This month’s submissions for the Chairman’s Challenge and other items that our club members made during the last month. The challenge was “Lidded Box Plain or decorated”
Next month’s Chinwag Zoom meeting is on Tuesday 6th of August 2024. The Chairman’s Challenge theme will be “Penguin(s) or other animal(s)”.
The idea of the day was to get as many club members involved in the process of turning two sets of mini Skittles for 2 games that will be raffled off at events that the club has coming up later this year, with all of the proceeds going towards the Mary Stevens hospice charity.
In total, there were 28 mini Skittles to make for the two games.
We had all three of the club lathes out for the turners to use, in addition to having various sharpening systems available. Some of our more novice turners took their turn on the lathes, with experienced members helping them to develop their skills.
Whilst the turning was taking place Ian Brown took the opportunity to carry out an electrical PAT testing process on all of the electrical equipment that we use regularly, thankfully all items were passed as being safe.
During the day there was a tools sale along with other items, this went down well with a good amount being sold off.
There was plenty of tea and coffee on tap during the day, with biscuits, cake and pork pies available for everyone.
It was a great day for the social side of the club, with lots of chats between members.
The committee would like to thank all of the members who took part in the event and are pleased to say that the turning project was a great success with the many different members taking part and producing the Skittles.
We would especially like to thank Robert Hackett for adapting the game design and making the templates used during the day, and also Ian Brown for making the game-playing boxes and carrying out the PAT testing.
Thanks to all who set up and took down the equipment for the day.
This month’s submissions for the Chairman’s Challenge and other items that were made by our club members during the last month.
The challenge was “Bird Box Large or Small” and any other items made by members this month
Next month’s Chinwag Zoom meeting is on the 6th of June 2024. The Chairman’s Challenge theme will be “Lidded Box Plain or decorated”.
At the club demonstration evening in May, the club were happy to welcome a number of guests. The members put a great display of work turned by them. Please see the pictures below,
An evening demonstration from club turners Barrie Fisher & Andy Dore.
First up was Barrie Fisher with a demonstration on decorating turnings with Jo Sonja iridescent paints & marbling with drawing inks.
Here is a description written by Barrie on techniques, he used during the the demo with added photos from the evening.
Development of decoration on either a bowl or vase will always depend on what
effects that you are trying to achieve and the shape of the object to be decorated.
One of the most basic is what is known as a string pull to form a decoration, this can
be either a solid colour or a mixture of several colours.
Either way I tend to use a piece of plastic tube which has been cut through length
ways and fixed on to a flat base. This will hold the paint even with a flow medium to
thin the paint down, and still keep it from running away.
Any new designs are always tried out on a flat piece of smoothed plywood first to see
if they would work. For myself I find that the Jo Sonja paints work the best, which is why I stick with them.
Different effects can be used throughout with differing types of paints, dyes and
inks, all being available. For the vase the paint would be applied first by fingers after putting on a pair of
plastic gloves, the vase is covered in this way to cover the complete surface area, Then, still at this stage still with the plastic gloves that have on, pat the point all round the vase to form a pattern that you are happy with.
Feather Effect string pull
Flower Effect
Other effects
Other affects can be achieved using real Feathers or Artists fan paint brush.
Water Ink Dip (Alcohol ink)
This can produce some good effects on the blanks, but you have no control of the
pattern. This is an expensive process due to the waste of ink.
You will need a water bath for this, deep enough for your requirements, then drop
some ink dyes onto the water in a random manner and cause a gentle swirl.
With using water for this method the blank needs to be smoothed down twice, once
dry and the other wet, in this way you will get a smooth bowl.
Then carefully dip the bowl into the water and again carefully remove, at this point
you can see the effect that the inks have produced on the bowl. This then needs to
dry prior to final finishing.
For the second half of the evening, we have club member Andy Dore who demonstrated his process for inside out (involute) decorations.
Andy explained to the group how first came across inside out turning. He read an article in a wood turning magazine many years ago, and the process intrigued him so decided to have go to see what he could do. This developed into the we saw on the night.
Andy turns the decorations from white wood 34mm x 34mm from Wickes. He finds the wood clean to turn, it sands well & is not gummy like most pine woods. He cuts pieces 120mm long, and reduces them down to the 30mm x 30mm using the band saw and had a hand plain, making sure all sides are square. The centres are marked on the end using the corner cross method. The centres were punched accurately & then placed on the lathe between centres.
The club and committee would like thank Barrie & Andy for an excellent entertaining evening. It was enjoy by all present.
Report by Steve Hackett
This month’s submissions for the Chairman’s Challenge and other items that were made by our club members during the last month.
