che'wI' 'ej cheptaH mIw'a' [Klingon](We Honour the people of the axe)
News, Brought to you by Rich of the Basketful of Unfinished Spoons:
We had a good turn out at our Easter Saturday meet, including 3 of our 16 Dave’s. The sun was gorgeous, and the garden treated us to displays of daffodils, tulips, and birds. The Duck couple, gaining familiarity with us flew in at speed, eager for scattering of duck food.
The general spirit of the day was finishing previously started projects - Bowl Mike finished a couple of Bowls, one being a lovely bird bowl with hints of influence from David Fisher, and absolutely nothing to do with Scottish Lake Monsters this time. Sue and Carl refined in progress spoons. Ranger Dave was working on bowls from the last meet. I rebelled and started a pocket spoon out of the oh so common mystery wood. We may have had a few more rebels but I was too focussed (in between the tea, cake, chats, lunch, jokes, and Dave 2’s comedic output). Wendy made a really cool Easter egg shaped bunny, in a Studio Ghibli like style.
Word Of The Week, Brought to you by Mike of the Bowl: Brash!
Coarse. Crude. Loud. Or.... The left over bits of wood from tree felling that have no merchantable value but may have use for treen, perhaps.
I helped with a woodland management project at Raydon Great Wood in Suffolk, where the BRASH from tree felling was used to form deadwood screens. They were more like wooden Hadrian walls providing flora, fauna and invertebrate habitats.
Regular Bits n Bobs:
If you have them, bring your lathe, shave horse, and any other fun equipment. We have a few chopping blocks and one kuksa horse, so if you can bring your own please do. Note for those with Lathes, our floor space is mostly concrete, so treadles may not be able to be pegged down.
Our meets don’t just have to be about making wood chips, we encourage members to bring other crafts to the meets, be that spinning a yarn, weaving a basket, making a tool sheath from leather or bark, and even decorative methods for our wooden items. Feel free to showcase your other craft skills as we are interested in sharing and learning a wider range of skills as we grow as a group. If any members would like to lead a session of various crafts for the group, possibly a paid one day course, please get in contact with me and we will see what we can arrange for the future.
About the venue:
The venue has toilets, kitchen, and is accessible to wheelchairs. I will supply teabags, coffee, sugar and cows milk. Please bring your own non dairy milk if needed. If anyone wants to bring biscuits, cake, snacks to share that would be nice, but bring your own lunch, bowl/plate, drinking vessel, and cutlery please.
Members have suggested a contribution for Tea/Coffee a few times, so I have decided to ask for a contribution of 50p. Obviously if you bring all your own bits, there is no need to chip in.
Free secure parking is available within the walled garden. Follow the main driveway all the way down, past the public car park and the “no unauthorised vehicles” sign, then the Walled Garden’s big gates will be on the left. Toot your horn to let us know you’ve arrived.
See site map, and map links at bottom of page.
Hope to see you there, and please contact me if you have any questions.
Richard Roberts - Group Coordinator APTGW Essex Bodgers
APTGW Membership:
Our meets are free of charge to members of the Association of Polelathe Turners and Green Woodworkers.
Non members are welcome to join us a few times to see if it’s something they’d like to pursue further. We then ask that folks join the APTGW. It’s only £20 per year and membership runs from January to December each year.
Join the APTGW here: https://www.bodgers.org.uk/joinus
For just £20 a year you get:
A quarterly Gazette with news views and articles on all aspects of green woodworking.
Attend the UK Bodger's Ball always held in mid-May (this is chargeable, but a bargain!)
Win prizes for your creations at the many craft competitions at the ball
Connect with other Green Woodworkers, tool makers, rural crafters.
Learn new skills in a variety of length courses.
Attend and participate in the Annual General Meeting which is held at the Bodgers Ball
Vote on how the organisation progresses and elect, or even stand for the committee!
Here is a "what 3 words" ink to the location: https://w3w.co/sizes.soup.puddles
Google maps link to location: https://goo.gl/maps/f6rYfb92p6n43Uz99
