The Black Country Wood Turners were pleased to be invited once again to put on a display at Mary Stevens Summer Fayre. The Fayre was held on Sept 3rd at the Mary Stevens Hospice Centre in Stourbridge

The day started out with the threat of thunderstorms which would put a dampener on the day (forgive the pun), this would have a big impact on the proceedings and the number of visitors and some exhibitors.

We started off by erecting four gazebos to protect against the weather, the tables and lathe were then put in place, at this point we need to thank Ian, Steve, Rob, Greg, Mike, Barrie and Roger, also to help set out the selling tables and charity table ready for the start of the open day.

After we had set up there were six tables of items up for sale, of which two were for charity. The lathe was set up in the middle of the other four tables with Steve again turning his spinning tops for the kids who came along with their parents. We also welcomed Steve’s wife Georgie with her Magical Makes of sewing and needle felting crafts.

The smell of the BBQ food stand was terrific, we were also entertained and serenaded all day by the excellent singing and music from the main stage. Lucky the weather stayed dry most of the day.

Arthur was in fine form with small toy tricks which went down well with both youngsters and adults alike, he also helped look after the charity table along with Roger, Mike & Greg.

During the day we had a steady stream of people wandering through the turning area with people also asking various questions and with the possibility of gaining a couple of new members.

At 15.15 the day came to a complete finish when the clouds opened up and we had a complete down-pore which caused us to start packing up very quickly with the turned items before we started on the units themselves.
Our thanks go out to all who helped out by pulling the gazebos down and storing them away safely we were all a bit damp by the time we got in our cars to go home.

Thanks go to all members who have contributed to the charity table, helped out on the day and visited the event to say hello and show the event support.

Special thanks go to Ian for supplying everyone with tea and coffee throughout the day, which went well.

We have already had a good start to the charity donations from the event held at the Sedgley Flower Show with a good starting point of £115. The total we have raised over these 2 events for Mary Stevens Hospice is £431

Report by Barrie Fisher, edited by Steve Hackett

The Blackcountry Wood Turners were pleased to be invited to put on a display by the Sedgley Garden Club at their Annual Flower Show held at the Sedgley Community Centre. We had a good day with a lot of interest in our display and the live turning demo of turning spinning tops for the kids. There were many sales. and at the end of the day, we had made £115 for our charity Mary Stevens Hospice.

Thanks to all members who have contributed to the charity table, helped out on the day and visited the event to say hello and show us some support.

The Sedgley Garden Club members put on an excellent display of fruit and vegetables, many of which were given to us for free at the end of the show.

We would like to thank the Sedgley Garden Club for the invitation and we hope to see you again next year.

Report by Steve Hackett

The day started with a small number of Black Country Woodturners members being in attendance to erect the stall area and the covers due to being in a position outside due to Covid rules.

Apart from the charity table which was the main part of the event we also had a number of members (Mel, Steve, Rob, Ian & Barrie) in addition to a couple of members items but could not be with us in person, to sell their own turned items, which included some Christmas items.

From items that members had sold, we had a 10% donation which went with the charity table amount to hand over.

A big thank you from the committee goes out to all club members who gave their time and effort to produce the donated items for the charity table.

The day itself was very cold which kept a number of people away from the event, but thankfully the rain kept away and we did have a steady stream of people passing through and buying the odd piece.

Ian looked after the charity table along with anyone who was free a the time and in the area of the table.

Ian’s wife Kim was also in attendance selling her Christmas cards table decorations and presentation bags which she had produced herself.

All in attendance also helped to take the equipment down whilst Ian sorted the funds to be handed over.

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett

Today we were at Mary Stevens Park for their open day. The event was open to the public from 10.00 till 16.00 hours.  It is a charity event organised by Mary Stevens Hospice as a fundraiser for their organisation.

The Black Country Woodturners put on a charity table of turned items that were donated by the members, for the purpose of helping the hospice in fundraising.  At the same time, we are able to put our own turnings onto the tables of which 20% of the takings are also donated back to the charity.

After the chaos of setting up the tenting area with three units, we had eight tables with a good mixture of various items for sale during the day.

The charity table was totally full and needed an additional table to display the items donated by the members.

The club had a good turnout of members who all had a good selection of turned items for sale.  We also had a lathe running and was manned by Steve who kept up a stream of spinning tops for the kids free of charge, this kept him out of mischief for the day.  It must be said that he was tired at the end of the day, but it was for a good cause.

During the morning there was a steady stream of people going through the selling area with the charity stall doing very well and clearing a number of items.  During the day we also had a good many people taking our club cards with a number being interested in starting to turn, it’s a case of watching this space for this, we were also asked about the club and how the items were formed and developed.  The weather was very kind to us during the day, with it being sunny which also helped with the turnout of people who attended the event.

