Author: Alec Mutch

Our meeting on Thursday 4th March 2021 has been arranged by John Ruickbie, John’s subject for the meeting is about making wooden goblets. This meeting has been made into a virtual meeting due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, that does not mean it won’t happen, it will take place only virtually. You are all invited to make at least one goblet, then for you to photograph it or them and send the pictures to me, do remember to give me some information about your creation.

It can be any size type or shape you so desire, made from one piece or from many pieces, it can be natural edged or even have a few rings in the stem, if your really adventurous you could create a stepped stem, it’s up to you, anything goes.

Here are a few pictures of some wooden goblets for you to view and take inspiration from, don’t just sit back and let others do the work, please take part, I’m sure we would all like to see what you have made.

Continue reading “Our virtual meeting 04-03-2021 Goblets.”

Our meeting on the 18th February 2021 was to be all about dealing with snags and finding solutions to those snags, it was being handled by John Ruickbie but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions it had to be turned into a virtual meeting. You were all invited to put something forward for this meeting, John did put in a very comprehensive report on a spinning wheel he worked on that threw up some problems he had to find solutions for. In addition to John’s report, Geoff Potter put in a suggestion rather than a snag that I thought warranted publication. I have also put forward something along the same lines as Geoff, Dave Line also put in a presentation for the solution of needing a drum sander, but we will start with John Ruickbie’s presentation,

Making a model spinning wheel

Continue reading “Report on our virtual meeting 18-02-2021 Snags & Solutions.”

Our next meeting should be on Thursday 18th February 2021, this meeting had to be changed into a virtual meeting due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. The meeting was to be arranged by John Ruickbie and John’s theme for the meeting was to be, Snags, Solutions & Ideas. I have already received some information from John on this meeting and some other input from another source. The feature picture at the top of this post deals with some of the information I have already, more will be revealed after the meeting date.

I’m sure most of you will have encountered a situation where you have met a snag and had to deal with it, let us know about it, tell us your solution and what other ideas you have to further your woodturning. I invite you all to tell me what snags and solutions you may have had in the past and what ideas you have for the future.

Continue reading “Our next virtual meeting 18-02-2021 Snags, solutions and Ideas.”

Our meeting on the 4th February should have been our AGM (Annual General Meeting), however this was not possible due to the Covid-19 restrictions, instead we prepared a summary of the 2020 years events that was presented by myself as Chairman, Geoff potter as Secretary and Cliff Sim as Treasurer, it will be our intention to have an AGM as soon as we are able to return to meetings safely, this is required for us to meet our constitutional obligations.

As for this meeting on the 4th February 2021, I put out a request for you all to make something or to send me pictures of things you had made in the past, I have to say there was a slight improvement in the number of people who took the time to send me their pictures. I don’t want you all to feel complaisant about this increase, all be it modest, I want you all to keep sending me your pictures or indeed anything else of interest.

Now for this weeks presentations, first up we have Mike Day with a few pictures and this is what he had to say about his entry.

Continue reading “Report on our virtual meeting 04-02-2021 AGM.”

Our next meeting should be on the 4th February 2021, it would have been our AGM (Annual General Meeting) however it’s not possible to have this meeting under the current lock down regulations instead we have prepared a report from 2020 that all the current members will be in receipt of by email, this report will have a statement from the Chairman, the Secretary and the Treasurer and will be issued on the 4th February. We are having a virtual meeting on the same day and you are all invited to make something of your choosing on any subject, this can be anything at all, a picture of your work made for this meeting or something that you had made previously, or just an interesting story about anything that has happened to you or your turning in the past, we would all like to hear what you have been doing during the lock down.

I have included a few pictures of things that I had made in the past and a couple that are more recent, I’m sure you will all have a collection of pictures of things you had made, why not send a few of those to me for publication on our web site.

Continue reading “Our next virtual meeting 04-02-2021 Our AGM”

Our meeting on the 21st January 2021 was all about making wooden toys and puzzles, It was being organised by Douglas Stewart but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions this meeting had to be turned into a virtual meeting. You were all invited to take part in this meeting by making something from the programme. The uptake was as ever very poor with only Nick Simpson and myself contributing to the meeting. Nick’s article wasn’t a toy or a puzzle but a novelty none the less and I felt it was appropriate to be included in this report.

