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This week’s meeting on the 6th February 2020, our AGM,.

Our meeting this week on the 6th February 2020 is our AGM (Annual General Meeting) it will start at the usual start time of 6.45pm. The agenda will include a report from the Chairman, and reports from the Treasurer and Secretary. The re-election of committee members and the election onto the committee of 2 new members. We will also be taking any questions from the floor and asking for A.O.C.B. to be discussed. There will be no turning taking place at this meeting but we would like to see a very good turnout, remember this your club and if you have anything you wish to contribute, this is the time to do it. We anticipate that this meeting will not require the usual time allocated, therefor it could be quite short.

Been there, done that, got the tea shirt.

This is a final notice to those who still need to renew their subscription, this meeting will be the last opportunity for the payment to be made, see Geoff Potter to pay, anyone not paid after this meeting will be replaced with people from the waiting list on Friday 7th February.

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Report on our meeting 23rd January 2020, making wooden toys and puzzles.

Our meeting on the 23rd January 2020 was all about making wooden toys and puzzles, the meeting was organised by Douglas Stewart, Douglas had arranged for 4 turners to work the lathes, Bill Munro, John Ruickbie, Nick Simpson and himself. Each person would be doing something different, and the members attendance was very good. The following gallery of pictures along with a little text should give you a flavour of how the evening went. The pictures were all taken courtesy of Mike Day.

Here we have Douglas Stewart as he makes a start on his project
Douglas was to make a wooden Elephant.
Douglas was working with a piece of soft wood for his project.
Making headway with his project.
Here Douglas shows those watching the head part just completed.
Douglas trial fits the head to the body of his Elephant.
A final sand to the body part.
Here Douglas is making the feet for the Elephant.
Here we have Bill Munro, making a variation of spinning tops.
Here Bill is sanding his work piece.
Work progressing well on his project.
Here Bill is sealing his project.
These are some of the toys and puzzles John Ruickbie had made.
Here we have John Ruickbie as he makes a start on his project.
John was to make a variation on a solitaire game.
Here John is rounding over his work piece.
Here John is using a gouge to do some of the initial shaping.
Here John is doing the finishing cuts to his project.
Here John is checking the diameter with a set of calipers.
Here John is making ready to part off his project.
Here we have Nick Simpson as he makes a start on his project.
Nick was to make a dice shaker from African Blackwood.
Here we can see Nick hollowing his shaker cup.
The hollowing almost complete, Nick was to thread the inside.

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We hope you found the toy and puzzle making projects interesting and enjoyable.

Our next meeting is the annual AGM meeting, it will be on the 6th February starting at the usual time of 6.45pm.

This next meeting will be the last opportunity for any member to pay their fees for the 2020 meetings, miss that date and your place could be taken by someone on the waiting list.

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Our next meeting, 23rd January 2020, making wooden toys and puzzles on the lathe.

Our next meeting is on the 23rd January 2020, it’s being organised by Douglas Stewart and it will be on the theme of making wooden toys and puzzles using a lathe. Douglas had arranged for 5 turners to be working the lathes but 1 of those can’t now make it so we will have 4 turners, those are Douglas Stewart, Bill Munro, John Ruickbie and Nick Simpson. Douglas is looking for a replacement and may well have someone else by the time we get to Thursday.

What each turner will be doing is still to be determined but I’m sure there will be lots of interest in everything they are to do.

If you are interested in making toys mainly on the lathe then this is a book I would recommend.
Here is a web site that also displays a lot of interesting toys, like these very decorative skipping ropes.

We hope to see you all there on Thursday evening and hope you enjoy the toy making experience.

For those who still have their subscription for 2020 to pay, Geoff Potter will be there to collect your payment.

To all the committee members, a reminder that there will be a committee meeting starting at 5.30pm on the 23rd January 2020 prior to the main meeting,

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Report on our meeting on 09-01-2020, making wooden jewellery.

Our first meeting of the year took place on Thursday evening on the 09th January 2020, it was organised by Douglas Stewart and the theme was making wooden jewellery, Douglas had originally arranged for 5 turners to be working the lathes, however there were only 3 turners as the other 2 had to call off for various reasons, suffice to say there was insufficient time to organise replacements. The 3 turners were Douglas Stewart, Geoff Potter and myself, Douglas was to make a scarf clip, Geoff was to make a jewellery stand and I was making wooden ear rings.

There was an excellent turnout for the first meeting of the new year and Geoff was also collecting subscriptions for the year along with making his jewellery stand.

The following gallery of pictures accompanied with a little text should give you a flavour for how the meeting went, the pictures were courtesy of Mike Day.

Here we have Douglas Stewart as he makes a start on his scarf clip project.
Douglas had prepared his blank prior to coming to the meeting.
Douglas is now skimming the face of his project, a thin disc used as the base of his scarf clip.
The 2nd part of Douglas's scarf clip required a pin to be made from wood.
Here Douglas is finishing off the pin.
The finished disc of wood now sanded sealed and polished.
The finished product being put to it's intended use.
Douglas went on to start another clip, here he can be seen working the back.
Now Douglas is working the face of his 2nd thin disc.
Here we have Geoff Potter as he works his jewellery stand column.
Geoff used a fairly rough piece of wood that he would also turn off centre in some areas.
The shaping of the main stem in progress.
Geoff continued to refine the shape using the off centre turning methods.
Here Geoff can be seen sanding the stem.
A final sand before sealing and polishing.
In the foreground Geoff's finished stem showing some of the off centre work.
Here I am (Alec Mutch) setting up to start making ear rings.
The blank I used was made up from 6 different woods.
Here I'm making a start on the first cuts, only one tool was required for all the turning, a small spindle gouge.
Once shaped the worked piece is now sanded.
The ear ring was then sealed and polished and now needs to be cut off.
Here I'm using the spindle gouge to shear cut the base, it should not require sanding.
Here I'm parting off the ear ring with the spindle gouge, supporting it with my left hand.
A second one was made, this takes a little longer to do as it needs to match the first, here I'm applying a wax finish.

