Need Volunteers for SAPFM Demo at Maryland Historical Society (27 July 2019)

[Mark Maleski]

SAPFM members, we have an opportunity to demonstrate at Maryland Historical Society's Colonial Market Day on 27 July.  This event appears to provide the type of outreach to the public that we discussed at our recent chapter meeting. The event will be held at 201 West Monument Street in Baltimore, MD.  You can read more about the event here: https://www.mdhs.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=411 and here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/MarylandHistory/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10156553701904935

If we have re-enactors among us we can setup outside and do demonstrators there.  I've committed to setting up inside with a more static representation, though I plan to bring my Moravian-style workbench and tools so we can still draw folks in.  Here's what we'll need for the event:

• We need experienced furniture makers who can engage other woodworkers in conversation and describe what SAPFM is, how it can help them, and how they can help SAPFM. We will have props to help you out.
• We need you to bring projects (preferably small furniture and accessories) that you have built or that you are working on, that will stimulate the furniture building desires of other attendees. The public will be interested in what inspired you to build the pieces, where you got your designs and how you built and finished them.
• We need craftsmen and women who can demonstrate the construction and decorating skills and tools involved in the creation of period furniture. If you can describe verbally what you are doing and why you are doing it, that is even better, but far from necessary. If you can point out that the skills you have acquired are also applicable to forms and stiles of woodworking beyond the particular period that is your main interest, all the better.
• We need people who can talk about woodworking tools, and they don’t have to be hand tools. However, if you want to demonstrate techniques using a slider or combo jointer/planer, you’ll need to negotiate that with the Felder crew who will be right next to us. If you can contrast and compare doing specific woodworking tasks using either power tools or hand tools, you will be able to engage a wider audience. We don’t want to give the impression that there is only one valid method to create a given detail or form.

We would also appreciate a little help handing out brochures, collecting contact information, setting up our booth, benches and other exhibits, and taking them down again at the end of the event. Ideally we'll have 2 to 3 representatives so we can give each other breaks and speak with multiple folks at the same time.  Please send an email to [email protected] if you're able to help represent SAPFM, and let me know if you're interested in setting up among the re-enactors (and if so, will you bring a bench or need the Moravian). 







Mark Maleski

 

[JBRowe]

Thanks to several members of the Chesapeake, Del-Val and Tidewater chapters who stepped up and volunteered one or two of their days we had a great reception at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  We demonstrated making a Windsor Chair seat, line inlay, slipper foot legs and a couple of simple molding planes which visitors were invited to try.  The museum staff couldn't have been more hospitable and the Lie-Nielsen people likewise.  We were made to feel like part of the museum's interpretive staff and set up in their boatbuilding shed which was a fantastic workspace.