All content © West Suffolk Woodturning Club 2012 - 2024
We are a small and friendly club with a variety of members with very varied skills. Many of our members travel considerable distances to meet with us and most are very active turners.
We promote our club and woodturning at various events during the year.
Members can offer advice and tips and you can learn a lot from our demonstration evening, which showcase some of the top demonstrators available as well as our own members’ talents. We use a media projector to make sure that the action is viewed from several camera angles.
There is always a table for display of your latest creation at each meeting, also the occasional item turns up for sale. As part of your membership we can offer you a free personal gallery page on this website.
We also have a number of nights where traders may show their wares and demonstrate their products.
We hold a club competition annually where we award the Club’s “Malcolm Fox Memorial Trophy” to the entry voted most popular by the members.
See the calendar page for all this years events.
Quick Links
Upcoming meetings and events:
15th July - Terry Bray
‘Thread chasing’
7 for 7:30pm start at the Village Hall
Most meetings are almost back to normal following the Covid19 pandemic, however we still have some remaining precautions: view here
Recently displayed
Congratulations to Mick Favager winner of the 2023 Malcolm Fox Memorial Trophy winner, his stylised figure is shown right.
Second place went to Ian Cameron with his Angel and third place Martin Taylor’s nativity.
We encourage all members to bring items to meetings for display. See more in the main Gallery
A-Z Safety
About our club
Covid 19
The meeting hall and our events are now running as they were prior to the Covid outbreak. Although the memory of strict Covid 19 rules and precautions are now becoming a fading memory obviously we are very keen to ensure the safety of everyone who attends our meetings.
We have a number of older or vulnerable people who regularly attend our meetings and would ask members to apply the following conditions:
We would ask you not to attend if:
Some of our members still choose to wear a mask, and this is perfectly acceptable.
Thank you.
Change of meeting day
Please note our meeting day has changed to the third Monday of the month. This is so that our meetings do not coincide with another group that use the same venue.
The committee aims to meet several times a year to discuss new ideas, organise upcoming events and find ways to enhance the club.
We do however require further member help to achieve our events and goals, help is always appreciated at meetings to setup and clear down and at our special events.
If you have fresh ideas, organisational skills or are just enthusiastic about the club and woodturning in general then please feel free to ask any committee member for an informal chat, or better still just volunteer to join on the AGM night held annually in November.
Click here to view the 2023 AGM minutes.
The current Committee:
- You or your family members have tested positive for Covid within the last 14 days.
- You have Covid type symptoms
- There is a risk you may have been in contact with anyone showing signs of the illness
Committee news
|
Stuart Clarke |
: |
Chairman |
|
|
John Woods |
: |
Secretary |
|
|
Pat Yates |
: |
Treasurer |
|
|
Ian Cameron |
: |
Member |
|
|
Martin Taylor |
: |
Member |
|
|
Neil Robertson |
: |
Member, news & website |
|
|
Tic Challis |
: |
Member |
|
Next meeting - July 15th - Terry Bray
Our July meeting will feature a thread chasing demonstration by Terry Bray, an artist and woodturner who originated from Plymouth and after 72 years moved to Heckington in Lincolnshire where he continues to paint and turn.
He is a member of the Lincolnshire Association of Woodturners. Terry provides woodturning demonstrations at clubs and online, he also teaches woodturning in his workshop.
Terrry has a website and also showcases his woodturning on Youtube under the channel ‘Bray's Woodturning’.
The demonstration will commence at 7.30pm in the village hall.
Terry Bray’s website - Click here
Unfortunately, Nikki Wheetman was unable to demonstrate for us due to circumstances out of her control, and we were pleased that Mick Favager was able to provide a demonstration at short notice. Our very best wishes go to Nikki and we hope to see her back sometime in the near future at the club.
Mick never fails to amuse with his demonstrations and this was no exception. He showed us how to make and tune wooden whistles. The demonstration included an orchestral piece played by the newly formed WSWC whistle ensemble, professionally conducted by Mick. If that has wet your whistle then please see the full report within the June newsletter - available here
June meeting - Mick Favager
Weird and Wonderful Wood show - May 2024
Our chairman, Stuart Clarke has kindly supplied this synopsis on the recent WSWC club attendance at Haughley park near Stowmarket:
"Overall a very successful weekend for the club. Lots of the public and members of other clubs engaged with us over two very warm and sunny days. There are some new members joining also, always great to see.
I have said it before and will say again, a heartfelt thankyou to all those who helped organise, setup, man the stand and made items for the tombola. Without any of this involvement and hard work it would not be possible to attend the event.
The number of items won seemed to be very high this year, so we will desperately need to replenish for next year (Hint Hint).
The money raised over the weekend will no doubt be put to good use within the club, whether it be upgraded equipment or for many inspiring demos for the future."
Stuart also supplied a couple of photos of the club stand.
May meeting - with Tic Challis
Our own member, Tic Challis, gave a very entertaining and informative talk and demonstration where she described the techniques she uses to make her multi-media characters.
Tic has a very creative and imaginative mind and often looks at a piece of timber and 'sees' what it wants to be turned into.
She uses scraps of material, leather and recovered hardware to add features to her often simply turned shapes. The results are colourful playful and delightful individual pieces.
A full report is in the May newsletter - available by clicking here..
Pre-announcement - All day demonstration - October 2024
One to pencil into your diary is the all-day demonstration on Saturday October 26th.
This will be a repeat all-day demo with Colwin Way as it proved to be a very successful day last year.
Bookings are not being taken at this time and we will announce the procedure nearer to the date.
Calendar page - Click here
