Some of the most polished works by Palomar College students are on display in the campus library ---- 28 woodworking pieces that snagged blue ribbons at this year's San Diego County Fair.

The winning pieces were among 150 that were showcased at the fair, according to professor and master chair-maker Russ Filbeck.

Clocks, bureaus, end tables, chairs, a quilting frame and a blue guitar are among the pieces on display during normal library hours through Oct. 19. The library is open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. The library is closed Sundays.

Filbeck said he began displaying student projects at the college when he was hired as a full-time professor in 1996 because he attended Palomar as a student for two years without realizing there was a woodworking program on campus. The display is a chance to promote the program by showing off the students' works.

Each piece on display reflects a semester's worth of work by one of 800 students enrolled in the college's 50 woodworking classes. Filbeck said he helps students see their creations as more than a project or a grade.

"I want them to make them so they'll be family heirlooms," Filbeck said.

A cherry-wood rocking chair by student Carolyn Barnes is just one example of what Filbeck means.

"I think it has some hopes, prayers and anxiety built in there," said Barnes, noting, for example, that she put a "time capsule" letter in with the wood shavings that fill a pillow case hidden inside the rocker's woven hickory bark seat. The letter describes key events in Barnes' life this year, including her trip to Japan and her brother's death after a battle with cancer.

She said she fashioned some of the rocker's parts with a spoke-shaver tool during the time she stayed with her brother in the hospital.

A quilting frame by student Wally Wallace has a place in his family history, too.

He said he made the frame for his mother, as a gift for her 85th birthday last year. A quilter since Wallace was born, she quilts still despite the onset of Alzheimer's disease four years ago.

"She doesn't like to use it because it's too nice," Wallace said with a laugh. "You'd have to know her to understand, but that's just how she is."

Wallace and his brother care for their mother in six-month shifts, so Wallace designed the frame to come apart for easy shipping between his house in San Diego and his brother's home in Florida. That way, he said, she can quilt wherever she is.

Inventive, often practical design is a characteristic many pieces in the exhibit share.

For example, a chest by student Werner Pyka has decorative stalactitelike knobs, called finials, at its base about an inch from the floor.

Pyka wanted to add the details, but worried that they'd be at risk every time someone vacuumed the rug, Filbeck said. So Pyka attached them using magnets, making it possible to snap them right back on if they get knocked off.

Other pieces are decidedly old-school, such as the chest by student Bob Camp.

Camp's chest is a reproduction of one made in 17th-century Massachusetts. It's a near-exact copy, right down to the knobs Camp said he commissioned from Horton Brass, a company that specializes in hardware reproduction.

The finish is French polish, just as it was on the original, Camp said. The Victorian-era technique requires the woodworker to rub shellac into a sanded surface in small circles using a quarter-sized pad. To complete the process, one must rub small circles over the surface literally hundreds of times.

The pristine finish lasted until he got it home, where it immediately became a favorite perch for the family cat, Camp said.

If you look closely, you can see claw marks.

Contact staff writer Morgan Cook at 760-740-3516.