Journal

Multi – Axis Turning by Ian Ethell

To demonstrate this complicated process Ian choose a humble honey dipper – but not as you know it! This one had 9 different axis’ which, luckily, he had produced an information sheet for with examples to illustrate the journey.

Firstly he marked out his blank and began turning the outside of the handle (step 2) with his skew followed by the inside (3). Returning the work to true centre (headstock position 2 + tailstock position 2) he fashioned the honey dipper portion of the project using the skew and thin parting tool.

After the break he continued to turn the eccentric details (steps 5 – 8) following the published plan before delicately parting the dipper off.

Finally, as there was just about enough time left, Ian turned the holder and base to complete the project. An excellent and, for most of us, informative evening.

This evening’s Show and Tell illustrated the value of sharing your woodturning experiences with the group. Several members sought and received advice about problems they had encountered whilst making boxes (tonight’s theme) or other projects. Introduced by Sue, Russell started the evening off with a variety of work with a story attached to each. Roy then showed us a Pagoda Box and a Jewellery Store prompting a number of questions from the audience. Roger then stepped up with the story of his vase with airbrushed embellishment.

Mark showed us a number of items that had been ebonised and waxed including a large platter. Alan Quinlan showed a pine box that he was rightly proud of followed by Alan Edwards’ contributions amongst which were an egg box and a smoker.

Judy’s amazing conkers that she had made 40 years ago excited much interest and many questions!

Contributions from Brian, Ian Andrea and Steve moved the evening along at pace.

For the last section of the evening Phil showed us one of his experiments with his new airbrushing kit and described the problems he’d experienced with it. Keith, William, Sue and Ivor showed us their items to round off a packed and successful evening.

Welcome to all our members new and old! This evening we brought in the new year with our traditional demo of various methods of keeping your tools sharp – an essential part of your woodturning arsenal! Thanks to the various demonstrators for a very informative evening.

As ever, a really good and varied response tonight with a sizeable contribution from some of our newer members. Pieces of work inspired by our recent demos by Stewart Furini and Joey Richardson kicked off the evening. Nick shared his experiments and methods with spin decoration and Steve channelled his inner Joey to produce his 3 items.

Contributions from Mark, Alan E and Alan P took us quickly to the break during which Chairman Alan outlined the pros and cons of continued affiliation with the AWGB (to be voted on in the next meeting).

As the AWGB discussion, of necessity, took a while the second half of the evening, hosted now by Sue, was a little truncated. Russell showed what he’d done with bowling balls and answered several queries about the process. The remainder of his varied collection of items had to be rushed through before surrendering the floor to Kevin and Dexter.

Next Ian showed the Xmas items he had made and credited the club for his progress from total novice to semi professional turner! A swift succession of contributions from Roy, Rob and finally Brian brought a packed evening to a close.

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.