Official newsletter of. Avon and Bristol Woodturners

Transcription

1 Established 1989 TURNINGS Official newsletter of November 2018 Avon and Bristol Woodturners Affiliated to the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain Contributions to Turnings are accepted in good faith but the inclusion of individuals views and comments does not imply endorsement by Avon and Bristol Woodturners Inside A full appraisal by robin goodman of this year s AWGB seminar Please note the deadline :- for copy to be included in Turnings it must reach the editor (see contact details inside) no later than midday on the Friday prior to the next meeting. Submissions received after that time will be held over until the following month. Dave Smith Don t forget you can read all the Club History to date in one place on our website at: Simply go to the About tab and choose Club History desktop and laptop PC help & repairs fast, friendly and efficient computer support for home & small business users serving South Gloucestershire and North Bristol we come to you, no call out fee help@winterbournecomputerservices.co.uk We now print Turnings

2 4 2 8 AWGB 16 th International Woodturning Seminar 5-7 Oct 2018 By Robin Goodman Previous seminars up to 2015 were held at Loughborough University, but some of the facilities were not ideal and the AWGB decided to look for somewhere else. They settled on Yarnfield Park training and conference centre in Staffordshire. This used to be BT s training centre, but it is now independent. The main building had plenty of rooms and included full catering facilities; 4 halls of residence were situated conveniently close by. There was an international line up of 10 demonstrators: Max Brosi and Glenn Lucas from Ireland, Benoit Averley and Jean Francois Escoulen from France, Mike Hosaluk from Canada, Harvey Meyer from the USA, Asmund Vignes from Norway together with Gary Rance, Les Thorne and Rod Page from UK. They each gave 3 demos 2 or 3 of them different subjects - and one masterclass, which was limited to about 6 people to give all particiapants time for hands-on. There were 8 demo periods of 1½ hours and it was not easy to decide which of the 26 different demos on offer to attend; I decided to concentrate on demos by demonstrators from abroad, since I was much less likely to have another opportunity of seeing them again. I started off with Norwegian Asmund Vignes, photo 1, a woodturner for more than 30 years. He demonstrated making a vase with silver inlay, using a blank of Masur Birch, which is readily available in Norway

3 He is keen on ring and hook tools and used them throughout, after showing how they can easily be sharpened with a credit card type sharpener if the bevel is on the outside and a round file if it is on the inside. After hollowing out he made and fitted an ebony collar, within which he inserted a secondarivory collar. Using the lathe s index system, he drilled 9 evenly spaced 2mm diameter holes about 3mm deep in the ebony and proceeded to glue very short lengths of silver wire into the holes. The silver wire is quite soft and the ends were easily turned flush with the surface of the ebony, to add a simple decoration to the top of the vase, photo I have previously tried inlaying round silver wire lengthways into a groove on a turned piece. It was quite effective, but the wire needed hammering in to squash it to fill the sides of the rectangular groove; the wood was then turned down to a level at which the wire filled the full width of the groove. Then I saw Rod Page demonstrate how he makes his very neat and effective lattice bowls. He gave a demo at the club back in 2014, but this was another opportunity to remind me how he does it. The grooves were 2-3mm deep on each side, so the bowl has to be quite thick, but he reduces the thickness at the rim to improve the appearance. On the outside he marked out a series of 2mm wide grooves with a specially ground 2 pronged tool, before using a 1.6mm wide parting tool to cut the grooves to half depth. On the top side of the bowl the grooves were radial and perpendicular to the underside grooves. He used a small router mounted over the bed bars, photo 3, to cut the radial grooves at small spacings determined with the help of an indexing system. A set of his lattice bowls is shown in photo 4. Over the last few years, the American turner Harvey Meyer, photo 5, has specialised in pieces with the Basket Weave Illusion as decoration. Lincoln Seitzman in the USA was probably the first turner to introduce this method, but it became much better known in the 1990 s, when David Nittmann took up the idea and used it on many pieces. The end result is that pieces appear to be woven like a basket. A series of evenly spaced circumferential beads, typically 3mm wide, are formed in the surface using a special beading tool with the flute pointing down.; the valleys are then highlighted by burning, most easily achieved using the sharp edge of a piece of plastic laminate such as Formica. With the help of an indexing system, radial lines are pencilled on and then burned in using a special concave pyrography burning tip a process that can take hours. The final process is adding colour to

