Wed 16th: Tonight's live demo will be split into two halves with club members Mike Nightingale doing the first half and Ian Robson doing the second half. We look forward to an interesting evening.
Mike made a tool handle and a miniature tool and Ian made a 'troll'. Between them they provided an interesting evening. Thanks to both of you.

Wed 19: Club member Ian Lockwood has kindly volunteered to do our first live demo this year. Ian is one of our newest members and started as a novice just before the shut down so we are indebted to him for volunteering.

Ian did an excellent demonstration, producing a three piece bird feeder. His demo was interesting and informative, well prepared and almost faultlessly delivered. He was a credit to the club and hopefully an encouragement to other members to come forward and volunteer. He also provided a superb step by step instruction sheet for anyone who wishes to have a go.

Wed 2nd: Club member Ian Johnson will be doing a mini demo on a hands  on night and will make a lidded box.

Sorry Ian, no photographs for that one.

Wed 16th: Tonight's live demo will be split into two halves with club members Mike Nightingale doing the first half and Ian Robson doing the second half. We look forward to an interesting evening.
Mike made a tool handle and a miniature tool and Ian made a 'troll'. Between them they provided an interesting evening. Thanks to both of you.

Wed 16th: ZOOM demo by Andrew Hall RPT. Andrew has done numerous live demos at our club over the years and this one was booked for this date in EARLY FEBRUARY 2020 i.e. before we shut down for the pandemic. It was the earliest available date at that time. Andrew is honouring that booking but it will now be a ZOOM demo from his workshop.

Thanks Andrew for an interesting demonstration. I regret that the attendance at the club and the number watching it at home was not very encouraging.

Wed 23rd: Today is a very sad day for our club. Our long serving Chairman Stan Lax passed away this morning after a long illness.
We have lost a passionate very hard working and well respected club member who will be sadly missed by everyone.

Wed 13th: We had something totally different this evening. Club member Beverley Wilkinson held a 'hands on' instructional demonstration on Pyrography.
About half a dozen club members brought in their own pyrography kits and sat round a large table whist Bev gave them detailed instructions and individual help with a set project, and the rest of the club members sat and watched it on the screen.
Unfortunately, although I succeeded in setting up the camera and screen I forgot to switch on the recorder, so I have no still shots of the demonstration to show here. So Bev has come to the rescue and sent me some photos of the superb collection she had on display.

Wed 20th: A.G.M. This was our first live AGM since March 2019 and there was a lot to do.
As stated above, our long serving Chairman Stan Lax sadly passed away a few weeks ago so our first priority was to elect a new Chairman.
Ian Lockwood was proposed and kindly accepted the position.

Our long standing Treasurer Brian Haggath stated a few months ago that he wished to stand down so this position was thankfully accepted by committee member Derek Fixter.

Brian is happy to continue as Secretary and the other committee members are happy to continue in their current posts.

Wed 25th: GNAAS PRESENTATION. During the last two years we have been unable to do our country show demonstrations and have therefore been unable to give our usual cash donation to our club's charity, Great North Air Ambulance Service.

Consequently club member Duncan Hutchinson suggested a couple of months ago that our members each make something and donate it, then we would have a presentation event to pass all the items over to GNAAS.
This is the culmination of our efforts. A GNAAS representative will give us a power point assisted talk on their work and we will then present her with all the items on display together with a cheque for the money we have collected over the last two years.
We will also offer assistance in pricing and selling of the items at their next open day event.
Tonight will be open to members' partners, friends etc and light refreshments will be laid on
This evening proved to be an enormous success. We had the highest attendance since we restarted last June and the donations of turned items was beyond our wildest dreams.

GNAAS representative Sophie Bendelowe gave a very interesting, eye opening and thought provoking powerpoint assisted talk about the work of the Air Ambulance Service and she was then presented with a staggering 121 turned items donated by our members to be sold at future GNAAS fund raising events.
She was also presented with a cheque for £800, most of which was from the sale of items at our pre pandemic shows and the proceeds of a collection at our late Chairman Stan Lax's funeral a few weeks ago.

