Word from our Chairman

I wonder when you read this Newsletter if, like me, you are thinking when will this terrible pandemic end so that we can get back to normal. And, what will normal be?

We go to club meetings to meet new and long standing friends; to have a chat, watch a demonstration and then look forward to the next time we meet. Who would have thought that when we said our good-byes in February, that our next meeting would be in January next year? Because that is probably the earliest we are all likely to once again come together and the waiting is awful.

That aside I am sure that many of us have used the time to get down to turning. I expect our show table to be groaning.

Your committee has had a Zoom meeting to discuss club issues. Competitions for 2020 are to go ahead and entries will be judged on the first club night we return, so continue to make your pieces and we can make this the largest celebration of our return. The AGM will be held on the same evening.

Kyle and Ted have been beavering away at the new website and followers will have noticed it is constantly evolving. Checking in regularly will be the best way to learn of any changes and stay in touch with the Club. There is also the opportunity to be proactive and get involved by submitting any items of interest or of showing what you have been making, as some of us have done already. (But do not show competition pieces until after judging). Using the website as a meeting and communications site is probably the best way to maintain the togetherness of the Club. Talking of the website, congratulations to Kyle who has put a great deal of effort into its building; please make the effort to support him and the site. Ted has been helping him with his advice and support.

I hope you have stayed well, continue to take care and follow guidelines, I look forward to us all meeting again.

Barry

Newsletter

We will be producing these newsletters each month for you to keep up to date, as well as in the know about other events that are going on. There has been a lot of focus on web hosting and watching events online, these sort of events are becoming more common place, if you’d like help getting set up with some of the more common platforms, and how to use them, please let us know at Chelmervalleywoodturners@gmail.com and one of us will get in touch.

We will also be giving you a project each month which we’d love to see and display your efforts. This month’s project is a Lighthouse. See below for more detail.

Furthermore, you may recall that Louise made some fantastic newsletters. There were parts that were about events and updates, as well as a member focus. If you would like to go back through the archive, you can find this under ‘newsletters’ in the about us section of the website - (Where you may have found this humble missive).

Upcoming events

The AWGB are hosting Talking Turning Zoom* Sessions, which you can join each Tuesday and Friday, usually at 7.30pm GMT.

*Zoom is a web based conferencing software which has become more popular over the course of the recent pandemic. With Zoom, you can join other people to host meetings; The software is free to use for meetings of 40 minutes or less, with an option to pay for longer duration.

They have a number of turners who have agreed to give a guided tour of their workshop, a talk about what they make and a Q & A session too. These are all free of charge to anyone wanting to participate and you can connect from almost any internet enabled device.

https://www.awgb.co.uk/talking-turning-zoom-sessions/

Tuesday 23rd June - Colwin Way
Friday 26th June - Gary Lowe
Tuesday 30th June - Ed Oliver
Friday 3rd July - Michel Gibson

A note for your diary: You may have received the e-bulletin from the AWGB, an important note is that the AWGB international woodturning seminar has been postponed for this year. It has been moved to 24 - 26 September 2021.

Question

Would our members like a similar session from within our club? Please let a committee member know if you would like to see this, or would like to host this, or email Chelmervalleywoodturners@gmail.com. We can offer support in getting you set up to host one of these meetings if you would like to give it a try.

Members work

Thanks to Clive Dunmow, Mic Brown, and Norman Christensen for sending in their recent turnings. They have kindly added some words about how they have created it and the woods they have used.

It’s always great to see what you’ve been up to. Please do send anything that you’d like us to share and add to the website to Chelmervalleywoodturners@gmail.com

Monthly Project - Lighthouse

To keep you thinking over these few months, we’d love you to create a project each month for us to feature.

From the rough crags of Land’s End at the end of the Cornish coast, to the lofty heights at Duncansby head in northeast Scotland. Lighthouses have played an important part in saving lives for hundreds of years, and can be an awe inspiring feature across our coastline. We’d like to see how you would approach creating a lighthouse. Segmented? Hollow? With an electric light? With a crystal? Have a look through our Pinterest board to see if any inspire you. Alternative, look through some of the archives at https://alk.org.uk/ (The Association of Lighthouse Keepers).

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