Stories from print media around the region

Guild Member’s Photo in IV News

Fri, 4 Sep 2009 16:41:33 -0700

Family fun events were held at Jubilee Park in Cave Junction on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29 & 30 as part of the Sesquicentennial Celebrations marking 150 years of Oregon statehood. Featured were races for kids, face painting, pony rides, and dance performances. (Photo by Diane Swarts)

Top-quality gear for LBMS woodworkers

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

By MICHELLE BINKER
IVN Staff Writer
Thanks to a flurry of donations facilitated by the Southern Oregon Guild (SOG), Lorna Byrne Middle School’s woodworking program received some $5,000 worth of stationary power tools Friday, Feb. 29.
Also, another $5,000 worth of Festool-brand power hand tools, known to woodworkers as among the world’s finest, will be ordered for the school to use, through the auspices of valley residents, Internet forum members and Festool USA.
“This middle school program will be probably one of the finest-equipped student shops in the country, “said SOG’s Jerry Work.
“It will make one heck of a difference,” said shop teacher Chuck Robertson. “The machinery we have now is older than me.”
The students in Robertson’s classes have for several years enjoyed working with hardwood surplus from the area’s professional woodworkers. This is due largely to Work, who brings hardwood and semi-exotic surplus from his Downtown Kerby shop, the Dovetail Joint.
“As you know, our budget is getting smaller and smaller every year,” Robertson said. “It’s the community that keeps us going. Jerry’s been getting help from the guild and other guild members, bringing wood and other donations for us. He helps us, as do so many community members.” Work was motivated to get better tools into the hands of LBMS students after he saw what they’d accomplished with the various woods.
“They started making all these incredibly neat things – turned pens and intarsia,” he observed. “As I learned more about the program I wanted to get newer, modern, safer tools for the kids to work with.”
The donated table saw, planer/joiner, drill press, and oscillating spindle sander came to Southern Oregon Guild courtesy of Selma resident Steve Stock. The industrial- grade machines have been placed at LBMS for as long as the program is viable. Among students, it’s a pretty popular course, according to Robertson.
“They like being there,” he said. “Some of them would spend all day in woodshop, but for their required classes.”
Work communicated news of Stock’s generous donation to an Internet discussion group for Festool users where posters were lamenting the demise of school woodshops and other vocational training programs. Work mentioned how the LBMS program is being helped “not just to survive, but to thrive.”
“Out of the blue came an email from someone out of state, who was very touched by Steve’s gift and wanted to donate cash so that the program could be equipped with new Festool hand power tools,” Work said.
Through the generosity of people in the valley and elsewhere, a significant amount of money has been raised to match that donation. Festool USA has agreed to match the contributions, enabling the guild to purchase approximately $5,000 in hand power tools.
Another valley resident, who’d heard about what SOG was doing, has donated a new Festool dust collector.
“It’s exciting to me that this is a middle school program,” Work said, noting that kids most vulnerable to drop out are among this age group. “If we can use something that the kids can really be excited about to keep more of them in school, keep them going on and they can come out with a whole lot better opportunity in life.”
Robertson displays a handful of the 200-odd photographs he has of his current and former pupils with their woodwork. The kids, many of whom have since moved up to high school, look happy and proud of themselves.
“They get some immediate gratification from doing what they’re doing,” Robertson said. “It builds their confidence, which hopefully extends beyond the woodshop.
“These are skills that stay with them all their lives. It’s a skill that you don’t lose. These kids can do phenomenal things if you just give them the opportunity, trust them and have high expectations.”
The LBMS woodworking program is a new member of SOG, so the youth will be able to put their work in the guild gallery in the RCC Belt Bldg. in Kerby. Currently, intarsia examples are displayed at Taylor’s Country Store in Cave Junction.

IV High School Students visit The Dovetail Joint

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Southern Oregon Guild Scratch Artist

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

By DOROTHEA
HOVER-KRAMER
Cassandra “Sandy” Miller-Newton is the featured artist representing Illinois Valley Fine Artists during January and February. Her unusual artwork is known as “Kresco-Tech” or “Scratch Art” and is done by using a tool to remove a darker layer of material from the surface of a scratchboard to reveal another color beneath. The intricate patterns and fine detail that are etched onto the undersurface become fascinating to behold.

