Author Archives: Rolf Buwert

Woodturner, toy maker, storyteller (author of Beatrix the Bad Fairy and Haggis Hunting, a short history) and maker of Haggis Hunting Horns. I own a very small woodland where I grow my own timber and talk to the birds. I trade under the name of Created Woodcrafts. AWGB Accredited Woodturning Tutor.

Monthly Club Meeting 14th September

Remember that the next club meeting is tonight Tuesday 14th September, at the workshop in Castle Douglas.

Our demonstrator is Phil Howard, who has demonstrated many times before, and has never disappointed.

The competition item is to make a chess piece, set of draughts, skittles or other game related item.

Jimmy will have the shop open at break time, there will be raffle tickets for sale and may even be some prizes to go with them, so bring some cash (even if it is just for a donation towards the coffee and biscuits).

This is the last meeting before the AGM, so please give some thought to helping the club by serving on the committee, and the post of Chairman is up for annual review, so get your nominations in for new Chairman.

Rolf (current Chairman)



We are back !

The latest Scottish Government announcement informing us that we will be going beyond level 0 as of Monday 9th so we will be having our ‘normal’ monthly meeting on Tuesday 10th August.
 
There are still some remnants of the restrictions we need to adhere to – so we still should wear masks, wash our hands, do Track & Trace, and have the windows open.
 
But otherwise we will try, as best we can, to have a normal meeting.
There will be a live demonstrator, we will have a monthly competition, we will have a coffee break (but would prefer if you could bring your own flask and snack) and maybe even a raffle.
 
It has been a while, but we are back !

July Competition

 Welcome to hopefully the last competition on Zoom.

There are fewer entries than in previous months, but that is fine as we previously closed for July / holiday season. Hopefully some of you are able to take a break during this good weather.

Please vote by expressing your choice at the bottom or emailing me, Thanks.

Senior entry 1.

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Senior 2

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Senior 3

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Novice 1

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Novice 2

Club Night and Competition

Our next meeting will be on 13th July, and we aim for it to be our last one purely on Zoom. 

Our demonstrator is the most excellent Mick Schofield who will be demonstrating how to make a Tooth pick holder. It is a lovely thing to make, looks good, has a function, and even if you don’t use tooth picks is fun to play with if you make it right.

The competition for July is to Make a picture frame to hold an image of (Juli)us Caesar. So, in effect, a photo frame.

Despite Covid-19 numbers climbing rapidly at the moment, primarily among the young and unvaccinated, it is my intention to open the club again on the second Tuesday of AUGUST for our normal club nights. I will be the demonstrator and we will adhere to the regulations of the day as best we can. If you can take a lateral flow test before you have your tea on the evening I would appreciate it (plainly if you test positive you will be staying at home) and there will be guidance on hand washing and Track & Trace when you come in. It will be great to see each other in 3D again in August. Numbers will be limited but I expect we will be able to accommodate everyone who wants to come. More information will be available to you all be email, and the web, nearer the date to include current legislation and guidelines.

Rolf

June Competition

The June Competition is “Make something of equal portions of two woods” and tonight’s entries meet the brief and are all well executed, so thanks to all who entered. There are again some excellent pieces of work, in both quality of finish and of form, well done everyone.

Voting is now closed. Thanks to all who entered and all who voted.

The winners are : Senior Stephen Eccles, and the novice Michael Jacob Well done to you both, you are worthy winners. If you did not win does not mean that your piece was any less worthy, it just means that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and the voters were not looking at your piece properly.

 

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Senior 1.

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Senior 2.

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Senior 3.

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Senior 4. WINNER by Stephen Eccles

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Senior 5.

A magnetic bowl to sort your low value magnetic coins and your gold sovereigns.
Rare earth magnet embedded between the two bowls.

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Senior 6.

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Senior 7.

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Senior 8.

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Novice 1.

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Novice 2.

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Novice 3. Winner – by Michael Jacob

 

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Turning Tuesdays and Turning Thursdays – Reopening as of Tuesday 25th May.

Thank you to all members for your patience waiting for the club to reopen, and keeping in touch with each other.

The pandemic is not over, and there is still no cure for the virus. There is still a large number of people who have not had the vaccination and are just at as much risk of death or serious illness as when the disease first struck 18 months ago, in addition there are several variants which are of greater concern than the first one discovered.

However things are slowly opening up and I have given a great deal of thought of how to get us back into the workshop safely. I firmly believe we can restart the ‘Tuesday and Thursday workshop sessions, as of Tuesday 25th May, without incurring any greater risk than we face in other places – provided we stick to certain rules.

We have sufficient safety procedures in place to allow a very limited return to the workshop, and I would urge you to read this very carefully, and decide if you are comfortable with this, if you can comply with the requirements, and if you can trust the other members of the club to comply.

