This was held in Yarnfield, Stone in Staffordshire, and is the 17th International Seminar.
The event began on Friday the 7th Oct. There was to be a selection of 10 woodturners who have 90 minutes to start and finish a project during the demonstrations over the weekend. The event itself started at 13.00 after the event was officially opened by the chairman.
It has taken a while now for this event to come around, I had paid for this three years ago prior to the start of Covid.
During the weekend you have the pick of attending 40 different demonstrations, of which you have the option of picking 9 from the 40. The event was staged so that on Friday afternoon you could attend two of the demonstrations, on Saturday you would be able to choose four, and finally on Sunday an additional three demonstrations.
The following woodturners took part and turned their own relevant projects, all of the demonstrators explained everything as they went through the projects and also answered questions as they worked through the relevant processes.
Bob Rotche
Bob is a Virginian from the USA and has worked with wood most of his life. Although he still uses a lathe, he is more recognised for his work with carving, colour and texture.
Sculptures and Spheres
Making the ordinary extraordinary
Carving, Colour and Creativity
Alain Mailland
Born on the Ivory Coast and moved to France when he was five. He started his woodturning journey at the age of twenty-eight. Alain developed his own style and technique particularly in hollowing, in addition to developing his own tools to turn flowers.
Wood flowers and carved trees
Carnivore plant
Neil Turner
Neil has a deep respect for the material and natural forces of nature and the natural world, this aspect is then transferred into his work. He looks at how water and wind form patterns in the environment.
Coral embellishment on an open form pretty wood
Jack De Vas Seedpod nature
Sea Urchin box
Vase with fire form
Joey Richardson
She is known for her delicate pierce and richly hued wood forms. Joey demonstrates internationally and her sculptures are held in numerous permanent and private collections worldwide.
Thin-walled turning and piercing
Airbrushing and colouring
Carving texture pyrography and inspiration
Joe Laird
Joe brings his talent and love of wood both in Ireland and overseas. Joe uses the wood to determine the final shape, Joe has been demonstrating for the last 20 years and became a full-time professional 16 years ago. He is the first woodturner outside of the UK to be accepted into the RPT.
Square Bowl
Shamrock Bowl
Celtic bowl
Nathalie Groenewey
She has been working with wood for almost 20 years and was trained in violin making in Newark. She started woodturning in 2009.
Small standing trembleurs
Tubes and ball joints
Colwin Way
Colwin lives in Lyme Regis on the Jurassic Coast. He has over 35 years in woodturning and is heavily influenced by the craftsmanship of the Erzgebirge region of Germany, he loves making his projects that are heavily influenced by Christmas.
Taming the Skew
German smoking figure
Christmas pyramid and nativity
Nikos Siragas
Nikos specializes in combining turning and carving to create sculptural artistic forms using mainly local woods from Crete. Nikos has 20 years of experience demonstrating and teaching.
Three stand vase
Tagliatelle Goblet
Vase with four feet
Lady with a hat
Gary Lowe
Originally from Glasgow and now lives in Moray, Northern Scotland. Gary started woodturning in the 90s and uses texture and colour in his work and has opened up a lot more avenues for him.
Decorated rice bowl
Flower pod
Texture and leafed box
Stepped open box
Wobble box
Eugene Grimley
Eugene started his woodturning career in 2000. His first demonstrations started in 2006. Eugene likes to use his demonstrations to teach and inspire the audience to try something new and different.
Oil lamp tri-corner turned from a cube
Easy hollow forms a potpourri bowl
Multi-axis turning bowls with handles
In addition to the above you could also join in with a masterclass event with the various turners and also:
Chestnut Products demonstration
Hope threading jig and other tools
Woodart’s intro to airbrushing techniques
The conference centre is split over two large floor areas and the accommodation areas moving out to other areas all of which are undercover.
Within the confines of the reception area is where the traders were set up and they seemed to be selling well throughout the event. Traders that were present at the seminar were as follows:
Ashley Iles
Axminster Power Tools
Jo Sonja
Hope Woodturning
Metal Clay / House of Resin
Henry Taylor Tools
Martin Pidgen wood
Shenton Woodcraft
Turners Retreat
Woodart Products
On Saturday evening the AWGB put on an auction of over 20 turned items by named woodturners, who had donated their projects, in total all of these were sold and raised an overall amount of £4150.00, all of which went toward the AWGB charity.
The final part of Sunday afternoon ended with a raffle which had some very good and expensive prizes.
Next to the restaurant, was the room set up for the gallery ( See the previous report for gallery photos), this is where woodturners from all over could put their own work in and have the possibility of having their item chosen by professional turners to go forward into the travelling exhibition for the next two years. In total there were 50 pieces chosen for this. Woodturners could also put their own work into the gallery so that they could be sold at the cost shown within the gallery. In addition to these items down the side was a collection of the late Ray Keys items.
During the four days (starting on Thursday to set up) the AWGB committee and area reps worked very hard, not only to get the area ready for the guests but also during the three days of the event to make sure that the event was run smoothly.
The committee also thanked all of the additional volunteers who came to the event and helped out on a daily basis, giving up their own time. It was good to see that all of the volunteers present on all of the days were from our very own Blackcountry Woodturners.
Report By Barrie Fisher