Turnings are where you find 'em

By George Hawthorne

Whenever I travel to a fresh area I look in the galleries to see if any turnings are on offer, hoping to pick up an idea. Strangely very few Galleries ever seem to include woodturnings, it is almost always pictures and ceramics.

We had a week in Cornwall at the end of June and sure enough of all the Galleries we looked at, it was 'painting and pots'. One Gallery did have two bowls of typical design, or lack of the same. So much for galleries.

The shop at the Eden project did reveal some twenty or so pieces of good quality, and even better prices, some coloured work was well done and some pieces were enhanced by carving. Well worth spending some time here, if not money.

The Eden project itself is impressive, if you go, go early to save a lot of walking. To me a visit to Charlestown Harbour is a 'must' in a visit to Cornwall. We were lucky to see a two-masted vessel leave the tiny harbour. A pile of logs, some fifty feet long, were waiting to be made into masts or spars, some had been cut lengthways right through the middle.

About one hundred yards back from the harbour, on the right hand side as you look towards the sea, I spotted a notice: Kernow Wood Turnery. This led me into a yard of old industrial buildings, the turnery is second on the right next to a pottery sales outlet. The 'shop' is thirty feet by twelve feet wide with a turner at work in a little alcove off to one side. Almost half the space is taken up by a large shelf six or seven feet wide running almost the full length of the building. Just inside the door a framed photograph of four men was labelled 'The Turners'. They appeared to be between the late 50's and early 7O's. The one turner at work was one of those in the photograph. Their goods were well made and finished, mainly of traditional design rather than way-out flamboyant style. Colouring and texturing had been used but not overdone. Prices were, I thought quite reasonable. The usual bowls, platters etc. were interspersed with bottle stoppers, light-pulls (£1.5O) candlesticks and a variety of boxes and vases. One box took my eye, a section of Banksia nut made into a box with a solid wood lid. (I shall give that one a try.)

The turner was not very forthcoming, he was busy with a spindle of some kind. No doubt he would have been more interested if J had reached into my back pocket and started peeling off 'folding money'.

All in all our seven days in Cornwall provided two interesting diversions into the world of Woodturning.