Nigel and Judy

Today I had a lovely Husband and Wife couple Nigel and Judyl who made two very nice bowls.
Judy's is a nice bit of figured Holly and Nigel's is a nice bit of Sycamore.
Sometimes teaching is easier than others and today was one of those days they both took to it like ducks to water and that makes my job a lot easier.
Thank you both it was a very enjoyable day and you both did very well.
Here are a few pics.

 Click on pics to enlarge

Derek

Today's student Derek was treated to a days woodturning tuition by his Daughter and son in law.
Derek is now retired from 44 years as a Methodist Minister and is going to take up woodturning as a hobby.
I think he has made a good start with todays Beech bowl.

Helen's Christmas present

Helen's husband Rob bought her a days woodturning tuition and here are a few pics and the beutiful bowl she made out of a nice piece of Olive Ash today.

Mark Sanger's Book.

I have had the privilege of reading Mark Sanger's new book on Turning Hollow Forms.
It is a very easy to understand book with step by step instructions on how to turn Hollow Forms from seasoned and unseasoned wood.The book is full of practical information,lots of easy to understand diagrams and beautiful pictures.
There is even a picture of one of my Hollow Forms in it.
This is a must buy for anybody Professional or novice that is interested in Hollow Form turning.

Drop in woodturning skills clinic.

Today I held a drop in woodturning skills clinic for our Burnham on Sea Woodturning club  http://www.burnham-on-sea-wtc.co.uk/.
The purpose was to give members the opportunity to drop in throughout the day and get help with any problems they are having with their woodturning.A good number of members attended and they all brought their tools in.What very soon became apparent is that most of their problems stemmed from badly profiled and sharpened tools.As soon as their tools were re profiled and sharpened correctly most of their problems disappeared and they went away with renewed confidence.Most have jigs so it should not be too dificult for them to repeat the profiling and sharpening .
It does make me wonder how many woodturners give up woodturning because they cannot get good results when all they probably need is some tuition on sharpening and profiling their tools.
I have a student coming to me for two days next week who has been turning for a number of years but tells me he is fed up with having to do a lot of sanding to get good results.I have told him to bring his tools along as I suspect that is where a lot of the trouble lies.
I am confident that once his tools are sorted and he is shown the correct way to use them he will go away
and create new works with a lot less sanding.