Along with the turned items we also had a couple of wives joining us,  Ian’s wife Kim & Steves’s wife Georgina, who had their own craft stalls of hand-crafted items along with us.

A big thank you must go out to all who turned up for the event and helped throughout the day with setting up, selling, and breaking down again.  This help was very much appreciated with us being able to clear the site quickly.

We raised a total of £244.72 from the charity table, and from the club members the sale items we raised £90.00 at 20% commission, this makes a total of £334.72 that was handed over to The Mary Stevens Hospice.

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett

Today we are at Mary Stevens Hospice to present the Wig stands that were turned by the club members for the people who are undergoing treatment for illnesses who also need additional help with other areas of their treatment and wellbeing.

Those present for the handover were Roger Cheshire, Stephen Hackett, and Barrie Fisher, committee members of the Black Country Woodturners Club.  James Totney, the community, and events fundraiser from Mary Stevens Hospice accepted the Wig stands from us on behalf of the hospice. James stated that it was a pleasure to accept them and was impressed with the craftsmanship being displayed.

At the handover we undertook a photoshoot of the Wig stands and people present, James also had Beth come along for the event. 

He also stated that he is looking forward to the visit by the club for the summer fair being held in September.  In addition, he confirmed we would be able to have an area for the items that we can turn for the charity to sell, so they can gain additional funds for the Mary Stevens Hospice.

In Early May 2020, Phoebe Vaughan from Slimbridge Wetlands & Wildlife Trust contacted Blackcountry Woodturners via the contact page on the website enquiring if the club would be interested in supplying the trust with a quantity of around 50 wooden Goose eggs in two different sizes and what the cost would be.

The eggs were required as dummy eggs, to be painted by staff and then used to swap the real eggs from various nests around the complex, this serves two functions help reduce damage and breakage by other birds and preserve boost numbers of new chicks.

The real eggs would then be incubated within facilities at the trust and replaced on the nest just prior to hatching. This would ensure the maximum return and best chances for the young bird’s survival going forward.

Wolfgang drew the request to the committee members and it was agreed that this would make an excellent lockdown club member challenge for all levels of ability, It was agreed the club would pick up costs and ask all members to make and donate the eggs. With this an email was circulated to everyone proposing the idea, this came back as a resounding yes and so the challenge was born.. Game on…

Wolfgang emailed Phoebe informing her that the club would make all the eggs and would do this at no charge to the trust to which they were stunned and very appreciative.

Within two weeks club members had made 106 wooden eggs, the eggs were then either collected from members’ porches and front door steps or dropped off the same way at the two agreed collection points Mell and Wolfgang’s homes.

A small sample of the eggs before sending off…..

Six boxes of wooden eggs were boxed and sent to the trust, 5 by Mell and Wolfgang and 1 by Nigel and Teresa Goodricke who sent their own egg contribution as due to distance was simply a more practical solution during the Covid19 lockdown.

Within no time at all Phoebe had made contact stating the Trust had received all six boxes to which they were thrilled with the result and were staggered by the number of eggs made for them by our members.

A section of the reply…

To let you know that I have now received 6 incredible boxes of eggs.

Thank you so much! 

Today I managed a lesser snow goose nest, and put together a few photos to show you all.  You can see one old wood, with chipped gloss paint after a herring gull tried to eat it. There is then some real goose eggs mixed in with a few of your wooden ones.. The real goose eggs range from 105g to 140g, and so you see how different sizes can work in our favour 🙂  

Both new and older club members, beginners to advanced were more than happy to help the trust in this very worthwhile cause, this being a different type of challenge, not one that comes around every day, the egg making being a welcome distraction to the mad Covid19 world we currently live in.

Here is a link to their website https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/slimbridge/

Saturday 31^st August 2019

The Summer fayre is the second of three events this year that Blackcountry Woodturners will be attending raising funds to help support the children’s hospice, this has been Blackcountry Woodturner’s selected charity for some years now.

We turned up on-site at the Hospice grounds at 09:00 and were allocated our spot on the main field, it then took just over an hour and several cups of tea, to get things all set up and ready for the grand opening at 11 am, we were just one of many stalls supporting this great cause.

The event opened at 11 am and things got underway, the crowds soon built up and were entertained by not only the stall holders but also the great entertainers and events were staged throughout the day. The weather held until around lunchtime but then the heavens opened for a short while but quickly blew over and things soon got back into swing.

From the club’s perspective, again the stall looked great, with plenty of members’ work on sale, plus many items on the charity table. The public gave many complimentary remarks and the lathe demonstrations were as always a great success, enjoyed by both adults and children alike.