Miller-Newton taught her techniques at Illinois Valley High School several years ago. The classes were so successful that art teachers and students still utilize her methods, and most of the beautiful, current 2008 calendar sold as a fund-raiser by IVHS features that medium. Art was her interest from the time she could lift a pencil. She discovered scratchboard and its interesting textures in the eighth grade and then again as a young wife with small children. Totally self-taught, she began showing her work in Sacramento, where she lived in the 1970s. She has used craft knives for more than 40 years to create her artwork. She moved to Illinois Valley after much traveling in California and joined I.V. Fine Artists’ in 1992.

“My artistic love is creating the cleanest detail and pure contrast while engraving subjects such as trees, aged faces, animals, flowers, and anything else of interest,” she states. She rarely makes preliminary sketches, as she is blessed with a talent for freehand drawing.

While looking at something she can also re-create it with a sharp tool from soapstone or other carving materials. Additionally, she works with canvas and oils to produce colorful paintings. She is always looking for something new to create.

Miller-Newton currently exhibits in the Words & Pictures Gallery in Brookings, and Harper Howell Gallery in Grants Pass. Her work also is shown at Artists Way Gallery in Cave Junction, Kauffman’s furniture in Kerby, and at the Guild Gallery at the RCC Belt Bldg., also in Kerby.

She enjoys the fellowship of the Fine Artists group that meets Mondays (except holidays) at the RCC Belt Bldg. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. She also serves as the group’s vice president. For further information contact Dorothea Hover-Kramer at 592-5296.

Guild hosts Chamber of Commerce mixer in the Artists' Center and Gallery

Fri, 2 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce held a mixer Friday evening November 2nd, courtesy of Southern Oregon Guild. The festive affair, held at the Guild Gallery in Kerby, included art displays and refreshments. Greg Walter (left) and Jim Frick were among nearly two dozen attendees. (Photos by Jennifer Newsted, Illinois Valley News)

Kerby Evening of Art

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Kerby’s evening of art features listed

Cruising Downtown Kerby will yield new discoveries in the arts, taste treats from kitchens and vineyards, and time to socialize with family and friends during another Evening of Art & Wine in Kerby on Friday, September 28, from 5 to 8 p.m..

The second edition of Southern Oregon’s newest “art walk” will feature the opening of a new art exhibit, specially designed jewelry at two sites, fresh fall harvest fair, conversations with the artists, and wine-tasting from valley vineyards.

Visitors at Hampton’s Rock Shop on the south end of the route will learn about this month’s featured stone, Nevada Variscite. They also can peruse handmade jewelry, beads, and mineral specimens of this rare stone, as well as the rest of the Hampton’s extensive lapidary collection.

Across the road at Southern Oregon Guild’s Gallery & Artists’ Center, art quilter Carol Dickson is featured in a new exhibit of her unique and award winning work. Exhibit goers also can enjoy hors d’oeuvres, and a taste of Windridge Vineyard’s wines.

Plenty of parking is available at the Guild’s location at the RCC Belt Bldg.

Draper Valley Vineyards will pour its special nonalcoholic wine at The Kerbyville Museum, where visitors also can take advantage of a special $2 museum Volunteers worked Friday, Sept. 21 in the vicinity of Six-Mile Campground out Illinois River Road to remove rubbish from alongside the river. Siskiyou Project and U.S. Forest Service aided the effort, which was directed by Serena Barry. (Photo by Jennifer Newsted, I.V. News) admission for the evening.

Kauffman Wood Products, The Dovetail Joint, and It’s a Burl all will be open. Jerry Work at The Dovetail Joint will discuss and demonstrate his tools, as well as share examples of his work. The Burl Yard Bunch will provide music at It’s a Burl. Visitors also can enjoy a potluck, meet the artists, and wander the Shinerock’s burl “forest.”

