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All Day Demo by Joey Richardson

This year’s all day demonstration was given to the club by internationally acclaimed wood artist and current President of the AWGB Joey Richardson. Her delicate and highly individual works are sought by collectors all over the world and so it was a privilege to see how she goes about creating her pieces.

She split the day into 3 sections – woodturning, carving and piercing and finally decorating. Firstly she turned and hollowed a piece of green sycamore (her preferred wood) using only a bowl gouge and carbide cutter. Lamps were used inside and outside the wood to achieve the thin walls that she needed.

This done she showed how to then transfer a design onto the outside of the vessel prior to piercing and carving. Several machines were used for this and Joey discussed the relative merits of each while, all the time, telling us about her own woodturning and artistic journey.

After lunch we moved onto, what I suspect, is Joey’s favourite part of her work – the decoration. We were taken through a magical mystery tour of stencil making, masking, pyrography and airbrushing in layers which she applied to a number of examples.

A fantastic and informative day from someone with a unique perspective on the art and craft of woodturning. Hopefully an inspiration to us all.

Off Centre Turning by Alan Edwards

A really intriguing topic which, I know, many members are interested to try. There are many ways to approach this but Alan showed us a few of his. Firstly he drilled two holes into a bowl blank that he had prepared – one hole on centre and the other offset. He used the centre hole to mount the blank using a screw chuck and then turned the outside of the bowl leaving a recess to remount as normal.

He then remounted the bowl using the offset hole, marked out the spigot and made that (a little too small but he rectified the mistake later).

On returning to the job he mounted the bowl on centre to clean the face before changing to the offset spigot to hollow out the now offset bowl.

In the interim Alan made a smaller offset bowl by turning the bottom of the bowl in the usual way but making a longer tenon than normal. When he reversed the bowl to turn out the inside he put the tenon into the chuck at an angle which allowed the offset.

And finally, as an embellishment, he reversed the bowl again, supported by a block faced with router mat in the headstock with the tailstock supporting the base at an offset.

Many of us, I’m sure, will be trying this in the near future. So thanks Alan for a really informative demo.

Show and Tell

Another successful evening of Show and Tell at the club tonight. Russell, ably assisted by Sue, introduced an eclectic mix of projects from contributors new and old throughout the evening. Eugene kicked the session off with his recently – made gonks followed by a variety of Geoff’s latest work.

Contributions from Roger, Roy and Ian took us along to the break after which Sue took on the MC duties.

Mark and Nick both had interesting stories to tell about their projects before Colin amused us with tales of woodturning in Spain where he lives. Steve and Brian concluded this section of the evening.

The evening concluded with a flock of Alan’s (P, E and J!) rounded off by Russell’s own work and his problems with dragonflies!

Demo by Terry Smart of Chestnut Products

We were pleased to welcome Terry Smart from Chestnut Products to the club for another visit. As many of our members use these products a guide to their correct use is invaluable. He began the evening by demonstrating the Chestnut Buffing Systems and which compounds and waxes to use for the best results.

He then showed us the effect on different woods of the standard Sanding Sealer followed by Burnishing Cream and Wax finish.

In the second half of the session he showed us his method of finishing pens and ended with a demo on an ash vase of Chestnut’s range of Rainbow Waxes.

Homemade Jigs and Fixtures

A few members shared with us a number of jigs that they have made to solve a variety of woodturning problems. Alan Edwards starting the evening off with a number of devices.

Roy took the theme on by showing everyone his method and jig for open segmented work.

Contributions next from Alan P, Mark and finally Geoff who showed us jigs that he uses to produce his signature ducks.

Alan E returned to the floor to show us jigs for bandsaw work, a spindle steady and a jig for turning pendants with off centre holes.