Tonk'peh Essex heh London Bodgers [Vulcan]
(Hello Essex and London Bodgers)
News By Wendy of the Wool
A bit damp to start with, but the sun made a great effort to join us at our most recent meet up, which was much appreciated.
Having just sat down to drink our first cuppa and eat our breakfast croissants, we noticed a Woodpecker on the bird feeder! He stayed there for a while, so we got a good look at him.
The visitors to the bird feeders were at record levels with many tits, nuthatches and robins flitting about, at times they were crowded out by the much larger Magpies (about 10 at one point), Crows and Parakeets.
Not to be left out, the Pheasant came along a bit later to pick up fallen scraps. All in all, this was much more exciting than my tally of 4 birds when I did the Great British Bird Watch in our back garden last weekend.
We spent the day in the classroom - Rich; (as he remembered his glasses this time) worked on finishing cuts and chip carving in his makers mark onto a batch of spoons.
Jamie worked on a fox carving, and I finished the blue tit I started last time, but didn’t like, so started a new, smaller one, changed colours up a bit and ‘felt’ chuffed with the result.
We were also joined by a new fellow Bodger (Dave) who in classic style, pulled a packet of biscuits out of his bag almost immediately. He found the our Bodgers group through Zed’s video of Rich - Thanks Zed! Dave brought along some spoons he’d made and a good chat about wood and tools was had. We hope to see him again in the future.
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 near bottom of page.
Hope to see you there, and please email me at essexaptgw@gmail.com 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
Members Services (Please ask if you want to be added to this list)
Sharpening Service - R2 Wood
I’ve launched a sharpening service for greenwood carving tools, offering APTGW members a 5% discount. Covering Sloyd and Spoon knives, Axes, Adzes, Gouges and more. Please contact Richard at info@r2wood.co.uk to enquire.