Arizona Woodturners Association schedules final spring skill-building session for May 23

The Arizona Woodturners Association closed out its spring skill-building sequence on May 23 with a bowl-turning session that ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., including a lunch break. The fifth and final class in the series was priced at $100 and included materials, giving members one more structured pass through a core shop skill that starts with the blank and ends with the hollowed bowl.

That final session sat at the end of a deliberate five-part progression that ran from March 28 through May 23, 2026. The earlier dates, March 28, April 11, April 25 and May 9, formed a stepped curriculum rather than a loose string of demos. The sequence began with shop safety, including an inspection of attendee tools and face shields, then moved through lathe selection and maintenance, sharpening, lathe operations, project mounting options and an introduction to spindle turning with rounding, beads and coves. By the time the class reached bowl turning, the spring run had already covered the fundamentals that often separate a frustrating session at the lathe from a clean one.

AWA’s calendar placed the May 23 class in a broader club rhythm that also includes monthly demonstrations and meetings, usually held on the third Saturday of most months at 5757 N Central Ave in Phoenix. Those meetings typically start with club business, then move to a featured demonstration before raffle and prize drawings. The same calendar also made room for Women in Turning, which meets the first Wednesday of each month at the Kundrat Learning Center in Gilbert and is open to all AWA women members.

That mix of programming fits the club’s identity. Arizona Woodturners Association describes itself as a Phoenix-based chapter of the American Association of Woodturners and says it is dedicated to training, preserving and inspiring the art of woodturning. In the wider AAW network, which includes more than 360 chapters worldwide, that kind of hands-on instruction is part of the larger educational culture that also centers the annual International Woodturning Symposium.

For turners who needed a practical reset on setup, sharpening, mounting and tool control, the May 23 class was the spring sequence’s last checkpoint. After a run built from safety to spindle work, AWA ended the season where many shop skills finally come together: at the bowl, with the blank on the lathe and the hollowing just beginning.