‘CollaboratioNZ’ kicks off again this weekend, many thanks to all
our sponsors and the team that puts in so much work to make this event possible, and
to all the awesome makers that come and share so much, looking forward to catching
up with old friends and meeting new ones

Cheers
Graeme

Hi everyone,

Hope 2011 has got off to a good start for you all. Sorry to hear a very wet start for some of our mates across the ditch, been getting our fair share of cyclones (hurricanes) too but thankfully no major damage this year, has just made life very hot and steamy!!

Having a great summer, between the cyclones, getting lots of time in the workshop, and a little fishing! Nice being home after so much travel last year and I can’t thank enough all the wonderful friends that hosted me, arranged my work and took part in classes over the last 10 years, I’d have to write a book to mention you all, thanks heaps everyone!

I’ve got another busy travel year planned starting in early May, mainly on the East coast, special thanks to Jeff & Donna Turi for all their efforts in setting this up.

Will also be teaching a 1 week class at Peter’s Valley Craft Centre in NJ in June, and looking forward to seeing a lot of you at the AAW symposium in St Paul.

If anyone is interested in booking a demo or workshop or taking a class you can check out where I’ll be on the calendar on my website.

TA DAAA, here it is, 10 years of constant reminders of how dated my website is has finally got to me.

HUGE thanks to Maia for all her hard work putting it together.

Please direct any work/booking enquiries to Maia at safran902@gmail.com, personal email still to me at graemepriddle@xtra.co.nz.

Website also has some pics of piece I just finished for ‘Cutting Edge’ an exhibition at Pataka Museum showcasing NZ contemporary woodturning, check out the link to this show which opens March 7^th.

Well I better get back to the shop now, work up some fishing credit!!

Cheers

Graeme

On February 20, Graeme will have new work shown at Pataka.

Here is a preview:

After much anticipation.  The new website is almost up and ready.

Check back soon!