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This was only a very small journey into jewellery making, there are a number of books dedicated to making wooden jewellery that you might find fascinating , we hope this little experience has widened your view on woodturning, all of the metal parts required for jewellery making can be purchased from various sources on the internet.

Our next meeting is on the 23rd January and it’s also being organised by Douglas Stewart, the theme being making wooden toys and puzzles. There will also be a committee meeting that evening.

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This week’s meeting, 9th January 2020, making wooden jewellery.

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our members to our 2020 meetings, the first of which is this week.

This week’s meeting on the 9th January 2020 is all about making jewellery using wood or other turning products, it’s has been organised by Douglas Stewart and he has arranged for 4 other turners along with himself to man all the lathes. On the lathes will be Douglas Stewart, Peter Lawrence, Bill Munro, Geoff Potter and myself, we hope to show some diversity in the items that can be turned from wood or other materials in the making of jewellery.

The featured picture comes from our last Showtime meeting in 2019, that was shown by Douglas Stewart where he brought in some very fine examples of wooden jewellery he had made.

We hope to see you all there and do remember that the subscriptions for 2020 are currently being taken by Geoff Potter, anyone who has not already renewed their subscription has until February 6th to do so.

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Happy new year for 2020.

The committee for Highland Woodturners would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members, past, present and future a very happy new year, we would also like to wish the on line members a similar very happy new year, your involvement in using our web site and facebook page is very important to us.

I will remind all our members that the first meeting in 2020 is on the 9th January, it’s being managed by Douglas Stewart and the subject will be making wooden jewellery, we hope to see you all there.

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Report on our meeting on 11th December 2019, Christmas competition & Christmas raffle draw.

Our last meeting for the year was on the 11th December 2019, it was also the Christmas competition where our members were asked to make something without having a theme,in other words it was an open competition. This applied to all 3 categories of turners in our club and the entry level was very good from all 3 categories. The standard of workmanship in all 3 categories was also very good, making the judging very difficult. The judging was carried out by all the members in the club and a winner did emerge in all 3 categories. This meeting was also our meeting where the Christmas raffle draw was done, this was handled by Colin MacRae and Jim Kelman, there was a huge amount of prizes , some bought by the club and some donated from the members. The turnout for this meeting was as expected very high. To get a flavour of how the meeting went, see the gallery of pictures below, click on the pictures for a larger view and a little text. Pictures by Alec Mutch.

A view of some of the members prior to the start of the meeting.
Picture 1 of 3 showing all the raffle prizes.
Picture 2 of 3 showing some more of the raffle prizes.
Picture 3 of 3 showing even more of the raffle prizes.
These were the entries in the Novice class, a good number exhibited and very good quality.
Another view of some of the entries in the Novice class.
These were the entries in the Intermediate class, fewer in number but very good for quality.
These were the entries for the Experienced class, good number of exhibits and excellent quality.
This was the winning entry in the Novice class, it was entered by Alec McLeod. 2nd place in this class was Richard Comfort.
This was the winning entry in the Intermediate class, it was entered by David Line. 2nd place in this class was also held by David Line.
This was the winning entry in the Experienced class, it was entered by David Hay. 2nd place in the Experienced class was David Ross.
Richard Comfort won the shield in the Novice class for the total points over the year 2019 competitions.
David Line won the shield in the Intermediate class for the total points over the year 2019.
John Ruickbie won the shield in the Experienced class for the total points won over the year 2019.
David Hay won the MacGregor shield for the best entry over all 3 categories in the year 2019.

This post ends the entries for 2019, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the committee members for the way the club has been handled this year, there are lots of tasks that have gone on unseen by the vast majority of the members that I as chairman appreciate has happened and will continue to happen, the club has been going now for some 15 years and appears to be going from strength to strength, the membership base is solid and we have had a waiting list for most of the club’s existence , this bodes well for the club’s continuance . Finally I would like to thank all the members for their attendance and we hope to see you all in the new year, our first meeting is on the 9th January 2020.

I would like take this opportunity on behalf of the committee to wish all our members online or present a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

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This week’s meeting, Wednesday 11th December 2019, open competition.

This week,s meeting is on Wednesday 11th December, not the 12th as originally planned, it’s also the clubs Christmas competition for all 3 categories, it’s an open competition where you can make anything you desire, you may also enter more than one item in whichever category you are in, the judging will be done by all the members present.

I would ask all previous winners in any category of any competition in 2019 to enter more than one item as we do have a tie for the overall annual competition winner at present, in the event of their still being a tie after this competition the second entry will then be judged to determine the overall winner in each category.

May I also remind any of last years winners of the annual shields to return them on Wednesday to Douglas Stewart, some of you may have already done so.

The annual Christmas raffle draw will also take place on Wednesday evening after the competition judging has taken place, the tickets for this draw will also still be on sale up to the end of the judging.

Can I also appeal to all the turners who do demonstrations at the club to help Douglas Stewart out with getting sufficient turners to man the lathes to please do so, he has at present only 2 turners for the 9th of January meeting, he requires another 3 and the main subject is all about making “wooden jewellery”, but that does not mean you could not do something else if required. The same scenario also applies to the meeting on the 23rd January, Douglas has only 2 turners he requires another 3, step up and volunteer, the subject for the 23rd January is ,”wooden toys or puzzles”.

The committee would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members and all our online followers a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We hope to see you all in the new year.