Here is Nick’s submission, including what he had to say about the item.

Continue reading “Report on our virtual meeting 21-01-2021 making wooden toys and puzzles.”

Our next meeting should be on Thursday 21st January 2021, it was to be organized by Douglas Stewart and his project was to be toys and puzzles. However due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions this meeting has been made into a virtual meeting, we would invite you all to still pay attention to the project matter and make something along those lines. Having made your toys or puzzles, send pictures of them on to me for uploading onto our web site and facebook pages along with some information about the things you have made.

I have given you some pictures of wooden toys, these are for ideas only, you can make something similar or have something completely different, any type of toy or puzzle will be acceptable as long as there are some parts of the item you make that have been made on a lathe, you will see by the pictures I have provided that there are elements of other types of woodwork.

Do have a go at some of these or ideas of your own, the members would love to see what you can produce, we have a constant number of internet viewers who follow the facebook and web site pages, what we don’t have is as many club members willing to make items and send them to me.

You will have until Friday 22nd January to make and send your pictures, send them to me at,

a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Don’t forget to include some information on whatever you make.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our first meeting of the year was to be held on Thursday 7th January 2021, but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions this meeting had to be made into a virtual meeting. It was to be organised by Douglas Stewart and the subject matter was making wooden jewellery. You were all invited to take part in the virtual meeting by making something and sending the pictures of the items you made to me for publication on our web site. However the uptake was even less than usual with only 2 members taking part, those were Nick Simpson and myself.

This is what Nick had to say about his entry.

Morning Alec, Happy new Year.

Here are 3 pictures of brooches / shawl pins .They are all made from Cherry and measure approx 65 mm diameter, the pins are ebony. The decorations vary from coloured hot melt glue to pyrography and Bubinga inlay.

Please forgive the clash of tartans!

Kind regards

Nick Simpson.

I made some ear rings from laminated woods and also from a acrylic blank that would normally be used to make a pen.

Our next meeting should be on the 21st January 2021, this is also being organised by Douglas Stewart and his subject matter is wooden toys and puzzles, the meeting will be a virtual meeting again, but you are all invited to make something for that meeting. Let us have a much better response to this next meeting than what happened for the last meeting.

Our Secretary Geoff Potter and our Treasurer Cliff Sim are still looking to get the membership renewals for 2021 in as soon as possible, do remember that if you have not renewed your membership by the 4th February 2021 you could find yourself having to go onto the waiting list as we will be taking all those on the waiting list that we have at present and that there is space for, so the sooner you renew your membership the better.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our next meeting should be on Thursday 7th January 2021, however due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions this meeting will not be taking place at our clubhouse instead we are making this meeting a virtual meeting online only. It was to be organised by Douglas Stewart and the subject matter was making wooden Jewellery, we are inviting you all to make something along this line, it can be a neckless, a pair of ear rings, a bangle or anything related to jewellery.

Whatever you make take some pictures and send them to me along with some information on what you have made and from what wood etc, I will post them on our web site and facebook page, we are looking to get a good response to this subject from as many of you as possible.

Here are a few ideas for items of jewellery made from wood.

Here are just a few ideas, you do not need to follow any of these exactly but use them for examples of what can be made, but put your own take on them.

Send your pictures and text to me at,

a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com.

You have until Friday 8th February 2021 to get your pictures to me.

On a different note, I have just received the information on those who have paid their subscription for 2021, it would appear that only 1/3 of our 2020 membership have paid for the 2021 membership. We know the club has all but ceased to function due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is still very important that you all take up your membership as you would normally have done in order for the club to survive. So please renew your membership before the AGM meeting that would have been held on the 4th February 2021.

We do have several people on our waiting list wanting to join the club who will be offered a place should there be spaces after the 4th February 2021, anyone who has not renewed their membership by that date will loose their place or have to go back onto the waiting list.

We hope 2021 will be a better year for the club, but in the meantime keep safe and we hope to see you all later in the year.