Highland Woodturning Club

Our virtual meeting on the 6th August 2020 was to be a One on One meeting, this is where a less experienced turner is taken through the process by a more experienced turner. This was being organised by David Hobson but due to the lockdown situation had to be turned into a virtual meeting. As there was no actual theme for this meeting you the members were asked to produce something on your own and send me the pictures and story on what you had made.

The response from our members was I’m afraid to say as bad as ever, I have only received pictures from 2 members, I did however receive a phone call from Dave Line with an apology for not being able to send me anything this time, Dave has participated in every virtual meeting since the beginning of lockdown. The 2 members who have sent some pictures and text are Gordon Leitch and Nick Simpson and I thank them both for taking the time and effort to do so, their work will be featured here today.

I have as a precaution done a timeline entry to augment the small amount of pictures I received, it would be just great if I didn’t have to anticipate the disastrous apathy that persists with you the members.

First will be the pictures from Gordon and Nick, then to follow that my timeline will be in the format of a gallery on the making of a shallow bowl with a Laser rim.

Now for Nick Simpson’s entries, this is what Nick had to say about them.

Here is a project I did  a while back.

My family were corn merchants and these are Victorian heirlooms. I have 2 original sets which were made from fruit wood and bear the assay marks from 1 Gill to 1 Quart  to confirm their internal volume.

I decided to try to make copies from Ash and Sycamore. And show here the final items 1 pint, ½ pint and 1 gill.

They were made, like the originals, from a single piece of wood. I had some discussions with Stuart King, who is the acknowledged expert on historical woodturning in the UK and we decided that these were definitely turned and probably by an early rotating lathe rather than a reciprocating lathe (pole lathe) although there are no historical records.

Now for my timeline gallery.

Click on the pictures to get a larger view and also some information on the making of the bowl.

Our next virtual meeting will be on the 20th August 2020, it was to be all about workshop safety, something that has taken on a more acute interest during these troubled times.

I will be looking for you all to contribute something to this meeting even if it’s only a bit of text and something you have to offer as relevant and interesting to the members. We the committee are constantly looking into ways of the club reopening but staying within the government guidelines and restrictions, there will be more on this as and when we get it.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

A One on One meeting was scheduled for the 6th August 2020, this will now be a virtual meeting where One on One is not possible. This meeting was being organised by David Hobson. The purpose of a One on One meeting was to team up an experienced turner with a less experienced turner and take them through the making of something they had not done before or through a particular practice that was giving the less experienced turner problems.

Now just because we can’t have this meeting does not mean we do not have to do anything, it would be appreciated if you could make something and picture it along with some text and send it to me for publication on our web site.

The response to my request for pictures in the past has been very poor, can we change that situation and surprise me with lots and lots of pictures, do remember you can put forward more than one picture, A collage of pictures would be very welcome from any of you, perhaps a few pictures of something being made from start to finish like a time line would also be very good, either way do send me your pictures.

I have put together a few pictures from the past with no particular relevance but may show some diversity in turning.

Some of these items above may give you some ideas for things to make, I do hope so, and lets have your pictures please, you have until Friday 7th August 2020 to send me your pictures.

Send them to me at , a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our latest meeting should have been on Saturday 25th July 2020, it was to be our annual all day meeting where we allow members of the public to come and see what we are doing. It was to be organised by David Hobson, David had arranged for 3 people to be demonstrating in roughly 2 hour blocks, due to covid-19 this was abandoned and made into a virtual meeting. The members were then invited to do any turning they could and send the pictures for publication on our web site.

I have to tell you that apart from 3 very dedicated turners the rest of our membership failed to send any pictures at all, I really shouldn’t complain about the members when only 2 of the 12 committee members produced any pictures, me being one of them.

However here are the few that I did receive and thank you to Dave Line and Nick Simpson for taking the time and making the effort to try to keep the interest in this club alive.

For my own contribution to the gallery, I have shown just some of the items I have been working on during the lockdown.

For a full sized view of any picture just click the picture in the gallery, it will also give you some text relating to the picture.

Our next meeting should be on the 6th August 2020, this will not be happening due to the continued lockdown for clubs like ours, it was to be organised by David Hobson again and David was working on the idea to have a one to one session. We would like to see some of you pictures before that time, so please take part you know it makes sense.

We are working on a safe practical policy for when the restrictions ease to allow us to re-open, further information on this will be available soon, but things will not be the same.

Our annual all day event should have been happening this Saturday 25th July 2020, this is now a virtual meeting. The day was being organised by David Hobson, it would normally start at 10am through to 4pm with 3 turners working the lathe in roughly 1 & 3/4 hour sessions. This meeting was open to the public for a small fee.

As there is no meeting I am inviting you all to make something of interest to the rest of the members, it can be anything at all, turned or otherwise, but do make something and send the pictures along with a bit of text on what you have made.

The 3 people that were to be demonstration are, Pam Harris from 10am to 11.45am, Gary Lowe from 12pm to 13.45pm and Andy Walters from 14.00pm to 16.00pm.

I have included a few pictures from past open days for your viewing and possibly to give you some inspiration.

Please get into your workshops and produce something to remember this day, you have until mid day on Sunday the 26th July to make and send me your pictures before I upload them to our web site.

