John Campbell School- John Keeton

[Bruce Lundgren]

I had the pleasure of attending the Campbell Folk Art School earlier this month in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains in N.C. Even better was the opportunity to have John Keeton as our instructor. Goal of the course was to turn at least one clamshell (made in two halves and glued back together) hollowform and an ogee-shaped bowl. The extent of my self-taught experience has been 6-8 basic bowls and other small items but no hollow forms.
The campus for the Campbell School was very nice, great family-style food and comfortable accommodations with great mountain scenery.
The course was fabulous with just the right amount of instruction and encouragement by John. As most of you already know from seeing his outstanding work, form and design are extremely important and John conveyed this very well with power point, turnings that he brought and by relating it directly while we worked on our turnings. He also sent each of us home with a DVD covering the powerpoint he did at the start of the course.
I've not posted pix on the Creek yet of my hollow form or bowl but am working on that. Bottom-line is that I was amazed at being able to turn the hollow form and finial given my turning experience. John gave me the instruction and confidence to do more.
If you ever have a chance to go to the Campbell School or especially to attend a course anywhere else the John teaches, try to take advantage of it!
Bruce

[Roger Chandler]

Bruce, I had an opportunity to get a little sneak peek at your hollowform in a communication I had with John on another matter. He showed me a couple of pics he took while at Campbell. I think you should post the pics soon..........your work really was nice. That maple form with the dark finial and dark band is very nice indeed!

I think JK is a good one to learn form and such from.........he has an "artists eye!"

[Bruce Lundgren]

Thanks for the compliment Roger. I was astounded that I could produce such a nice turning given my experience. I'll try to figure out how to post a pix of it in the next few days.
Your right about John's "artistic eye". He was able to convey that well to me on a "one on one" in a way that I could understand it and then translate it to the turning but how to do that in a video is another matter. A video that would show that by doing a clamshell hollow form and then a finial would be unbelievable!

[John Keeton]

Hopefully, Bruce will be able to get a better pic than this. I failed to take my Canon SLR, so this was taken with Ms. Keeton's point and shoot. The display lighting made getting a good exposure difficult.

Bruce did some phenomenal work, and he should be very proud of his results. It doesn't show well, but the textured band on the curly maple form has a burgundy background color tipped with gold accents, with black beads on either side. The black finial has the burgundy and texture, tipped with gold accents.

[Dick Mahany]

Hopefully, Bruce will be able to get a better pic than this. I failed to take my Canon SLR, so this was taken with Ms. Keeton's point and shoot. The display lighting made getting a good exposure difficult.

Bruce did some phenomenal work, and he should be very proud of his results. It doesn't show well, but the textured band on the curly maple form has a burgundy background color tipped with gold accents, with black beads on either side. The black finial has the burgundy and texture, tipped with gold accents.

That is a beautiful piece! Very original color and design combination. I need to come back east for this kind of fun again.

[Thomas Canfield]

Bruce, It looks like you and John both did good jobs. Pretty fancy for a class project with all the detail.

[Steve Schlumpf]

No photos??

I know John had a really good time and I have no doubt that he is an exceptional teacher! Happy to hear that the students enjoyed themselves as well!

[Marc Himes]

Judging by that piece, the course was a great success. Very nice indeed.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Bruce, I don't know what it cost, but judging by the results I would say it was worth every penny!

[Bruce Lundgren]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and to John for posting the pic. I'll try to take a better pic and post it. The experience was fantastic and well worth it!!

[David C. Roseman]

Bruce and John, very well done, and thanks for posting! Haven't yet been to the Campbell School, but by all reports the venue and instruction is consistently excellent. One of our local club members, Tom Boley, will be teaching a course there this coming week on natural-edge bowls.

David

[Bruce Lundgren]

Thanks, David. It was a great experience in every respect at Campbell. The diversity of the courses offered is amazing....something for everyone.
I've never had any formal turning instruction and because of my work schedule haven't been able yet to join a turning club. As a result and without taking the class with John, I wouldn't have tried to tackle a clam shell hollow form for quite a while. I also would not have thought about doing a hollow form in two sections and then joining the two togethe. The class on natural edge bowls would be fun also.

[Bruce Lundgren]

Here is the pic of the hollow form we learned to do with John Keeton at the John Campbell School that I mentioned earlier. Comments welcome. Thanks.

Forgot to mention that it's 6"WX 6 1/2" tall and is curly maple. Banding which isn't clear (I need a proper photo tent and camera & used my IPad) is black with highlights of burgundy and gold and is repeated on the onion on the finial.

[Roger Chandler]

Love the curl in that maple, the contrasting colors and the form is really good. The finial is stellar!

[Bruce Lundgren]

Thanks Roger. This was a good start but with John's guiding us along the way. Now to do more and build on that.

Bruce