Our meeting on Thursday 19th September 2024 was organized by Alan Geddes, he had invited Mark Sutton to do a solo presentation on the theme of Christmas. Mark is one of the founding members of this club when it started in 2005 and has remained a member ever since, holding various positions on the committee over the years.
Mark was a regular contributor to the club as a demonstrator and tutor, although work over the last few years had limited his participation, we understand that situation may have resolved itself and we may be seeing more of Mark at the club in future. I had asked Alan for a subject matter that Mark was going to do but Mark was always a bit coy in telling people what he was going to make, he preferred to just spring something upon everyone, his only concession was to let Alan know it would be Christmas orientated., so we were still in the dark until he actually started his presentation.
It turned out to be GONKS that he was going to make, Christmas orientated, well loosely, never the less he continued to give us all a lesson in foreign languages for what they are called in Scandinavian countries, the origin of Gonks. I took several pictures during Mark’s presentation and here are they.
Mark was to make a Gonk in 2 pieces, he was using Sycamore for both parts, the first part he mounted on the lathe as shown in the top 2 pictures, note that he left the blank square before mounting it in the chuck. The lower 2 pictures show Mark turning the blank to the round and facing off the end.
The top 2 pictures show Mark shaping the first part, this would form the body of the Gonk. Bottom left, here Mark used some Abranet as his sanding medium, a very effective system. Bottom right, Mark applied a wax as a finish to the body.
Top left, Mark wanted a small spigot on the body to fix the 2nd part to, here he can be seen cutting the spigot down to a size of about 5mm. Top right, now with the spigot formed he cut off the body using a Skew chisel. Bottom left, the finished body with the spigot. Bottom right, now the 2nd part is mounted in the chuck and Mark has rounded it over, now he is marking where a hole needs to be drilled to accommodate the spigot.
Top left, Here Mark can be seen truing up the face of the blank. Top right, Mark starts to shape the part that will become the head. Bottom left, Here Mark used a texturing tool to add a little design the what would become the rim of the hat. Bottom right, a little bit of colour has been added, this now shows up the texture detail a lot better.
The top 2 pictures show the procedure turning the hat part including forming a small bead at the top. Bottom left, More texturing by Mark, this time on the upper part of the hat. Bottom right, Mark added a bit of red colour to highlight the texturing.
Top 2 pictures show Mark reducing the size of the bead at the top that would be classed as a finial. Bottom left, Mark coloured the finial before cutting it off, again using a Skew chisel, then a little bit of sanding where he cut it off and a dab of colour completed the hat. Bottom right, Mark was to make a nose for the Gonk, this would be made from a piece of Box Wood, now mounted in the chuck, he used a small set of pin jaws to hold this part.
Here we have 3 views of the process of forming the nose, making a spigot for mounting purposes and finally cutting it off. Bottom right, this is the material that forms the Gonk’s beard.
Top left, to fit the beard a small hole needed to be cut in the fur to allow the nose to be fitted and seen. Bottom left, a fabric glue is used to hold the beard, it takes a few seconds to work but safer that using super glue. Right, Here is mark with his finished Gonk.
Mark’s presentation was very well received, there were a few question that Mark dealt with throughout, and the final piece was much appreciated.
Thanks to Alan Geddes for inviting Mark to do his presentation, a well received show of appreciation was given to Mark for all his efforts.
The next meeting is on the 3rd October and that’s the last of the Shield competitions for this year, remember the Novice and the Intermediate groups are to make a ROCKING BOWL, the Open group are to make a matching pair of ROCKING BOWLS.
Dave Line is in charge of manning the lathes for this meeting, but I understand he may do a presentation on Segmented turning as an alternative whilst the voting is going on.