Pictures to, mailto.a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our virtual meeting this week was on Thursday 09th July 2020, it was all about making candle holders, it was to be organised by Errol Levings. Errol had suggested a variety of different candle holders that could be made from standard candlesticks to using nightlight candles and for the more experienced he suggested offset candlesticks.

The uptake was again very disappointing in so much that we only had 5 people contributing to the virtual meeting, we would obviously want to see more and hope the future virtual meetings will be better represented.

Now not all of today’s entries are of candle holders, but those that are not are just as welcome and we hope they keep coming.

I have divided the post into 2 sets of pictures, the first being those who did put some pictures in along with some pictures of various candle holders from previous meetings by some of our members, these will be seen in the first gallery.

The second lot of pictures is a tutorial on how to make a small Sentinel Candle holder by Myself.

The next set of pictures are from my tutorial on how to make a small Sentinel Candle holder.

For a full size picture of any picture in the 2 galleries just click the picture, and I hope we have given you some encouragement to take part in future virtual meetings.

The tutorial is probably one of the easiest candle holders to make, why not have a go and send me your resulting pictures.

Do Remember the clubhouse remains closed.

This Week’s virtual meeting on Thursday 9th July 2020 is all about making Candle holders, they can be made for small nightlight candles to large pillar candles and everything in between, you could also try to make some offset candle holders. This meeting was to be handled by Errol Levings and he was going to demonstrate the making of an offset candle holder.

Here are a few examples of different candle holders that you might like to try.

I hope these few examples have given you some ideas for making your own candle holders. We want to see many of them, photographed and sent to me for upload to our web site.

The virtual meeting is on Thursday, you have until Lunchtime on Friday 10th July 2020 to send your pictures to me, don’t forget to include some information on what you have made and possibly even why.

Click my email to send them to me at,

a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Our virtual meeting on the 25th June 2020 was to be a competition, being handled by Errol Levings, the Novice category were asked to make a Natural Edged Bowl from 1/2 a log, the Intermediate category were to make a Natural Edged Bowl from a whole log and the Experienced category were to make an Inside Out Turning. There wasn’t going to be any judging it was all for the experience of doing it.

I have to tell you that the uptake for this competition was very very poor and quite disappointing I received very few pictures, but those I did receive will be shown here along with some of my own pictures just to pad out the post.

We do have pictures from Bill Munro, Dave Line, Jeff Buttress and myself.

To get a larger picture of any of those shown in the gallery below, just click the picture.

We are hoping for a better uptake for the next virtual meeting, that will be on the 9th July 2020, it’s also being handled by Errol Levings and the subject matter was going to be making an Offset Candle Holder or any Candle Holder. Lets get lots of pictures from our members for our members, start now and get the pictures to me for inclusion in our web site.

We hope you are all still keeping well and avoiding this deadly virus.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

This week would have seen our 2nd competition for this year, this will now be handled virtually, it should have been taking place on Thursday 25-06-2020, it was being organised by Errol Levings and Errol had laid down the criteria for the competition. He wanted the Novice group to make a Natural edged Bowl from half a log, he wanted the Intermediate group to make a Natural edged Bowl from a whole log, and the Experienced group were tasked with making an Inside Out Turning. Whatever group you are in can you still make something in line with what Errol has asked for, there will be no judging taking place, do it for your club or do it for Errol, I will let Errol see all the entries and he may well decide to comment on some of them. Firstly we want plenty of entries in all 3 categories, you have up to Thursday evening to get your items made, photographed and sent to me, I will be uploading them to our web site on the following day.

Don’t let Errol down, I know he is looking forward to seeing what you all have made.

I have given you 3 pictures of things made using Errol’s criteria.

Our entries over the past few weeks for virtual meetings or just for publication have been very poor in number, we would like to see you all entering your work much more than has been happening, so please enter into the spirit of the virtual meetings until we eventually get back to the clubhouse, we are aware that may be some time yet so the only way we can keep in touch is through the internet.

Send your pictures to me at,

a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our virtual meeting on the subject of weed pots was held on Thursday 11th June 2020. It was being organised by myself, the usual criteria was in place, the members were to make the weed pots and send their pictures to me for publication on our web site. It was looking fairly clear to me that by Tuesday evening I had very few pictures from only 4 members, this was to say the least very disappointing, so as I was the organiser I decided to do a tutorial on the making of a weed pot, if only to make it worth while to do a post.

I have also change some of the ways I used to present the entries, I do hope you approve of my new method, it will be presented in 2 parts, the 1st part will be the members entries and the 2nd part will be the tutorial.

Part one, the members entries. Click any picture for a larger view.

Part two, a tutorial by Alec Mutch, on making a weed pot, see the gallery below, there are 24 pictures in 12 entries, just follow the pictures 1 to 24 and you should produce a weed pot at the end if it, click the pictures.

I hope you have gained something from this post from both the members and myself, I hope we can get a better response from our members in the future, our next virtual meeting was to be a competition organised by Errol Levings, this will now be a virtual meeting. Errol wanted the competition to be on 3 subjects, the Novice group were to make a Natural Edged Bowl from 1/2 a log, the Intermediate group were to make a Natural Edged Bowl from a full log The Experienced group were to make an Inside Out Turning. Now I would like you all to follow what Errol has asked for and make something in line with his requests, there will be no judging, but then there doesn’t need to be, just do it for your own satisfaction and remember to send the pictures to me.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.