Vermont Woodturners Guild spotlights Hel Hamilton's three-sided bowl demo

The Vermont Woodturners Guild leaned into one of the trickier shapes in the craft when it put Hel Hamilton on the program for a three-sided bowl demo at the Russ Fellows Woodturning Center in Jericho. The meeting page promised “all of the usual fun” alongside the demonstration, and that is exactly the right pitch for a form that can look straightforward until the blank hits the lathe.

The guild scheduled the session for Wednesday, May 20, as part of its regular monthly meeting cycle. Main meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of the month, with members arriving as early as 5:30 p.m. for a light meal and fellowship before the meeting starts at 6 p.m. and runs to about 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. That format matters here. A three-sided bowl is the kind of project that reveals more in person than it ever does in a still photo, especially when the turner is talking through the order of operations, tool control and how the rim geometry changes the look of the whole piece.

Hamilton brought a strong local pedigree to the demo. The Vermont Woodturning School lists Hamilton as its administrative manager, and says visits can be scheduled by appointment through Hamilton. The school’s intro-to-turning workshop covers safe lathe use, spindle turning, faceplate bowl turning and basic tool sharpening over three days, which puts Hamilton in the middle of the teaching pipeline between first cuts and more demanding forms like the three-sided bowl.

That broader background fits the appeal of the demo. The Furniture Society describes Hamilton as someone who studied animation before deciding to work with their hands, then graduated from MICA, pursued a woodworking apprenticeship and later enrolled at Vermont Woodworking School. After completing the school’s Immersion program, Hamilton stayed on as Programs Assistant while continuing to carve and experiment with woodworking projects. In other words, this was not just a club-night novelty; it was a turner with enough shop and teaching experience to make the form useful for working woodturners.

The setting added its own weight. The Russ Fellows Woodturning Center, founded in honor of founding member Russ Fellows, is described by the guild as a well-equipped shop with five lathes and a wide range of tools, equipment and supplies. The guild’s own history says Fellows helped shape the club’s culture, hosted meetings and events in his Jericho shop, and died unexpectedly in November 2023, a loss the group said was deeply felt. Put Hamilton’s demo in that room, and the point becomes clear: the guild is still doing what clubs do best, using a shared shop, a shared vocabulary and a demanding little form to keep the craft moving from one turner to the next.