Webb Deane Stevens Museum

Beyond the Basic Sand Shaded Fan: A Demonstration by Bob Van Dyke
2023-02-11 11:00 - 12:00 UTC | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
$15 General Admission | $10 NSCDA-CT and Museum Members
Join Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking Director Bob Van Dyke as he demonstrates for woodworkers new techniques for creating sand shaded fans.
Shaded fans were a common decorative motif in Federal style furniture. They were often inlaid into the corners of tabletops and drawer fronts and were made in many different styles and sizes. The process is fascinating, and the inlays can be used in all sorts of projects- from a tabletop, a door panel or a drawer front to a box top or tray.
About Bob:
After 18 years as an award-winning chef in French restaurants, Bob left the business to begin a career in woodworking and teaching. Furniture making had provided an outlet to the pressures of the restaurant business until 1993 when he started the Harris Enterprise School of Fine Woodworking in Manchester, Connecticut. In seven years of operation, the school gained national exposure and recognition
In 2000, Bob formed a business partnership to open the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking (CVSW) in Manchester. The school was an instant success, and the demand for classes was so great that a second shop was built to allow two classes to run simultaneously. He continually strives to expand his skills and knowledge and had been studying and building period furniture for over 25 years. He is a Contributing Editor for Fine Woodworking Magazine and has written articles for Woodshop News and American Period Furniture. He has also done many videos for www.finewoodworking.com. Bob’s school offers a variety of classes taught by himself and by many of today’s top woodworking instructors. This variety of instructors and styles ensures that there will be something for everyone at CVSW.

Prince Mortimer Revisited
2023-02-09 00:00 | CT
Free on Zoom | Click HERE to register.
Community Historian John Mills will give an update on his extensive research into the life of Prince Mortimer, a slave from Guinea who was brought to New England in 1730 when he was six years old and died at the age of 110 in 1834 while serving a life sentence at the Wethersfield prison. John has advocated on behalf of Prince Mortimer and other individuals with similar untold histories to ensure that their stories are heard and remembered.
About John:
Originally from San Diego, John Mills is a technologist by trade but a genealogist and equity advocate by passion. The descendant of both southern and northern slaves, as well as the descendant of slave holders due to their relationships with female slaves, John focuses on unearthing little-known people and stories of this country’s history in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. John’s goal is to honor the forgotten, as well as to apply critical thinking to our history as a means to find solutions to the many ripple effects today. Learn more about his work at https://alexbreanne.org.
