Another Good Club Night July 2006

Things got a bit busy the night before club night; John Davis the demonstrator for this month received some sad news and rang not to cancel but to change the demo, I agreed and immediately rang Bill Thorne, true to character he stepped in so John could concentrate on things and rebooked him for November. So my usual last minute got to be ready for club night started the night before. I do hope this is not going to set a trend because if it keeps getting busier before and after club nights they could all just merge into one with no break in between!

Anyway, I arrived tonight to find hundreds of members busy setting everything up for the evening, well it seemed like it to me, well perhaps not hundreds but a good many. It was all done by 7.00pm apart from the tweaking really, so loads of members chatting and looking for a good seat. Front left was good because I took an 18" floor standing fan along and it was cool there, it brought some very welcome relief to this warm summers evening. A table had been set up for the Gallery which this month had a couple of interesting items on, this table always attracts a lot of attention.

My next task was to set up my competition piece, this piece inspired me to present it in a good setting, The idea of presentation has stuck in my mind ever since Mark Baker the professional turner explained how it enhances the subject, and he is absolutely right. I had placed this piece upon the coffee table at home to get a good view of it as a set piece for the first time. I have to admit I was happy with my turning and balance but it didn't look right. Nice piece but what was it, it was the sort of piece that when I see it I ask the question "WHY" because it has no function or reason if that makes any sense to you. So after walking round it several times scratching my head I thought, nope still nothing, so I stood it on the hearth out of harms way and got stuck into my evening meal. Bare with me on this, it is worth it I can assure you.

So to cut a long story short (but I must just mention the sweet which was particularly good, apple pie) sorry Dave, couldn't resist that, (you had to be there for that one). As I walked up to the said piece, POW, there it was. On our hearth waiting patiently for the perfect position in the garden stand two 21" high verdigris (green) copper Herons and with these two birds along with the back drop of the stone fireplace the subject was set and it transformed it beautifully. So you can guess what comes next can't you; there I am walking into the clubhouse with two 21" herons and a pot plant. At this point I have to mention that there are still a few members that can't quite make me out, can't think why? Anyway, before I loose what few readers I have, the piece did very well and all the others in this class, four in all, did a photo call for members to click away and hopefully they will appreciate what a setting can do. My thanks to Mark Baker for the inspiration.

I'm assuming your still here and interested so Ill carry on. We had the usual welcomes and we are pleased to see some more new members, Don updated us all with this and that then introduced Bill and started by using the words "I'm Sorry", that got a good laugh and it took off from that moment on. Now for those of you that don't know our Bill I need to explain how very entertaining he is, born natural and a very competent and experienced turner to boot. But one word of warning, don't heckle him as you're on a hiding to nothing with that, he's to clever and very quick but as I said before, very entertaining.

With such short notice Bill brought what he had ready and concentrated mainly on bowls, lots of confusion over what angle the tool edge was at, 3.00 o'clock etc, that seemed to go on for quite a while and even into the tea break. Dave and Tony did the teas tonight, thanks lads, and while we supped or tea Bill carried on explaining how he did things and still confused as to why he's being question over 3.00 o'clock and 5.00 o'clock'? A good number of members where checking out the competition pieces, we had 5 novices and 4 advanced this month with some interesting interpretations of the specification and some interesting ideas from the novices.

After the tea break Bill continued with his humorous explanations of how to do things and managed to get a great deal out of the simple bowl, having said that he produced some interesting shapes. He finished by turning a mushroom, with an explanation of a particular tool that makes the undercut very easy to do. It has to be said we all learnt something from Bill tonight, but I'll bet there are still some that haven't learnt NOT to heckle Bill. Without a doubt tonight was very entertaining, As I have said many times before "I always sit at the back and watch both the demo and the members and tonight they was some serious laughing going on.

Don thanked Bill for his busy and unique style of demonstrating which a hearty round of applause followed from all the members, and quite right to. Don asked for volunteers for next month's turn in and ideas of what we wanted, and then we had the usual raffle numbers drawn as we cleared the room and vacuumed. No numbers again this week sad to say as there where some nice prizes tonight. The competition results where given out, with a few surprises there and as I said we had the photo call for the competition pieces. There where a number of things I had to sort out and the lights went off and we found ourselves outside in the car park saying good night, and there goes another good club night.

Boots- July 2006