Stormy Weathers holds a cooking sheet framed in wood he repurposed. Weathers will be displaying his turned pens and other works at the seventh annual Slightly West of Spokane Artists Tour Nov. 26.
Some of the pens Stormy Weathers turns are shown in this photo. The pen display was formerly part of his daughter's garage door, while the lamp illuminating it is contained in a mailbox given to him by a former student.
Stormy Weathers admits it - he's addicted to wood. Especially the mangled type.
Actually, gazing over the collection of stuff covering almost every inch of space on his shop floor and in a number of piles outside, he's addicted to about everything you might find at a yard sale or left lying around.
"Any time anybody is throwing something away, I grab it," Weathers said.
But that's just the start. The former U.S. Army draftee, Air Force officer and retired Medical Lake School District teacher has developed the ability to take what others discard and turn it into and unique works of art - art on display as part of the seventh annual Slightly West of Spokane Artists Tour, Nov. 26.
Weathers is one of 21 artists, including five new ones, who are displaying their works and crafts at seven locations in Medical Lake, Cheney and in-between along Salnave Road. The popular tour runs from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
"It's become an event, and I think it's awesome that people look forward to us," tour organizer Janet Wilbanks said.
Weathers is "honored and privileged" to be on the tour since he views himself more as a craftsman than an artist. Instead of creating on canvas or through clay, Weathers look at objects and imagines what they could be with a little work, especially wood.
"I kind of reveal the art that's in stuff," he said.
Some of that "stuff" are items previous owners might not have realized could be used for other purposes. Weathers has transformed things like old sleds and red Radio Flyer wagons into shelving.
He's turned a horse's bridle into a mirror, a rusted mailbox given to him by a former student into a lamp to illuminate his display case - an item that in itself was once part of his daughter's garage door. Outside the shop, what use to be a section of an apple box conveyor belt is now an arbor frame, and Weathers proudly shows off an assortment of wire he's scrounged from local yards, with the owner's permission of course.
But Weathers eye for seeing the beauty in things lies in wood, wood he uses to make smoothly turned and crafted pens; pens made not only from wood but even deer antlers.
Weathers taught for 16 years in the Medical Lake district, starting the popular "Biggest Loser" weight reduction program as well as "Math is Cool." About 1998, he received a 1970 Craftsman lathe from a fellow teacher at Blair Elementary School that belonged to her husband, who has recently passed away.
The lathe sat in Weathers' shop gathering dust until he retired in 2010, at which point he decided to hook the wood-turning machine up. He then took a pen-turning class from Woodcraft in Spokane Valley, and began crafting pens.
Weathers is selective when it comes to his woods, looking for lengths and types that have good grain patterns, coloring and textures. He cuts wood blocks to pen length and then using a drill press, punches a hole for a brass tube that he will insert and place the working parts of the pen into.
He then turns the wood on his Craftsman, rounding, sanding and polishing to a finished work. For some woods or materials such as the deer antler, Weathers will offset the hole in an attempt to catch what he calls "the live edge" or the outside of the piece.
While the inner portion of the material may have good color and texture, sometimes the outer portion has something to be preserved. Weathers said success in capturing the live edge is skill and luck because he must offset the hole and turn the material so that about 1/32nd of an inch remains between the hole and the outer case, preserving the live edge.
Being able to accomplish this, especially when utilizing different woods, such as pieces of a cherry tree pruned from his daughter's next door neighbor in Medical Lake, is what Weathers looks forward to with his work.
"I enjoy that the most because now, there's a story behind my pen," he added.
Wilbanks said sample works of artists on the Slightly West of Spokane tour are on display at all three West Plains Spokane County Library District branches, along with tour maps and information. Maps are also available at the Cheney Free Press office.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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