Our November monthly meeting is also our AGM and was opened with the formalities of the annual reports, then the election of the committee to take the reins for the coming year. Francis Corr was elected chairperson, Chris Hayes, as secretary, a role carried out by Des Harbourne for a number of years and who is now stepping down, a big thanks to Des for all the work he put in on behalf of the members. Tom Murphy was elected to the position of treasurer.
To the business of the day, we again had the multi-talented, Tom Murphy, who stepped in at very short notice as our demonstrator for the afternoon, and Tom as usual gave us an entertaining and amusing display of his turning skills. The piece or pieces Tom worked on was a tableau of figures including a gnome, a snowman and others as can be seen in the photos. The base for this group was a thinnish bowl blank which as Tom said we all have under our bench waiting for day when we will be inspired to find a use for. Using sycamore pieces Tom turned these pieces, some in three parts, body head and hats and coloured them using markers to good effect. He included a Christmas tree in a tub, coloured and dabbed with snow, all the time giving us tips on chisel use, this for the benefit any beginners and us not so beginners. Proper tool sharping is of course so important and here Tom had a simple jig which he had made himself, this keeps the chisels in tip top condition and minimises wear. Thank you Tom I enjoyed your demo as ever and look forward to seeing you again.
That’s it for this month, looking forward to the Christmas meeting, the mince pies and all that, and lets see if we can outdo Joe with some fancy head gear, until then, work safe.
Pat Gannon.
