Author: Alec Mutch

Our virtual meeting on the 18th March 2021 was the Easter competition. The theme for the competition was to make Chess Pieces, the competition was arranged by Nick Simpson and was judged by Nick Simpson and Errol Levings. There were 3 categories for the competition, beginners, intermediate and experienced, each category had a different set of criteria set for them to follow, the beginners were requested to make a Chess Piece of any rank, the intermediate category were requested to make 2 Chess Pieces that were matching of equal rank, the experienced category were requested to make 2 matching Chess Pieces of equal rank from Rook (Castle), Knight or Bishop plus 1 Queen or King. Here are the results of the competition.

The Beginners category was won by Jeff Buttress for his Queen.

Here is an update on the recent Chess Pieces competition. The closing date for the entries passed at midnight on the 18th March 2021. There were 9 entries in total. 5 came from the beginners category and 4 came from the experienced category, unfortunately we had no entries from the intermediate category.

All the entries have now been passed on to the judges with the members names having been removed, the result of the competition will be announced here on the 26th March, the individual winners will be notified by email at the same time.

The judges for this competition are Nick Simpson and Errol Levings.

We want to take this opportunity to thank all of those who took part in the competition.

Our meeting on Thursday 4th March 2021 was all about making wooden goblets, the meeting was to be organised by John Ruickbie but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions the meeting had to be turned into a virtual meeting. You were all invited to make a goblet or goblets and to send any pictures of the completed items to me for publication on our club web site.

I have to say that the take up was pitiful with only 2 members other than myself taking up the challenge, this was very disappointing as we were expecting more of you to enter.

Our meeting on Thursday 4th March 2021 has been arranged by John Ruickbie, John’s subject for the meeting is about making wooden goblets. This meeting has been made into a virtual meeting due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, that does not mean it won’t happen, it will take place only virtually. You are all invited to make at least one goblet, then for you to photograph it or them and send the pictures to me, do remember to give me some information about your creation.

It can be any size type or shape you so desire, made from one piece or from many pieces, it can be natural edged or even have a few rings in the stem, if your really adventurous you could create a stepped stem, it’s up to you, anything goes.

Here are a few pictures of some wooden goblets for you to view and take inspiration from, don’t just sit back and let others do the work, please take part, I’m sure we would all like to see what you have made.

Our meeting on the 18th February 2021 was to be all about dealing with snags and finding solutions to those snags, it was being handled by John Ruickbie but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions it had to be turned into a virtual meeting. You were all invited to put something forward for this meeting, John did put in a very comprehensive report on a spinning wheel he worked on that threw up some problems he had to find solutions for. In addition to John’s report, Geoff Potter put in a suggestion rather than a snag that I thought warranted publication. I have also put forward something along the same lines as Geoff, Dave Line also put in a presentation for the solution of needing a drum sander, but we will start with John Ruickbie’s presentation,

Making a model spinning wheel

Our next meeting should be on Thursday 18th February 2021, this meeting had to be changed into a virtual meeting due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. The meeting was to be arranged by John Ruickbie and John’s theme for the meeting was to be, Snags, Solutions & Ideas. I have already received some information from John on this meeting and some other input from another source. The feature picture at the top of this post deals with some of the information I have already, more will be revealed after the meeting date.

I’m sure most of you will have encountered a situation where you have met a snag and had to deal with it, let us know about it, tell us your solution and what other ideas you have to further your woodturning. I invite you all to tell me what snags and solutions you may have had in the past and what ideas you have for the future.

Our meeting on the 4th February should have been our AGM (Annual General Meeting), however this was not possible due to the Covid-19 restrictions, instead we prepared a summary of the 2020 years events that was presented by myself as Chairman, Geoff potter as Secretary and Cliff Sim as Treasurer, it will be our intention to have an AGM as soon as we are able to return to meetings safely, this is required for us to meet our constitutional obligations.

As for this meeting on the 4th February 2021, I put out a request for you all to make something or to send me pictures of things you had made in the past, I have to say there was a slight improvement in the number of people who took the time to send me their pictures. I don’t want you all to feel complaisant about this increase, all be it modest, I want you all to keep sending me your pictures or indeed anything else of interest.

Now for this weeks presentations, first up we have Mike Day with a few pictures and this is what he had to say about his entry.

Our next meeting should be on the 4th February 2021, it would have been our AGM (Annual General Meeting) however it’s not possible to have this meeting under the current lock down regulations instead we have prepared a report from 2020 that all the current members will be in receipt of by email, this report will have a statement from the Chairman, the Secretary and the Treasurer and will be issued on the 4th February. We are having a virtual meeting on the same day and you are all invited to make something of your choosing on any subject, this can be anything at all, a picture of your work made for this meeting or something that you had made previously, or just an interesting story about anything that has happened to you or your turning in the past, we would all like to hear what you have been doing during the lock down.

I have included a few pictures of things that I had made in the past and a couple that are more recent, I’m sure you will all have a collection of pictures of things you had made, why not send a few of those to me for publication on our web site.

Our meeting on the 21st January 2021 was all about making wooden toys and puzzles, It was being organised by Douglas Stewart but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions this meeting had to be turned into a virtual meeting. You were all invited to take part in this meeting by making something from the programme. The uptake was as ever very poor with only Nick Simpson and myself contributing to the meeting. Nick’s article wasn’t a toy or a puzzle but a novelty none the less and I felt it was appropriate to be included in this report.

Here is Nick’s submission, including what he had to say about the item.