The challenge was “Small Pierced Bowl /Platter/Vase / Box /Free Choice” and any other items made by members this month
Next month’s Chinwag Zoom meeting is on the 6th of June 2024. The Chairman’s Challenge theme will be “Bird Box Large or Small”.
This month’s submissions for the Chairman’s Challenge and other items that were made by our club members during the last month.
The challenge was “Three Pieces of Fruit (Different woods)” and any other items made by members this month
Next month’s Chinwag Zoom meeting is on the 2nd of May 2024. The Chairman’s Challenge theme will be “Small Pierced Bowl /Platter/Vase / Box /Free Choice”.
For tonight’s demonstration, we have Bryan Milham who has travelled up from Weston Super Mare to entertain us with his skills and knowledge. Bryan is also the secretary of the AWGB.
Tonight Bryan will be going through the process of applying texture and colouring from the ceramics industry, and applying them to the wood-turning environment. Beyond colour is what the evening is all about. Bryan went through Health and safety information at the start of the evening, before starting the turning process.
Bryan reminded us about the three things that all turners need to keep in mind while turning, these are:
Decorated Bowl from Ash – 8” x 2.5”
Bryan used a pull cut to form a flat face across the surface of a blank followed by a push cut to make the blank round and balanced on the lathe at about 750 rpm. The shape is then cut to a regular shape. Bryan used an aggressive cut when removing the waste wood from the outer-shaped area. A foot was produced for the bowl to stand off the table, this was then sanded down to 120 grit to give a key for the next stage.
Next white gesso was applied to totally cover the blank in a thick layer, black gesso could also be used. Then a dog comb or bamboo sticks were used, these had points on the end and were placed across the gesso as the lathe was running to form a row of groves all over the outer area of the bowl, the gesso was now allowed to dry before moving to the next stage.
When it was dry a layer of blue and red spirit stains was applied to the gesso with a Mouth Atomiser, on an equal basis around the bowl, this would then need a lacquer finish applied.
Decorated Vase from Sapele – 4” x 4” x 8”
Placed into the lathe axis and turned to a round by use of a roughing gouge, a skew was then used to get a smoother surface which was used by using the skew as a planning tool, this was also used to form the shape of the vase, a parting tool was used to form a foot on the base of the vase. A Velcro pad system was used for the sanding abrasives which were fixed to a flat shape and used in varying grits to the vase.
It is at this stage that the vase needs to be completely finished with a polish or wax before moving to the next stage.
An area was marked off at the top of the vase about 1” from the rim and again by use of the skew the area edges were cut with the toe of the skew and then the inner area just marked out an extra layer of waste wood was removed. Decorator tape was used to mask off the edge of the cut area and additional paper was fixed to the other area not to be worked on. The edge of the decorates tape was again cut with the skew to the outer edge already cut.
A hot glue gun was then used to apply the hot glue to the open area in a random manner around the open area. When cool a black lacquer was applied over the entire area which was open and then left to dry.
The edge of the decorated area was again cut with the skew to give a very clean edge. A guilt cream was then applied over the top of the dry glue, place some guilt on the back of your hand and keep going back to this whilst applying it over the glue, if it goes over this is not a problem.
Decorated Platter
This was already turned and just the inner hollowed-out area to be decorated.
Tacky craft glue was used in the hollowed-out area of the platter and then allowed to dry a bit before applying some ultra-thin metal foil, this was applied by putting your finger into the metal foil and applying it to the tacky area of the platter till it was totally covered. This is then rubbed with your fingers to get a smooth surface and remove the loose parts from the hollowed area. This then requires a covering of lacquer to embed the foil.
Bryan also showed how to use modelling clay to form decorations which can be set into moulds and then painted and then applied to the outer areas of the bowls or vases for additional decoration.
The evening finished early, so we finished off with a question and answer session and Bryan stated that if any member needed additional information they could contact him directly, his information is given in Revolutions.
Materials used:
Once again the club would like to thank Bryan for the evening’s demonstration and explanations of what was taking place during the demo.
The club would like to give their thanks to all members who helped out with both the setting up process and also the cleaning up at the end of the evening.
Report by Barrie Fisher & edited by Steve Hackett
This month’s submissions for the Chairman’s Challenge and other items that were made by our club members during the last month.
The challenge was “Vase with Decorated & or Textured Rim” and any other items made by members this month
Next month’s Chinwag Zoom meeting is on the 4th of April 2024. The Chairman’s Challenge theme will be “Three Pieces of Fruit (Different Woods)”.
This month’s submissions for the Chairman’s Challenge and other items that were made by our club members during the last month.
The challenge was “Platter with decorated Rim 150 to 200 mm in diameter” and any other items made by members this month
Next month’s Chinwag Zoom meeting is on the 7th of March 2024. The Chairman’s Challenge theme will be “Vase with Decorated & or Textured Rim”.