Many thanks go to Steve & Rob Hackett, Roger Cheshire, Roger Sherwood Howells, Arthur Mills, Mell Adams, Ron Lunn and Ian Brown for turning out giving their time and talents to support the social event.

Special thanks go to Roger Cheshire who organised and oversaw the raffle of the skittles game made by him earlier in the year; lots of tickets were sold with the eventual lucky winner being a family from the Stourbridge area.

At the end of the day we managed to raise the sum of £157.80p which Mell handed over to the event organisers who were very supportive and grateful for the clubs attendance.

Thanks again to those that turned out and/or donated items for the charity table, a great day was had with a good pot of money going to Mary Stevens fund.

Our next Mary Stevens event will be the Christmas Fayre on Saturday 7th December 10am to 3pm please visit us and help in supporting a great cause.

Once again Blackcountry woodturners were kindly invited to join John Massey at his summer “Open Garden” day at Ashwood Nurseries, an event for which the club has proudly supported for many years.

For those that do not know this is the main event of several that “John”  and his superb  team at the nursery put on in support of the nurseries chosen charity, opening his magnificent award winning 3 acre private gardens to the public, this year’s chosen charity being “WINGS” Wombourne Special Needs Support Group.

The day started off at 08:30hrs, with the gathering of members at the Nursery to help set up our event tents, main craft stall, charity table and lathe demonstration area.

They say many hands make light work and this was so the case, the fantastic early turn out soon had our trusty pitch on the meadow lawn ready for business. Once again the display of member’s crafts was a splendid sight to see, with so many varied pieces on display, truly wonderful…

At 10:00 the event opened and by 10:15 the crowds were filtering thick and fast into the gardens, this remained the case right up to the end at 4pm.

As the day wore on countless, visitors came to see us on the lawn, striking up many a good conversation and laughter throughout, several of these visitors over the years now becoming regular customers of our clubs crafts a testament to the consistent quality on show, sales both on the charity table and craft tables were brisk all day.

Throughout the day the public were entertained with various lathe demonstrations, one visitor  asking Rob Hacket if  he could make him a new handle for his garden trowel, which Rob duly did, he left the stall a very happy chappy  …not Rob the visitor.

There were also demos by Steve Hackett, Roger Cheshire, Paul Brown & Roger Sherwood -Howells.

A very special thanks must go to Arthur Mills and the other guys who helped him throughout the day run the charity table their truly sterling efforts raising a fantastic £240.00, an amazing feat…well done everyone.

At the end of the day Mick Murphy club Secretary proudly handed £120.00 to the event organisers to add to the days grand total in support of the very worthy “WINGS” charity,

The remaining £120.00 will be given to Blackcountry Woodturners nominated charity Mary Stevens Hospice in due course.

On the event closure all the gear was packed away and all club members left the nursery hot and tired but having contributed to a really good day.

This was the first time the canal trust had held a summer fayre from this particular venue,  and what a lovely place it is too,  The Blackcountry Woodturning club were very happy to accept the invite to put on a stall and demonstrate the art of woodturning throughout the day for the attending public.

The day started off by arriving at the venue for 8.30am, we were greeted by Sarah the organiser who showed us our pitch in the main hall for the day.

We had a great turnout of members early morning, with lots of good natured  banter and laughter as we all got stuck in to unload the van , and set up our stall and lathe presentation area.

When complete the stall looked great with all our members work proudly displayed on show to the attending public, a great credit to the club which brought some very favourable comments from neighbouring craft presenters dotted around the hall.

The public attendance started a little slow but picked up as the day went by, many interesting conversations were struck up with visitors who were genuinely interested in how we made such a variety of items.

                     Thanks go to Mell Adams, Bob Mercer, Andrew DORE , Roger Cheshire and Paul Brown who all took turns on the lathe during the day to entertain the public, with Bob very kindly giving away his demonstration  bowl to a visitor who watched him make the whole thing from start to finish.

I’m sure the club made a few friends along the way, the event came to a close about 4.30pm, with us all having had a very enjoyable day.

The Blackcountry woodturners club took part in the Cradley Heath Arts festival programme on Saturday 9^th June 2018, this was the first visit by the club to the event, we along with Cradley Heath  Model Railway club were located at the Cradley Heath Community Centre Reddal Hill Road.

The club was well supported by members who put on an impressive craft and lathe display, including the clubs charity table displaying for sale items donated by members in support of the clubs charity

Visitors were few but those that came were very impressed with the craft work, purchased a few items and enjoyed watching members working on the lathe.

The highlight of the day was the visit to the club by local conservative member of parliament  Rt Hon James Morris who stayed for quite some time chatting to all involved and seemed genuinely interested in the history of the club wishing us well for the future…, he even had ago on the lathe skillfully instructed by club chairman Roger Cheshire.