4 produce the pattern design, which has previously been planned out on polar graph paper or on a computer using special software. A typical item may have 72 radial segments and 28 bead rings resulting in over 2,000 individual tapered rectangular pixels to be coloured up. Harvey says you need good eyesight, steady hands and patience to do this work. A reasonably complicated pattern may take hours to complete. He usually spends more time in a comfortable chair colouring or burning in his sitting room than in his workshop! 14 The platter shown in photo 6 has about 5,500 individual pixels. Most of us do not have the patience for this. I have previously tried out the method on a small pot, photo 7. Even this simple design has about 600 individual squares in the pattern and took long enough! Mike Hosaluk, photo 8, is an internationally known creative Canadian turner, who demonstrates widely and has produced a couple of interesting DVD s. His demo was turning an end grain drinking cup offset 3 ways. This is where a piece is marked out with 3 equally spaced offset centres at 120 degrees to each other at each end. By turning on 1-2, 2-3 and 3-1 centres in sequence, with angled axes, the resulting intersection of the 3 turned surfaces forms a gentle spiral along the piece, photo 9. He added interest to an otherwise plain profile by adding beading over the full height. I have tried this method several times before and the resulting spiral often surprises people. 15 Mike is very keen on hook and ring tools and he uses cup drives for most of his spindle work. Cup chucks reduce the severity of any catches, but in a letter in the December 13 edition of Woodturning, Richard Raffan claims that a turner will experience more catches! Benoit Averley, photo 10, was initially self taught, but later learnt a lot from his mentor Richard Raffan and even worked as his workshop assistant for a while. I note that his website refers to himself as a sculptor rather than a woodturner. Much of his work is about lines and shapes and he likes to apply texturing, often using a Dremel or Arbortech. Black seems to be his favourite colour, usually using a leather dye. He is well known for his textured boxes and this is what his demo was about. He calls his tall boxes hut boxes, which have rounded conical lids taller than the base, photo 11, rather than the more typical base ⅔ and lid ⅓ proportion. For the demo he used a g2 16

5 micro drill with rotary chisel bit for the texturing. Some club members will have enjoyed seeing him demonstrate at the Mill, but he does not often visit the UK. Irishman Max Brosi, photo 12, came to woodturning via furniture making and boat building; most of his current work tends to be sculptural in form. His demo involved turning on 3 axes at right angles to each other. He made what he calls an octahedron, so named because he forms the octahedron only as an interim shape to help form what looked finally as a junction piece with 6 pipes at 90 degrees to each other, photo 13 shows it part turned. He said that accurate setting out was very important and surprisingly found it easier and more accurate to turn the piece via a tetrahedron and then a sphere, before turning the 6 spigots. The holes were drilled before turning the final outside shape on the 3 axes and then scorching the whole piece with a burning torch. Jean-Francois Escoulen, photo 14, learnt his turning via the cabinet making route. In 2010 he started a woodturning school in Aiguines, southern France and he is best known for his whimsical offset turning pieces and he designed the most sophisticated eccentric chuck available. One of his demos was about making a trembleur, a long piece with extremely thin spindle of 2-3mm diameter and various elements along its length. String steadies are needed as intermediate supports along its length, which can exceed 1 metre. The demo I saw was about using the part of his eccentric chuck that allows the angle to be varied by up to 15 degrees from the main axis. He makes it look easy to include golf club like features, but predicting the final shape is not that easy. His demo piece is shown in photo 15. Glen Lucas, photo 16, from Ireland is known worldwide in the woodturning world. Having specialised in mass producing bowls, he is now branching out to do more teaching at his Woodturning Study Centre, together with demonstrating, producing DVD s and selling his special signature turning tools. His demos at the seminar were, surprisingly, not about bowls and how he can make them so efficiently with the minimal number of judicious cuts on both outside and inside. Some of us have seen him demonstrate at the Mill and his skill with the tools is very evident. The 2 UK demonstrators that I did not see are well known to many club members and both have given demos at the club in the past. Gary Rance has been a full time woodturner since he was 16 and he gave 3 different demos including a screw-threaded salt bell and a humming spinning top. Les Thorne has worked with wood all his life and has been turning for at least 20 years. His demos were entitled All skewed up and OMG it s a box again, is it? The Instant Gallery has always been a highlight of the seminar. Delegates can bring 3 turned pieces and they are all displayed together with additional pieces by the demonstrators to create the largest display of woodturning items in the UK. There were at least 250 pieces by some of the best turners in the UK and also many from abroad. All the pieces can be viewed at There were many exquisite and interesting pieces to suit all tastes including both traditional and artistic. The Tony Bose award for best in show was won by the Spaniard Pepe Rubio for his clever vessel, photo g1, that had people guessing how he created the black and red squares spiral decoration on the top apparently by meticulous masking before sandblasting. The AWGB chose over 50 top items, most of which they will use for their travelling exhibition over the next year. Included was the pair of beautifully made fluted bowls on a tray, photo g2, by ABWT club member Andy Mason. Photos of some other pieces from the instant gallery are also attached. Nearly 30 pieces from the gallery were picked out for the critique session, which was carried out by Mike Hosaluk, Jean-Francois Escoulen and Phil Irons. Although the session was rather drawn out this year with g1 perhaps too many pieces included, it was interesting to hear the varying professional opinions about the pieces. Some general points included :- Bottoms these can easily spoil a piece and their general thoughts were not to use a traditional bottom where it is modern on top; always eliminate chucking marks and features; keep bottoms simple. Rims do not leave a sharp edge inside, but 17

