As visitors looked through his finished pens, pencils and bowls, Jim Coon of Salem was busy at his lathe shaping new pens from wood.
Coon was among a number of persons selling crafts and providing information at the new Spring Event, formerly the Tree Fair, held Saturday at the Jim Riggs Community Center.
While Coon’s wife, Shirley, was busy selling his wooden pens, pencils and bowls, he spent his time carving down small blocks of wood to show that he actually crafted the products he sells.
Coon starts by drilling holes through blocks of wood. He inserts a metal sleeve then begins turning it on the lathe to make pens and pencils.
He gets ideas for the shape of the pen as he works it.
“What goes in up here,” Coon said pointing at his head, “Comes out here (pointing to the lathe). It’s sometimes nothing in, nothing out.”
As the pen nears completion, he puts on three finishes. The first is a gritty finish from Australia that helps smooth the wood. He finishes with two he mixes himself.
Coon makes his pens, pencils and bowls from a variety of wood. One he had made from zebra wood captivated Bill and Diane Marshall. They asked him to put a rifle clip on the pen and bought it.
Coon has been doing his crafts for about six years.
“I started this because I had surgery, a new bypass and a stroke,” Coon said. “Sitting around the house, I had to have something to do, or I’d go stir crazy.”
He has always loved working with wood, and he was soon working at the lathe.
He enjoys making bowls as well as pens, but he does those at home and brings them to craft fairs.
His attraction to working the wood is that he has no idea what will turn up as he cuts away the excess.
As he works the wood, the grain begins providing pictures and patterns that may be unexpected and quite delightful.
He turned a bowl over, showing how the grain painted the picture of a desert on one side and a beach on the other.
“When you start turning wood, you never see what’s on the inside,” Coon said. “(The wood) keeps changing as you go.”
Coon worked for California Fish and Game for 35 years before retiring around 1989 to “God’s country” where it’s green all the time.
Elsewhere, Fowl Weather Housing, Inc., was busy helping children make birdhouses. Jim Bryant and Steve Boyce of Albany represented the nonprofit organization.
Fowl Weather Housing uses recycled waste wood to build nesting boxes, which it donates to other nonprofit organizations. They are not for resale.
The group builds the houses to a specific pattern for each species, based on Oregon Game Commission specifications.
Most of its four or five volunteers are retired, Boyce said, and the group is looking for more.
Fowl Weather Housing was asked to attend the Spring Event to help children build birdhouses birds would use.
Its goal is to recycle old wood and help provide habitat for birds, Boyce said.
Councilman Bob McIntire and Mayor Tim McQueary accepted Sweet Home’s 16th Tree City, USA, award during the event from Lee Vaughn of the Oregon Department of Forestry.
Vaughn congratulated the city for the recognition.
Sweet Home is one of 37 Oregon communities and 2,400 nationwide to receive the honor, Vaughn said.
The program is sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation and administered by the ODF, Vaughn said. To qualify, a city must adopt a tree-care ordinance, establish a tree commission, spend at least $2 per capita on a tree-care program and conduct an Arbor Day or Arbor Week ceremony.
Trees provide a variety of benefits, Vaughn said. Among those, they provide shade, increase property values, lower heating and cooling bills, reduce noise and air pollution, enhance stream and fish habitat, provide safe shelter for wildlife and contribute to a better quality of life within the city.
Organizer Charlene Adams was happy with Saturday’s turnout. Nearly 180 persons turned out, significantly up from last year’s Tree Fair, which had about 115 persons.
“We’re having a great day, better than ever.”