At the north end of Downtown Kerby, Michael and Karen Yanase, of Yanase Jewelers, will share new custom designs which incorporate September’s featured stone, the sapphire. In addition, they will provide snacks from Taylor’s Sausage.

Kerbyville Farm next door also will be open to share the bounty of the fall harvest. Parking is available there, as well as at the other locations along the way for those who wish to drive.

Southern Oregon Guild doll-maker

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

At JoCo fair, Nancy Hall’s dolls enthrall

Nancy Hall, Southern Oregon Guild doll-maker, did extremely well at the Josephine County Fair this year, winning eight ribbons with five entries.

Not only does she work hard setting up displays for the fair, she works on her entries for months before the fair, and her creative efforts earned high honors.

Nancy Hall, Southern Oregon Guild doll-maker, honored

Story and pictures from the Illinois Valley News,
September 19, 2007Hall entered the Open Class of Home Arts in several categories. Here are her results:

Holiday Decorations Category/Doll – 1st place; Dolls category – 1st in Holiday Doll, a tie for 1st in Original Design, and a 1st and Best of Class in Soft Sculpture; and, in the Textile Novelty Category/Soft Sculpture Doll, she took a 1st, Best of Class, and the Creative Award.

Her dolls are displayed at the Southern Oregon Guild Gallery in the RCC Belt Bldg. in Kerby. It is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Basic Photoshop Class

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Photoshop basic class set for September 22nd

Southern Oregon Guild multimedia artist Bruce Stone will teach “Introduction to Photoshop Elements,” a three-hour basic course on Adobe’s photo manipulation software, on Saturday, September 22nd.

Students will use computers to download a trial copy of Photoshop Elements software, which can be taken home on CD or zip drive, so enrollment will be limited to 10.

Course content will include: 1) How to learn the program – methods and resources; 2) Basics of file handling and management for this particular software, and 3) Layers – what they are and how to use them.

Phone Stone at 592-2901 or email him at BS@cavenet.com to sign up. If you leave a message, be sure to include your phone number and your name and request to be placed on the reservation list.

Because the class is limited to 10 students, it is recommended that places be reserved early.

The class will meet in Rogue Community College’s computer lab at the RCC Belt Bldg. in Kerby from noon to 3 p.m. Cost is $5 to Guild members and $10 for nonmembers. Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m., and the class will start promptly at noon. Attendees should bring a lunch or eat beforehand.

‘Ancient Visions’ at SoGuild Gallery

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Bill Ott’s museum quality show, “Visions of the Ancients,” at the Southern Oregon Guild Gallery in Kerby continues through Labor Day on Monday, September 3rd, when the artist will be present.

He’ll be on hand from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to answer questions and provide background information about his often astonishing photographs.
How Ott achieved these photographs of 3,000-year-old rock art, much of which has been seen by few people living today because of their remote and hidden locations, is almost as fascinating as the exotic creations he photographs.

Etched into rock walls by ancient peoples, the scenes and strange beings suggest a richly imaginative view of life and their world. As well, they provide us a window into their lives.

Ott spends hours digitally restoring the photographs and framing them. The result is beautiful contemporary works that bring aesthetic pleasure on many levels.

The Gallery is in the Rogue Community College Belt Bldg. at 24311 Redwood Highway, in Kerby. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the site is open all other days from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information telephone 592-5019.

Kerby Evening of Art

Wed, 1 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700

KERBY EVENING of Art included (clockwise from top, left) a young ‘burlgirl’ at It’s a Burl; Bridgeview Vineyards wine tasting and display of intricate wood furniture at Dove Tail Joint; ‘Archaic Art’ by Bill Ott at Southern Oregon Guild’s Gallery & Artists Center; a display of Art by Amy at Kerbyville Farm; Michael & Karen Yanase and their selection of fine baubles at Yanase Jewelers; and Dennis Strayer and friend at Kerbyville Museum in the new communications exhibit. Other participants were Hampton’s Rock Shop and Kauffman Wood Products