Sat 11th: Cleveland Lace Makers. We are invited to attend the Lace Makers AGM at Eaglescliffe Community Centre.
This is not an open event for the public but we have been invited for many years to set up a couple of lathes and a stall at their annual event. It will be good to return after two years of complete inactivity.

We did attend but unfortunately the only lathe we took broke down after just a few minutes, but we did have a stall of turned items, which was really of more interest to the ladies than a demonstration of turning.

Wed 15th: In house demonstration by club member David Otterson.
David did a short talk on producing and selling items for craft fairs then followed the talk by turning a selection of the most popular craft fair items.
This was an interesting and informative demo which prompted a couple of members to have a go at selling their products at craft fairs.

Wed 22nd: Training Day. Club RPT David Muckle organised a training session for 5 of our newest members to make a bowl. He supplied each of them with an 8" x 2" elm bowl blank then demonstrated each stage and supervised them as they caried out his instructions.
The result was 5 new members all went home happy with a decent fruit bowl. I should have taken some photos.

Sat 16: Picton Agricultural Show. We have been invited to set up our gazebo, lathes etc. and  demonstrate to the public at this show.
It will be our first outside public demonstration since September 2019.

This turned out to be a superb day. The weather was excellent and Picton Show has expanded and improved dramatically since 2019.

Thanks to new club member Tim Morris for picking up the trailer and making this demo possible.

Wed 20: In house demo by club member Nigel Coates. Content not known yet but judging by previous demonstrations it will be worth watching.
He did point out that after his last demo we closed the club for 18 months !!!

As expected, Nigel gave us an excellent demonstration. He made a large Burr Elm bowl and made a difficult project look easy, providing loads of advice and safety tips along the way.

Apart from our special GNAAS presentation evening a few months ago we had our biggest attendance since we restarted in June 2021.

Fri 12: Demonstration at Pinchinthorpe Walkway Visitor Centre.

 Wed 17: Demonstration by visiting turner Mick Hanbury R.P.T. Mick was a regular visitor to our club and this will be our first live demonstration by a visiting turner since the 2019 lockdown.
We are eagerly awaiting this demo and it will be a big step on our road to recovery and return to normality.

This was an excellent demonstration where Mick produced a superb coloured pedestal bowl

Wed 21: Presentation by club member Graham Hobson. Graham's speciality is stick making with carved and coloured animals' heads on the handles and he will be giving a Powerpoint assisted presentation projected onto the screen via a computer. There will be numerous slides, diagrams and short videos accompanied by a flip chart explanation to guide us through the whole process. There will also be a selection of finished sticks on display.

This will be something new for us and we look forward to a very interesting and informative evening.

This Sun 25: Demonstration at Preston Park, Eaglescliffe. This is another popular venue which we have been unable to attend since 2019.was a very interesting and informative presentation which made for a very enjoyable evening.

Thanks Graham.

Wed 19: Demonstration by artistic woodturner Helen Bailey. This will be Helen's first visit to our club and we look forward to meeting her.

Helen gave us a superb long and interesting demonstration. She produced an unbelievably thin 2mm bowl and did a small amount of piercing to explain and demonstrate the technique and had some excellent pieces on show. After the coffee break she made a very fine three piece natural edge yew goblet.

Thanks Helen for an excellent and thought provoking evening.

Wed 16: Annual Competition Night.

The topic for tonight's competition was "Anything BUT a Bowl"

 This attracted a good attendance, including about half a dozen wives, and as always we had some superb entries on the table.

In the Craftsman class third place went to Graham Hobson, second to Graham Pheonix and first place went to Kevin Russell.

He was presented with the Bill Beeforth Trophy by Bill's widow Sheila.

In the Novice class third place went to Bev Wilkinson, second to Cliff Lightfoot and  Steve Jenkins picked up the first place trophy. 

Thanks to all who participated and to John and Carole Basford for providing the light refreshments.