We were delighted to welcome once again Kieran Reynolds as our guest demonstrator to our November meeting and true to form Kieran gave us a quickfire display of his skill as a woodturner and craftsperson. The theme of the demonstration was, Christmas, a selection of decorations, for the tree, the table and anywhere in the house to invoke the seasonal spirit. Kieran started with a tealight holder in the form of a snowman from a blank of red deal, 75mmx75mm and 150mm long. He explained that he makes quite a few of these at this time of the year and red deal is relatively inexpensive also the circles of the grain give these fellows a bit of character. The hat is coloured in with a red marker, the nose a piece of dowel shaped and coloured orange the eyes and buttons are plastic beads found in any shop that sells bling and finished with a piece of Christmas ribbon as a scarf. (The photo shows the sizes of each section)
Kieran followed this with a pair of bottle stoppers on a stand, a smaller version of the snowman or snowwoman, though I have to say in my house a bottle of wine seldom lasts long enough to need a stopper.
After the break Kieran got back to work on some tree decorations, a bell, a dinky little bird house and a small pine tree, all made from different timbers, making the point that handcrafted wooden pieces are more traditional at Christmas and I very much agree with that. Another piece Kieran turned was a Santa Claus figure which I though was both fun and artistic though he explained it was originally by a German woodturner, Bjorn Kohlar, I looked up his website and found he has a whole series of these figures, worth a look. A well-structured, useful, and entertaining demonstration. Thank you very much Kieran, we look forward to seeing you again in the not too distant future
The November meeting is our AGM and involves among other thing the election of our committee. This year Chris Hayes is stepping down after many years of invaluable service to the chapter, serving in many roles, as chairman, treasurer, secretary and so much thankless background work. The chapter owes him a debt of gratitude, thank you Chris.
The new elected committee is chaired by Francis Corr, Tom Murphy as secretary and Kevin McLoughlin as treasurer
Pat Gannon.
The result of the monthly competition as follows. In first place Jim Hynes, 2nd Tom Gibson. In the novice section 1st Cathal Ryan, 2nd Kevin Mc Loughlin.
I think some of the novices will be stepping up this year so we can look forward to some good contests in the monthly competition.
That’s all for this month, look forward to seeing you all at our Christmas meeting, till then work safe.
Pat.
