The Berkshire Woodturners Association is based in Bracknell and draws woodturners from East Berkshire and South Hertfordshire



Christmas is in the past and the New Year is almost upon us

Let's hope the situation changes for the better and we can meet again as a club at Priestwood, though I am not sure it will happen that quickly.

A number of changes in the offing; a new webmaster in Viv Mitchell will take over in the New Year and a number of our Advanced Category turners will move up to the Masters category

For our first club night of 2021 we will be on Zoom again with a demonstration by Sue Harker

We will continue with the weekly 'Coffee Morning' Zoom sessions and, going forward, where we join Kennet Valley for a demo on their Tuesday Club Night, we will use that months BWA Wednesday Club Night to run some local demos or workshops. So if you have any topics you would like to see covered let the committee know.

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BWA Club Night

A new demonstrator to BWA, Sue Harker will demonstrate open segmented turning.

She has developed an Open Segment Wheel to make creating open segmented items much simpler and she will be demonstrating this in her demo.

This will be an Interactive Live Demo shared with Kennet Valley

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Sue Harker - Open Segmented Turning

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Sue will demonstrate from her workshop in Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast. She will show preparing the timber for segmenting, measuring for the size of segments required and gluing rows of segments. Then how to hold and turn the item, either a bowl or vase.

As well as wheels of various sizes (based on the number of segments, Sue also offers a complete kit of wheel and ready cut segments.

The apple shown in the picture is an example of one of the kits available. The kits are available through Sue's website here


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Roger Phebey the BWA Event Secretary has started planning for the 2021 Club Nights

Because of the uncertainty of the Covid situation Roger has started by assigning the competition themes for each 2021 BWA Club Nights.

The BWA Committee believe it is unlikely the club will be able to meet at Priestwood until at least April so the focus will be on arranging further IRD demos for the first three months.

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The move into a second lockdown has made it clear that Covid 19 is not going to go away anytime soon

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The initial IRDs will probably be shared with the Kennet Valley Woodturners. It is expected that where the IRD demos fall on the Kennet Valley Club Nights, BWA will arrange some form of low key demo or presentation delivered through Zoom for the normal BWA Club Night.

You will find the 2021 themes in a side panel further down this page, with a fuller description on the Events Page.

So get planning what you are going to be turning in 2021.

We need to be prepared to defend our trophy at the 2021 SAW Open Day

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Chestnut Products "Question Time"

Terry Smart and his Chestnut Products Team have come up with yet another interesting initiative to keep us woodturners and woodworkers engaged during this Covid period.

While Terry manages to answer questions on the finishes many of us use in our workshop, he always acknowledges that he is not a woodturner and therefore struggles to anwser questions that are more about technique.

So, as an extention of their Conkers Live Series, they will run a YouTube based question and answer session based the BBC's Question Time programme.

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Conkers Live Question Time

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The first of these will run on Friday 22nd of January with a panel of experts consisting of Richard Findley, Emma Cook and David Lowe fielding the questions.

If you’ve got a suitable question please fire it in to Terry ([email protected]), marking your email CLQT (Conkers LIVE Question Time) and leave the rest to Terry.

And remember there is no such thing as a stupid question and, if you feel the need to ask it, there will be someone else out there who will be glad of the answer

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Chestnut Products Live YouTube Demo

Glenn Lucas will be doing a Live Demo

Terry Smart and his Chestnut Products team will give us another exciting live demo on YouTube.

Glenn will demonstrate from his new workshop in the Republic of Ireland.

Glenn is a prolific turner of bowls using native Irish woods and is a regular demonstrator across Zoom and YouTube and is in demand at the various international symposiums

For more details follow this link


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You will see from the picture above that Glenn truly is a prolific turner of bowls. But as well as turning, Glenn also teaches Woodturning at his County Carlow ‘Woodturning Study Centre’. This includes an excellent DVD on turning the Dublin Viking Bowl.

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Up and Coming Live Remote demos

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Some Up and Coming IRDs

Note: Many of the pro turners have yet to advertise their live demos for 2021. And some are returning to doing live demos through YouTube rather than Zoom.

This list is not complete. There are so many pro turners doing Live demos across Zoom these days it is difficult to keep up with it.

If you have a favourite turner its worth looking at their Social Media pages or their website to see if they are doing such demos.

Many of these demos will have a cost (generally around £10 or $10) and a registration process so if you are interested follow the link to register. And they do get fully booked quite quickly.

And remember IRDs from the US might be at strange time due to the time difference. Make a note of the US time zone where the demo is based and covert the time to British Summer Time. And IRDS from Australia will be at even stranger times!!

It is also worth looking at the AWGB site. They are trying to run IRDS every second Sunday and do a couple of 'Meet the Turner Sessions each week. Initially these demos and chat sessions were free to all to view but now require registration and so might now be reserved for AWGB members.

Competition Status

Beginners

Totals Turner
ThTh+OpGebinners

Competition Status

Advanced

Totals Turner
ThTh+OpAdvanced

Competition Status

Masters

Totals Turner
ThTh+OpMasters

Competition Themes

DateTheme
JanA Square or Multi-sided Platter
FebA musical instrument
MarTurn a bowl, platter or vase which is less than 25% wood
AprHollow Form with an inlet as narrow as possible
MayA flying form
JunA childs toy
JulA candle holder or electric lamp
AugSomething you might find on a desk
SepA time piece – watch or clock
OctSomething associated with the sea
NovA Christmas decoration
DecA Wall Hanging + Keith Sherwood Competition