Month: May 2024

The evening started with Roger Gilbert and Mick Denton thanking all of those people involved in making the WoodWorks show such a success. This reflects on the club as a whole in the quality of work exhibited on both days.  Thank you all for your input.

The demonstration for the night was by Ian George, a long term member who has demonstrated before. His offering was a smoking mushroom with a tealight inside.

This is made up from 2 cones made from a Yew branch and having a live edge element to give additional interest.

The project involved reverse chucking both elements so it was interesting to see this in action.

The 2 elements had been prepared before hand so that the blanks each had a chucking tenon in place. The base section was then mounted and the inside rough turned to get the general shape and a chucking mortice created on the inside. 

This gave Ian the opportunity to get the shape of the piece and could then reverse the blank and turn the outside.

The piece was then reverse chucked again and the thickness tweaked until Ian felt it was right.

The top was then mounted on the chuck and using the same processes turned to final size.

The last piece to make was the chimney which was effectively a small cylinder which was then cut roughly in half at an angle then glued back together to make the offset. The top was drilled to take this and it was glued to place.

The last part was to add decoration in the form of windows and a door.

The panes were effectively created by drilling holes and then opening them up with a Dremel. The Dremel was then used to carve out the window and door frames. The tea light was placed inside the base so that the light showed through the windows and door panes. A lighted spill was put inside the top so that smoke would rise through the chimney.

 

As usual our club had a stand at Daventry Woodworks, the annual show that is put on by Tudor Rose Woodturners. The stand was put up on the Thursday night and a good assortment of turnings put out on Friday morning before the show opened: all expertly curated by Roger and his team.

Throughout the show, the stand was attended by club members, to answer any questions, also hoping to entice new members to join up. A lot of interest was shown in the wide variety of items on the stand, produced by many different members.

I’ve slipped in a picture of Gerald’s bowl of fruit here, simply because I loved it!

The display was refreshed with some different items for the second day of the show – it is simply not possible to lay everything out nicely in one go and it adds interest for those who come by on both days.

Once the show was underway, the various competitions also started at the allotted times with the good news rolling in as Roger was deservedly awarded 1^st place in the baby’s rattle competition – and with time to spare.

This was followed by 2^nd place for the display stand and 3^rd place for Gerald’s tazza, noteable for the lovely crisp lines on a beautiful piece of wood.

At the end of the show, this all added up to 1^st prize in the Overall Show Competition, a tremendous result and reward for all the hard work put in by the club’s turners and all those others who helped set everything up and provided items to put on the stand.

Our carousel was unfortunately not placed in the awards but it did receive a lot of compliments from attendees, especially for the way that it stood out for its visual impact.

Likewise, Viv’s square bowl (‘B’ in the picture) did not receive an award but was nevertheless attractive and well finished; I’d certainly be happy for it to sit on my sideboard at home!

No placing either, in Best of Show where the standard of entries was extremely high and the competition fierce!

Almost as important as the turning was an opportunity to meet so many like-minded folk and chat with old friends, many not seen since the last show. Did I mention the demonstrators and stalls selling lots of nice gizmos and timber, all contributing to a thoroughly enjoyable two days.

Thanks to everyone in the club who helped and contributed to our success at this show; it is so nice to end the day on a high!

Finally, a big thank you to Tudor Rose for putting on the show, always such a great occasion that brings turners together from all over the Midlands.

The Annual General Meeting was held today, so the evening was mainly about club business.

The minutes of last years AGM were read and accepted.

The club Officers delivered their reports, mostly along the lines of “steady as she goes” with the club ticking over nicely.

The Treasurer noted that the club’s finances were healthy but that more members would improve this further. He also thanked Tony Malin’s family for a donation from his estate. The accounts were accepted.

The meetings programme is largely complete, although we are always on the lookout for new demonstrators and some different formats are being introduced to add some variety.

There were some discussions with a number of suggestions for adding items to the club’s tool inventory and for ways of recruiting further members.

It was agreed that the members-only WhatsApp group would be better publicised within the club and used more widely as a communication tool.

All current club Officers were re-elected for the year.

There was also time for a couple of other activities.

Mick Denton gave a brief report on the recent visit to the Proops Brothers shop in Leicestershire on 11^th April. There was a good turnout and was adjudged a success with our members given a very interesting tour of the operation and plastics factory where a wide range of items are produced. They were well looked after, with tea and biscuits provided, and many departed with lighter wallets and heavier bags.

A repeat may be on the cards for next year if there’s sufficient interest.

Daventry Woodworks was also discussed with members asked to provide items for display on the club stand, and to help with setting up before the show, and to man the stand throughout both days.

The competition table held a varied selection of work for what is the first competition of the new club year.

1st place was a lidded bowl by Dave Simms.

2nd place was a table lamp by Chris Harkin.

3rd place went to a platter by Duncan Anderson.