26 Sept 2023 – Online Demo by Darren Breeze

26th Sept Demonstration night with Darren Breeze, from Lowestoft Suffolk UK.

The project for the evening inspired by the Japanese are of Kintsugi; this is a way of preserving broken pottery by joining with gold.

Darren would use a paint effect to give the illusion of cracked China. Using a Sycamore blank 12’’ by 3 ½’’ mounted on a face plate he used half inch bowl gouge to remove bulk of material and to start shaping the bottom of the bowl, this was achieved quite quickly and a tenon chucking point formed which would later be used to mount a small contrasting foot. The base refined using a mixture of cuts and a heavy-duty negative rake scraper and then going through all the abrasive grits from 120.

Neat cellulose sanding sealer applied and a high build primer to prepare for the paint job. At this stage in Blue Peter style Darren had prepared a blank ready to paint, using Montana rattle cans, usually used by street artists because of its versatility to adhere to most surfaces. Three colours, metallic red and black then Montana marble gold to create the cracked effect to the surface.

We had a short break to allow Darren to reverse chuck his work to allow for hollowing, this was done quickly again with few tools similar to the bottom, throughout the demo Darren offered hints and tips on technique and safety and also comfortable working positions to achieve best results from your tooling. This inside was finished with Chestnut cut and polish and then microcrystalline wax to give a durable satin sheen.

Almost finished and a small blank mounted between centres to create a foot for the bowl to stand on, this allows it to stand proud and allow more of the base to be seen when displayed. Darren created a small tenon before making a recess to join the bowl tenon to the foot of his finished piece; The blank could then be reversed to remove the tenon and final shaping before glue added and the pieces joined. The finished piece would then stand for the paint to cure completely before applying a gloss coat to achieve a high gloss.

Darren uses a mini laser engraver to mark his pieces with his unique logo and set showed us how simple to use via a phone app. This initial outlay probably to expensive for a hobbyist to use Darren explained that from a business perspective was a money saver for him.

Another entertaining evening for the club, so thank you to Darren for joining us again.

As usual the pictures tell a better story so, please view the Gallery.

Club Secretary – We recently informed all members that sadly our Club Secretary, Alan Buckle had to step down from the role, his position on the Committee and from his membership of the Club due to his health.  We will be forever be indebted to Alan for his hard work and technical expertise in keeping the Club going during Covid and for all the support he has given to the Club over the years.

Despite our requests for a volunteer(s) to take on the role, out of the 70+ members, nobody has come forward, which is very disappointing to say the least.  Everyone leads busy lives in one way or another and a large percentage of our membership is retired.  Yet some of us are still in full time employment but still find or make time to take on the responsibilities in running your Club.  We are all volunteers at the end of the day and without those of us that have offered our services, you would not have a Club to attend.  So please have a rethink and see if you could make time in your life to take on this important role within the Club.  For more details please get in contact.