16 Jun 20 – Show & Tell Zoom Meeting

Last night, we successfully held the Club’s first ‘Show & Tell’ Zoom meeting, something new as a result of the Covid lockdown.  Like several of you, I was unsure how it would work and was pleasantly surprised how well it went.  At one point during the meeting, we had 31 members join us and even one all the way from Spain!  This shows it does not matter where you may be in the world, as long as you have a good broadband or mobile connection you would not miss a meeting.

After welcoming everyone, we started the meeting with a video from Zak having been previously inspired by Chris Fisher, of him making a Sapelle Bowl on which he applied texture, colour, cut some holes and finished it off with some gilding wax, producing a very attractive piece of art.  Thank you Zak for taking the time to make this for the Club.

We then had a ‘Show and Tell’ where we went around all those present to have a look at anything that has been made to discuss, ask questions or to inspire others to get into the workshop and turn on that dusty, lonely unused lathe sat in the corner.  I will make my appologies now if I don’t describe the items quite right.  I started off, with a couple of replica Luke Skywalker Light Sabers from the film Return of the Jedi that I had made for two commisions.  A simple bit of turning and good skew practice, but the finishing off parts took the time.  Next up was Peter Hallam, who had been very busy, with his 13″ tall rather impressive off centre goblet, a textured bowl and some gavells to keep order.

Chris Fisher had been again experimenting with textures using of all things, hot glue, some white moulding paste that I missed the name of, spirit stains and metallic gold on the inside.  After a lot of help had been given, we were pleased to see John Liles had made it to the meeting.  He showed us an amazing musical box which has 160 individual turned spindles that go to make up the lattice outside. Sorry not the greatest of photo to really show off the piece of work.  We only just got John to use Zoom let alone taking photos as well!  His last item he showed us was a Japanese Ball which has loads of holes and spikes that pop out as you move the ball around.

Stuart Lowe showed his heart shaped bowl which had a top coated in ebonising lacquer and gilt cream.  His second piece was a bowl with a delicate pierced lid with a finial.  Next was Darren Brown who has been experimenting and seems to have perfected twisted stems using Bog oak, yew and sycamore.  We then had a gentleman show a Teak lattice work dish which was rather impressive, sorry I did not catch the gentlemans name, whoops!

It might have taken him 2 years to make, but David Moore had made a mighty fine job of his train, which is nearly 3ft long.  I have asked early today, if he was going to be making a carriage, but he said he will need get a bigger shelf and more track first, so may be not.  John Mitchell showed a rather strange bowl featuring burrs made from Robinia or also known as Black Locust.

David Crawford showed us his lidded box made from an old oak fence post featuring a lid with horn handle finished with a spirit stain.  Also a dish which he had spun with paint on to give an interesting effect.  His last piece was a water droplet effect beech dish that he had seen on youtube by Wayne Clasper “Wayne the woodturner”. Here is the link to the video.  David explains below how he achieved this rather clever finish.

‘You need 3 colours of enamel paint. I used a small craft spray cans, two colours the same, one light, one darker and white.  Turn the reverse of the bowl and finish with a wax finish. Remount the bowl and face off the front, sand, seal and denib. Take the chuck off the lathe with bowl still attached and place on a surface ready to spray paint. Use the lighter colour first spray the whole front surface. Dip your fingers in some water and shake the droplets onto the painted surface, try to get large and smaller droplets of water to create interest. Next use the darker colour and spray across the face of the bowl at a very shallow angle, the paint should catch on the water droplets. Turn the bowl around 180 degrees and use the white paint, again spraying at a shallow angle. Set the bowl aside for about 24 hours or until the water has evaporated. If there are any cracks in the paint, they should disappear when the lacquer finish is applied.  Put back on the lathe and turn the dish of the bowl, sand and seal. Use lacquer to finish. Any overspray onto the back of the bowl can easily be removed as it is on top of a wax finish’.  Thank you David for providing me with all that.

Oscar gave us a quick tune on his bagpipes that he has made, which bearing in mind, he has only recently started turning, he has done a fantastic job.  Well done.  Malcolm Willey had been making a spalted beech bowl which has a few holes in and wanted some suggestions from those present on what to fill them with.  Various recommendations were provided that will make Malcolm the new expert shortly in the use of resins.  So if you are stuck on a project and need help, bring it along to these meetings and ask the audience.

We then watched a short video that Chris Fisher had recorded where he was turning some Palm Wood into a nice little bowl.  This appears to produce more dust than shavings, so if you have a go, make sure a mask is used and ideally dust extraction during the whole process and not just for sanding.  Thank you Chris for taking the time to provide this.

To finish off the evening, Vic Atkinson, our President showed a walking stick he had made, also made out of Palm Wood with what looked like a metal hip joint on the top, so I don’t recommend disturbing him at night!  Mick Close, Mr Chairman showed us his Yew goblet and an impressive Snakeskin Maple cone mounted on a stand.  He had also made a lovely little tractor especially for Mrs Close.  Lastly, a dish made from Red Marlee Burr which he intends to mount on top of a Banksia Nut, so thats one to show us next time.

Mick thanked everyone who came along on Saturday morning to the Club Shop and plans to open it up again hopefully on Sat 4 July 2020 at 10am to Midday.  Martin Pidgen was also there selling wood, so please contact him if you need anything particular as being self employed he really needs your support during this difficult time.

Mick also thanked Alan and myself for sorting out tonights meeting, but really credit also needs to go to everyone who has helped contacting all the members, helping those who struggled with the technology to enable this to happen.  Well done everyone.

So, there you have it, that’s what we got up to and what you missed.  It would be great to see alot more faces at the next meeting which is on Tues 30th June starting at 7pm, but we will open up the meeting from 6:30pm.  This will be to watch our first full demo by Chris Parker.  We have asked him to make something that you can all have a go at, so then we will be able to see your attempt at the next Show & Tell meeting.

Please be aware, when you get the email from Alan Buckle asking if you want to attend the next meeting, you NEED to reply to it saying Yes, otherwise you will not be sent the invite link.  Anyone who did not get either email, contact me or Alan Buckle to resolve the issue. Before you do that, please check your email spam or junk email boxes as such emails may have automatically gone there instead. When joining a Zoom meeting, it will ask you for your name, please enter your full name and don’t just use the device name for example: ‘Martin’s ipad’. If we don’t know who you are when first joining and your name is not on the invite list, you may not be allowed to enter the meeting, you have been warned. 

We would really appreciate those that attended the meeting to leave some feedback on the meeting in the comments below, good or bad. Your comments will not appear immediately as I have to approve all comments before they appear on the website.  If you have any ideas/suggestions on what you want us to include in these meetings, please let us know, remember, this is new to us as well, so please bear with us.