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.

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.

• Cling film
• Bubble wrap
• Air blowing
• Feathers
• Wool or string
• Rolled cling film

Feather Effect string pull

• Step 1 – Lay a length of wool which has had Jo Sonja paint along the length as shown, then pull in the direction shown in picture above.
• Step 2 – Repeat the process along the opposite side, this then forms the main body of the feather.
• Step 3 – Lay the wool along the centre and pull back to give the effect of the quill.

Flower Effect

• Take a length of wool and load it with Jo Sonja paint.
• Lay the loaded wool line out in a pattern similar to that shown.
• Put a piece of tape at the base of the design to take up the overload of over-spill paint.
• Always pull through at the same point.
• You may need to wipe off any excess paint at the base.

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.

• Step 1 – Andy turned a cove into the piece (see pic above) to the sizes in his plan, then its sanded using a round block. The coves then has finishing oil applied with a cloth. Some times up to 3 coats.
• Step 2 – The block is the accurately cut into 4 pieces. Then turned around and glued back together with PVA, making sure that they don`t move. This leaves the coves now on the inside. They are held together with rubber bands until dry.
• Step 3 – The centres were the punched accurately again on the ends & then its placed on the lathe between centres. Andy then turned the block round. (see pic above).

• Step 4 – The round block is the placed in a chuck on the lathe, he the turns the decoration to shape looking to keep an even thickness around the windows, Finally it is sanded, and then is parted off to a point. As before it is finished with finishing oil applied with a cloth.

The club and committee would like thank Barrie & Andy for an excellent entertaining evening. It was enjoy by all present.

Report by Steve Hackett