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.