Club Night Report

Wednesday 18th December 2024

Club Night Photos for Wednesday 18th December 2024 - Club Christmas Party

The Christmas function was held on Wednesday 18th December. This was originally scheduled for 11th December - but, a badly-timed (for us) road closure and an uncertain re-opening date, led the event to be moved by one-week. Fortunately, this did not deter the 27 Club Members and 8 guests from attending.

Once again, we had first-class food and drinks catered by David and Louise Hawes. Beautifully laid out on multiple tables - with Christmassy decorations, and labels to identify the offerings. It was an extensive choice of food with something for everyone. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic mulled wine was available, along with a number of soft drinks. The loudest applause of the evening went to Louise when she was presented with a bouquet of flowers!

There were three demonstration setups (hands-on if you wanted to have a try), showing spindle turning and pyrography. Dave Branscombe and Martin Barrett generated a lot of interest and showed spindle turning using both the slew chisel and spindle gouges to make a variety of items. Georgina Brown showed the basics of pyrography - discussing techniques and good practice.

The Secret Santa table was organised and run by George Gansbuehler. Each gift put on the table got you a raffle ticket - which, when drawn, enabled the holder to select an item of their choice from the table. Anticipation, mystery and surprise all wrapped up in Christmas paper!

As usual, there was a Display Table where members could show items they had made. There were also the two usual competitions for this evening - Best Christmas Themed Item and Your Best Item Made During 2024.
After a ballot style vote, the competition results were announced.
First, the Christmas Theme winners saw Martin Barrett in first place with his Small Christmas Angel - with wings made of ash, a yew body and mounted on a small yew slab. Second place went to Paul Kohn with a cute Christmas scene of a snowman and a tree mounted on a chunk of stone. Third place was also taken by Martin with his Large Christmas Angel.

Your Best Item of the Year - for the Ian Hooker Memorial Trophy was won by Bob Wells with a superb, delicately pierced maple dish. Bob also took second place with an interesting ash and walnut pedestal bowl. A worthy third place was awarded to Martin Barrett with two splendid spheres - cast in coloured, acrylic resin with burr oak bases - which were turned and polished.
All of the winning entrants discussed their individual pieces - detailing how they were made - along with any problems encountered and how they solved them.
The Chairman, Tim Mortimer presented Bob Wells with the trophy.

The final competition of the evening was a fun themed, "Guess How Many Pieces?" in this item, organised by Roger Hoare. Roger contributed the prizes, and supplied one of his larger segmented and turned vases as the 'mystery' item. At £1 per guess - a tidy sum was contributed to Club Funds (thank you, Roger!).
There was a huge range of guesses; the smallest being under 800, to an ambitious 42,000 plus. From all of the entries the average guess was 10,138. The actual number of pieces was 4,391.
Bob Wells was the closest - being only 281 adrift, followed by George Gansbuehler a mere 415 from reality - followed by Bob (again) with the third closest guess of 430, over the answer.
Roger provided a fascinating insight into how he made his vase, with a lively question and answer session.

At the end of the evening Tim Mortimer expressed his thanks to everyone who had contributed to making it another successful event. Especially, the demonstrators - Georgina Brown, Dave Branscombe and Martin Barrett - who spent most of the evening working! - along with George Gansbuehler and Roger Hoare. And, of course the catering managers David and Louise, for the Christmas feast.
He concluded by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Martin Barrett demonstrating the use of the skew chisel	Dave Branscombe showing left hand support on a thin spindle
Georgina Brown talks pyrography	Secret Santa table
Display Table	Best Christmas Decoration Table
Your Best Turning of the Year Table	Your Best Turning of the Year Table (cont)
Martin Barrett - 1st Place - Christmas Decoration	Paul Kohn - 2nd Place - Christmas Decoration
Martin Barrett - 3rd Place - Christmas Decoration	Bob Wells - 1st Place - Best Item of the Year
Bob Wells - 2nd Place - Best Item of the Year	Martin Barrett - 3rd Place - Best Item of the Year
Tim Mortimer presenting the Ian Hooker Memorial Trophy to Bob Wells for Your Best Item Turned in 2024
'Guess the Number of Pieces' in Roger Hoare's Segmented Vase - standing 33" (840 mm) tall by 18" (225 mm) diameter	The vase is made from walnut, sycamore and pink ivory Total number of pieces is 4,391