The days are already growing longer, and it’s only January!  er, I mean February already!!
        I had pretty well wrapped up my 2009 schedule and felt, in my heart, that a respite was in order.  Then I began looking through my tentative show schedule for 2010, and realized that, by golly, 2010 is firmly in place, and turning must be done for the season.  So here’s my season, so far:

Continuously: Local Yokel, West Street Village, North East, MD
Mar 6-7 – Maryland Spring Craft Show, State Fair Grounds, Timonium, MD, 10-8, ...AND...
Mar 12-14 –Spring Craft Show, Timonium, MD, 10-8 (two consecutive weekends)
Mar. 27-28 – Jersey Shore Artisan’s Guild, Music Pier, Ocean City NJ, 9-5
May 8 – Open Studio Tour, in my personal workshop(!) 9-5
September 4 – Arden Show, Arden, De., 9-6
September 18-19 – Artsfest, Solomons, Md.
October 9-10 – Colorfest, Thurmont, Md.
       As last year, I’ll be participating in the Maryland Spring Craft Show at the Fair Grounds in Timonium, on two consecutive weekends in March.  The first Friday has been eliminated, but I’ll be there on Friday the 12th, in addition to both Saturdays and Sundays.  It goes to 8PM on Friday and both Saturdays, and from 10 to 6 on the Sundays.  This show is in conjunction with the Home and Garden show, which is in the next building over.  Make a day of it!
        Ocean City, NJ, bids me to visit again, this time on March 27-28.  The Music Pier is the site, right on the boardwalk.  It’s early for vacationer’s schedules, which means the hotel and motel rates are economical.  In New Jersey.  Go figure.  The variety of guaranteed high quality merchandise at this show adds to the excitement, and your pleasure.
        Plans are being made for this year’s Open Studio Tour, one stop of which will feature my “studio”.  (I call it a workshop.)  The only thing that keeps me from being totally prepared for this event at this very moment, is the cleaning up of the shop, which is scheduled to require a year’s accumulation of ‘necessities’ to find new homes (or be cleaned).
        There will be a couple of changes in my schedule this summer, due to the fact that I’ll be in the United Kingdom for a visit.  So pay particular attention to my next newsletter, which will probably have a complete and accurate list of shows through the end of the year.
        Some of you have seen the bullet cartridge pens that I turned a couple of months ago, and which sold out completely in very little time.  I have more!  The 30 millimeter cartridges are gold plated, and the half that isn’t gold is deer antler or elk horn.  The clip is shaped like a rifle.  And the tip is ‘rose-gold’, which is copper mixed with gold to give it a real bullet appearance.  The 50 millimeter pens are actual fifty caliber machine gun cartridges, (probably from military training exercises).  They are brass, of course, and are turned with elk horn, to give an air of legitimacy to the illusion of an actual ‘kill’.  I know, some of you are not going to be the LEAST bit interested, and others will claw their way to the front of the line.  In the turned wood realm, I consider myself “a man for all seasons”, and can surely satisfy whatever piques your interest in that endeavor.  If bullet cartridge pens offend your art senses, contemplate the pleasure of a finely turned egg, for instance.  (I’ll turn some.)
        I take a break from writing this newsletter, to address reportedly the worst, or best, blizzard this area has ever known.  It appears to be a bonanza for every weather reporter that can be yanked in front of a camera.  It has covered all my woodpiles.  I may have to sequester myself at the lathe(!).  It will be easy for you to remember this blizzard – it is the one after which you received this newsletter.  And, outside the necessities of digging out, etc. it is most beautiful out there.
        Back to the subject at hand, I have acquired a few money clips, which various people have requested.  I expect to have them turned and on the market soon.  Of course, I had expected to have a lot of other things turned, also, and have discovered that the days no longer have sufficient hours to enable me to meet my intentions.  The more things I get turned, the longer my “to-do” list grows.  There are the coffee grinders, the magnifying glasses, more cat tails, etc., etc.  I must get to work.

Most assuredly yours,
John A. Styer, The Lathe-meister