Artist Workshop: Dan Burleson

Article by Dan Burleson – Wood

I went to Springfield IL. December 13th to do a one day demonstration and two days of hands on for the Lincoln Land Woodturners club. There was some freezing rain and snow Friday afternoon and through the night. The next morning the roads were pretty slick and it was still snowing. There were still quite a few who showed up. One guy drove 80 miles and another lives 2 miles South of the Wisconsin border that bought one of my pieces a couple months ago and wanted to see how I made my basket illusion pieces.

The guys shop where we had it was huge and he makes stage sets for plays and bands around the region so he had lots of props and put me up on a stage. He even had my name in lights… They had me hooked up with a wireless mike so everyone could hear me and a small video camera was stuck on the white flex armed light in front of me with a feed to a big TV. It was not recorded though. I demonstrated how I make the basket illusion pieces from 9 to 4.

For the two days of hands on there were 8 students each day. I was too busy bouncing around the room working with each student and forgot to take pictures or ask someone to take them for me when they were actually turning.

I got a positive response from the attendees and they even paid me for doing this. I had lots of fun ( how could I not with a room full of woodturners ) but a little wore out by the time I got home Monday night. Didn’t do too much yesterday so need to get back to work in my shop and get some work done today.