6 round it off. Finish often too shiny and this also highlights any blemishes; a softer matt finish such as oil is often preferable. Shape try to keep a curve continuous and avoid straight or flat sections. Avoid unnecessary extras, which may spoil it i.e. simplest is often best. General be bold, try something new. Over the weekend, the AWGB raised additional money for some of their projects in 2 ways. A raffle was held with numerous prizes donated by trade stand organisations and the demonstrators. After the seminar dinner on the Saturday night, there was an auction of a number of turned pieces specifically donated; Nick Agar again proved his prowess as an effective auctioneer. Led by AWGB chairman Paul Hannaby, photo 17, many of the orange T-shirted AWGB committee members worked hard before and during the seminar to ensure its success, especially as it was a new venue. There were plenty of convenient opportunities to purchase timber, tools and equipment from trade stands that included Woodart, Henry Taylor Tools, Axminster, Ashley Iles, House of Resin, Flutterby Crafts, Hope Woodturning, Crown Tools, GPS Agencies and Martin Pidgin Timber. The seminar was a great opportunity to see 8 demos by different turners and a rare chance to see some of the foreign turners. Each turner attending - there were just 3 from our club - will have had different skill levels and interests, but must surely have picked up some new ideas and useful information, maybe also inspiration. The seminar is normally held every 2 years, but this year was 3 years after the last one, apparently because of problems with finding a new venue. I understand that planning for the next one in 2020 is already beginning Instant gallery - a selection from the gallery items on display at AWGB s 2018 seminar Paul Hannaby Benoit Averley Max Brosi Marcel van Berkel Colin Smith Chris Hart Max Brosi Margaret Garrard Mike Hosaluk Mike Hosaluk RobinGoodman Klaus Kirchner Liz Kent Helen Bailey Editor s (brief) comments. It is no doubt a great relief to readers that this month there is very little room for editor s comments, so, to quote Polonius, I ll be brief. This edition marks the end of the printed version of your newsletter and I am glad to see that, thanks to Robin s excellent exposé of the AWGB seminar, it is very well worth reading, and while absolute beginners might well be somewhat overawed by the skill and imagination of the exhibitors they can perhaps derive some comfort from the fact that these people, including our very own Robin Goodman and Andy Mason, whose amazing pieces appear on the front cover, also were beginners at some time during their lives. So, in that context there is hope for us all. I hope then that we will all be inspired to experiment - art cannot stand still and where it goes is down to all of us - nobody owns a monopoly on this promises to be an interesting year in more ways than one - let us hope that Turnings will make its contribution too - but, dear eader, that is largely down to you. Compliments of the season to you all. Mike

7 Last month s competition (A toy or puzzle) The number of entries was greatly reduced when compared with last month s. Only one entry in the Beginners/Intermediate and three submitted for the Advanced. Please try hard to keep up the number of entries. The December Competition is for the "Woodturner of the Year. The entries this month consisted of a very interesting puzzle in the form of a Cross submitted by Derrick Hardwick. The only entry in the Beginners/Intermediate category but no one worked out how to take apart the cross. Centrifugal force was the solution just spin it and the pins release the two pieces of wood. In the Advanced category there were three entries consisting of three toys. Beginners/Intermediate Category (One entry). 1st Derrick HARDWICK Photo 1 Advanced Category three entries. 1st Mike NEAVE Photo 12 2nd Dave Smith Photo 13 Under the Advanced Category the third entrant was Robin GOODMAN with a Performing Seal - Photo 14 Thanks to all the entrants. Chris

8 Club events calendar (revised 31/10/18) - please see note below Venue - St Teresa s, 7.30 pm unless otherwise stated Event / guest demonstrator 2018 September 20th Mary Ashton Candle holder, any shape or size I October 18th Roger Gubbin A toy or puzzle November 15th Carlyn Lindsay A Christmas ornament 2018 Christmas social Woodturner of the Year competition, max. of 3 entries per member, can be mixed between the Meeting two categories Andy Mason date changed from 18 th 2019 April January 17th Mark Sanger One of your favourite pieces February 21st Hands-On Something with an inlay of perhaps resin, or wood, or stone or metal. March 21st TBA An egg - as you like it! April 11th AGM Something with two types of wood incorporated into a single object May 16th Gary Rance A food item (made of wood, of course) Sounds fruity! June 20th TBA TBA July 18th Mick Hanbury TBA August 15th Hands-On TBA September 19th TBA TBA October 17th Emma Cook (The Tiny TBA Turner) November 21st TBA TBA December 12th Christmas social TBA Monthly competition themes (Advanced and Intermediate - single theme) USEFUL CONTACTS Club website Club Secretary Turnings Editor messages@avon-and-bristol-woodturners.org.uk abwtsecretary@hotmail.com Mike Openshaw - 41 Tyler Close, Hanham, Bristol, BS15 9NG woodturn89@gmail.com