2027 Guest Turners
The 2027 Oregon Woodturning Symposium will feature a talented lineup of guest turners from across the region and beyond. Each brings a unique perspective and approach to the craft, offering attendees the opportunity to learn new techniques and gain insight from experienced woodturners.
Born and raised in Tennessee, Elizabeth she first specialized in engineering, earning an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 2015 she began woodworking with her first creations including several pieces of furniture in the Arts and Crafts style, but she eventually turned to smaller objects and now specializes in bowls, spoons, and boxes. Her skills range from natural finish and simple forms to highly carved and painted forms that emulate natural motifs. She was awarded the American Association of Woodturner’s 2023 Professional Outreach Program’s Artist Showcase and teaches woodturning and carving across the country.
Eli Avisera
Eli Avisera is an internationally renowned woodworking artist and a world-class expert in woodturning, carving, wood sculpture, and chair making. He is also a luthier (violin maker) and has an extensive background in classic carpentry, cabinet and furniture making. Eli was born in 1960 and grew up in Jerusalem. He attended “Kiryat Noar” school in Jerusalem, specializing in their artistic woodcraft study program and he graduated in 1977. After working in traditional carpentry, Eli founded the first professional woodworking school in Israel in 1988. These classes include his creative turning concepts, furniture construction, wood carving, sculpture and a comprehensive study of the fine art of violin crafting. Eli has lectured, demonstrated his methodologies, and tutored students throughout the world. His vast woodworking talents and artistry can be seen in museums and treasured personal collections around the world.
Jim Sannerud
Jim and his wife Mary own Sannerud Studios, where they work with ceramics, metal, wood, and fiber to create sculpture, furniture, and textiles for the home. They share a studio near Grand Marais, Minnesota, which offers expansive, inspirational views of Lake Superior. For more information about our work and our studio, please visit our website at www.sannerudstudios.com.
Joe Fleming
Woodworking provides me with an outlet for my creativity. I enjoy finding a piece of wood, envisioning what it can become, and then transforming it into a beautiful art or craft piece. I make both art pieces and functional pieces, but I always strive for beauty. My woodturning consists all types of turning disciplines including bowls, hollow forms, platters, vases, boxes and furniture components. I use a variety of wood species in my work including local urban forested woods like eucalyptus, and other reclaimed wood. I also use wood from certified forestry projects in the Pacific Northwest, Mexico and Australia. I have been an amateur woodworker for over 50 years and an amateur woodturner for more than 25 years.
Kathleen Duncan
Growing up in Seattle, Kathleen spent hours watching her father turn early American furniture legs and other items on his Shopsmith. It never occurred to either of them that he could teach her. Ater she’d inherited the Shopsmith and moved back to Western Washington, she joined the Portland woodturning chapters. That is where she was introduced to the various aspects of woodturning and learned to turn. Following her retirement, she ventured into thin turning and began piercing her work with a dental drill.
Kathleen has served in various board positions for both Cascade Woodturners and the Southwest Washington Woodturners. She served on the AAW Board of Directors from 2015-2020. While on the AAW board, she started the AAW WiT (Women in Turning) Committee. She initiated many of the WiT activities which are currently in place.
John Beaver
After spending over 25 years in Hollywood, filming television commercials, John began experimenting with a lathe he had inherited. Before he even mastered the technique, he could see that he wanted to find a way to give the pieces a little more life. A bowl, or a vase, or a sculpture sits on a shelf and has a form, and there’s a certain beauty in that, but he wanted to add movement and energy to that form.
Having always lived near the Pacific Ocean, John was inspired to bring the motion and rhythm of the waves to a round object. The exploration of that concept led to the “wavy” design which is still the core signature of his work today.
The genesis of John’s work is his ability to turn a vessel, cut it apart, add, subtract or modify the elements, and then put it all back together again with the grain and wall alignment correct. John lives in Newport Beach, CA with his wife Candy. When he’s not in the studio he enjoys Golf, Paddle Tennis, Pickleball, Skiing, Cycling, Kayaking, Hiking and Bocce
Janine Wang
Janine is an artist and educator based out of Albany, Oregon. She makes sense of the world through making. Originally trained as an architect, she went on to study furniture design in order to get closer to the materials we work with, and this is where she encountered woodturning. Immediately entranced by the way wood-turned objects interact with the human body, she learned to see the world through the lens of turning, and to consider the many unexplored ways that woodturning can be integrated into the objects we live with. She now continues to investigate how we build things and spread material knowledge as an Assistant Professor of Teaching (Arts & Design) in Wood Science and Engineering within the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
She has a formal educational background in architecture and furniture arts from the Cooper Union School for Advancement of Science and Art and the Rhode Island School of Design respectively. She has garnered a working education from the wonderful woodworking and production industry in Philadelphia , done residencies at various craft institutions including the Museum for Art in Wood, Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, and Googleworks Center for the Arts, and learned to teach through her work with craft schools all across the country, Bucks County Community College, and the nonprofit organization Tiny WPA. She believes a hands-on approach is crucial in good design, and is excited to share in this as much and as often as she can.
Doug Schneiter
My paternal genealogy translates to “a woodsman who cuts”. I have always loved being in the forest and making things from wood. I followed that passion through college, earning degrees in Industrial Sciences at UNI and CSU. After nearly thirty years of teaching, I retired in 2014. I have kept busy since retiring with my woodturning and teaching woodturning throughout the U.S., at Symposia and club demos and workshops. My work has been featured in U.K. Woodturning and American Woodturner magazines. My current work reflects both ancient and contemporary Pueblo cultures and art in New Mexico.
I am currently represented by Cowboys and Indians Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Arizona.
Schedule of Events
8:15 AM - 8:45 AM
Opening Ceremony in Willamette Hall
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Room 1
Kevin Bosch
Revelations in Hollowing
Room 2
Brian Hertzog
Beginning Pen Turning
Room 3
Victor Theobald
Beyond the Round
Room 4
Henry Winkle
Turning Small Stool
Main Hall
Dave Smith
Thin Stemmed Goblet
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Break with Vendors
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Room 1
Kevin Bosch
Revelations in Hollowing
Room 2
Brian Hertzog
Beginning Pen Turning
Room 3
Victor Theobald
Beyond the Round
Room 4
Henry Winkle
Turning Small Stool
Main Hall
Dave Smith
Thin Stemmed Goblet
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Room 1
Kevin Bosch
Revelations in Hollowing
Room 2
Brian Hertzog
Beginning Pen Turning
Room 3
Victor Theobald
Beyond the Round
Room 4
Henry Winkle
Turning Small Stool
Main Hall
Dave Smith
Thin Stemmed Goblet
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Break with Vendors
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Room 1
Kevin Bosch
Revelations in Hollowing
Room 2
Brian Hertzog
Beginning Pen Turning
Room 3
Victor Theobald
Beyond the Round
Room 4
Henry Winkle
Turning Small Stool
Main Hall
Dave Smith
Thin Stemmed Goblet
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