It is up to every one of us to look after ourselves, and our fellow members. Washing our hands is still a key protection and I would ask you all to do so as soon as you come in, and last thing before you leave. Wash you hands also if you have shared tools or touched something that another member has recently touched. The wearing of masks is much more accepted than previously and we do require it whenever inside the workshop. There are a small number of people who are exempt from wearing a mask, and if you are in the company of an ‘unmasked’ turner just take a step back from them to give that extra ‘safe’ space. 

We are obliged to keep records of members attending for track and trace. Could you please set up your mobile phones, if you have one, so that when you come in you can ‘check in’, or you can do it before you come on your computer (or get your wife, husband, grandchild or manservant to do it for you). The data gathered is deleted automatically after 21 days if not needed. You can also register in the book as we always did.

Our first tentative opening would be Turning Tuesday and Turning Wednesday, and be limited to begin with to just 5 members each session. If we find that demand if high then we can open up on other evenings, or even mornings – but remember that this requires our committee members to be available and willing to come and open and lock up.

Please contact Bill or Jimmy (or email me) in order to book one of the 5 places on Tuesday 25th May, or 5 places on Thursday 27th May. I thank you for your patience and tolerance so far, we will get the normal monthly club meetings restarted as soon as possible.

WELCOME BACK rules

(check_in_Covid_19_A4_Poster) 

Monthly Meeting Competition

This months theme is “Make a dish to hold the coins from your pocket, a coin tube or other money holder”.

We have another impressive set of entries, well done and thanks to everyone who submitted a piece. And thanks in advance to everyone who votes. Your votes are important and raises the standard of members work through your expression of preference.  

Please use your two votes, one for the senior entry and the other for the novice entry, by entering your choice in the box at the bottom, text message, Whatsapp or emailing me at buwert@tiscali.co.uk. If you vote for your own piece it will not be counted, so if your piece is clearly the best please give your vote to the second best.

Please vote today 11th May and I will add them up and announce the winner as soon as possible, either tonight or tomorrow morning. Late votes can not be counted as it causes confusion, so please vote today.

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Entry 1 (Senior)

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Entry 2 (Senior)

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Entry 3 (Senior)

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Entry 4 (Senior)

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Entry 5 (Senior)

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Entry 6 (Senior)

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Entry 7 (Senior)

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Entry 8,  (Senior)

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Entry 9 (Senior)

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Novice

Novice  Entry 1

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Novice  Entry 2

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Novice  Entry 3

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Novice  Entry 4

Reopening (soon)

Thank you everyone for your continued patience and support in keeping the club alive during this prolonged lockdown.

The Scottish Government Government have a plan for returning to normality, stepping down the levels until we are back to ‘normal’.

I can see nothing which specifically applies to organisations such as ours, but if you can see something then I would be glad to hear from you. It looks like it will be July before we reopen, but as things can easily change the date may change forward or back. 

Please get in touch if you have any thoughts on when, and under what conditions you would be comfortable to return.

One of the conditions may be that you self test on the day of attending the club, which means that you would need to apply for a free testing kit from the following web site.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-getting-tested/pages/no-covid-symptoms/

Can I ask you all to obtain one of these kits and especially those of you who want to come on a one-to-one beginners woodturning course, which I am prepared to start again fairly soon. One of the conditions I will have for any course is that student and tutor have negative test results on the morning of the course. 

Before we meet as a club I expect government guidelines will permit ‘Turning Tuesday‘ and ‘Turning Thursdays‘ as per last year where up to 6 members can meet indoors provided certain conditions are met, and we will get this started as soon as we can.

By this date most of us will have had both vaccinations and we will be fairly confident of the protection this gives us however the virus which exists this year is slightly different to the one which started all this in March of last year and for that reason we continue to be careful and protect ourselves, our families and our fellow woodturners.

Please email me at rolf@buwert.com if you have any concerns or questions, or just want to say Hi, and let’s home we can meet again at the workshop very soon.

Rolf

April Competition

Welcome to the Galloway Woodturners April competition.

Thank you to all entrants it is a genuine joy to receive your competition entries each month. The quality of your submissions are very high again and several of you have demonstrated the additional skills of photography to show the work to the best advantage (when we are back to the workshop we will be able to see if you are just hiding the rough bits at the back!).

So here are this months Fruit Bowls, vote for your chosen Senior and Novice entry by typing in the numbers at the bottom of the page, emailing me at rolf@buwert.com or WhatsApp text etc.

Please do so this evening so that I can add up the votes tonight (13/04/2021)

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Senior 1

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Senior 2

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Senior 3

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Senior 4

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Senior 5

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Senior 6

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Senior 7

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Senior 8

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Novice 1

Beginners entry April  Beginners entry April

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Novice 2

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Novice 3

April - novice April - novice

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