North Alabama Woodturners Association Exhibit at MVAC

Mountain Valley Arts Council will exhibit work made by members of the North Alabama Woodturners Association (NAW) February 1 – 25th. Participating artists will include Bill Cash, Gary Hales, Tommy Hartline, Howard King, and Staten Tate. You can meet the artists at a reception at the Gallery at 440 Gunter Avenue on February 8^th from 5:30 – 7 PM.

NAW members will conduct a woodworking demonstration on February 17^th from 12:30 – 1:30 as the MVAC Art Talks.

NAW’s exclusive mission is to educate woodturners and the public, in and about the art and craft of woodturning. The North Alabama Woodturners, Inc. is an official chapter in the American Association of Woodturners (AAW). The club has five charter members, Jess Walls, Sean McCurley, Tommy Hartline, Tom Ripple and James Armstrong established 2008. The club has grown averaging 12 to 60+ members in 2021. NAW has entertained guest turners from 17 to 80+ years old. The group meets monthly and has a truly diverse demonstration agenda for everyone.

Bill Cash of Arab took up woodturning in 2009 as a hobby looking forward to retirement. Bill has attended classes taught by many well-known woodturners and has attended the several State and a National Symposiums, which are weekends of classes and demos by nationally acclaimed woodturners.

As a member of the NAW Board, Bill publishes NAW’s monthly newsletter. He is also a member of the Alabama Woodturners Association and the American Association of Woodturners.

Bill uses his Powermatic 3520B lathe to turn a variety of pieces, bowls, platters, hollow forms, and wine stoppers. His favorite woods are spalted wood, highly figured with occlusions and knotty woods.

Gary Hales of Boaz is President of NAW.

 Thomas Hartline of Rockledge has been a woodturner for many years and a woodworker creating wooden boxes. He has both taken classes and taught several internationally known turning artists. He has attended many State and National Symposiums. Thomas has taught pen turning, bowls, offset platters, and demoed Christmas ornaments and wooden tops.

Thomas is a founding member of the NAW and serves as their Treasurer. He is also a member of the Alabama Woodturners Association and the American Association of Woodturners. He prefers domestic hardwoods and turns ornaments, bowls, and hollow forms and his primary lathe, which is a Robust, American Beauty.

Howard King of Cullman developed his interest in woodworking as a child in his father’s shop where he constructed toys. He eventually built all the furniture for his own family’s home and expanded to making furniture for others. He salvages fallen trees and felled trees from a tree service, has a sawmill turn them into lumber, and stacks the for air drying. From furniture, Howard moved into woodturning which reveals the grain patterns and inner beauty of wood. He has received numerous awards at the annual Alabama Woodworkers Guild juried show held at the Hoover Library and mentors others and has conducted several woodworking demonstrations. He taught math at the middle and high school levels for 40 years.

Staten Tate of Huntsville has been wood carving since 2001 and wood turning in 2006 which is his primary focus now. Staten regularly attends classes taught by nationally known woodturners and is a frequent attendee at regional symposiums presented by Tennessee and Georgia woodturning clubs. He has also presented on bowl turning at NAW meetings. He is also a member of the Alabama Woodturners Association, American Association of Woodturners, and North Alabama Woodcarving Association. His forte is bowls, enclosed forms, and hollow forms using highly figured and spalted wood and his Powermatic 3520B lathe.