THE VALLEY WOODTURNERS CLUB IS DEDICATED TO THE PROMOTION OF WOODTURNING AS A FUN AND CREATIVE HOBBY.
Next Club Meeting - Friday, 12 Apr 2024
Our next club meeting will take place on Friday, 12 Apr 2024 at Confederation Education Centre High School in the cafetorium, starting at 7 PM. We are also providing a ZOOM link. For those attending in-person, please feel free to arrive early to help set out the chairs and get caught up with your fellow turners. We will have a special guest for this meeting - see below for details.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Look forward to seeing you there!
Special Guest and demonstrator - Nicole Macdonald- April Meeting
For the April meeting, we are doing something a little bit different. We will have a special guest that evening, Nicole MacDonald. Nicole is a Canadian woodturner with roots in Cape Breton NS. Her turnings reflect her rural childhood as she recreates feelings of discovery and wonder through nostalgic organic colours and textures. Today Nicole lives in Montreal and is a scientific consultant doing electron microscopy for scientists in industry and academia. Her career has underscored the importance of looking closely at the micro scale to see unexpected patterns and structures. She draws people in with textures and colours, creating a desire to pick up and explore a piece visually and manually, inspiring curiosity about a piece’s inspiration, all of this to foster a sense of connection between us and the environment on a macro-and micro-scale. In this special live demonstration, Nicole will bring a pre-turned box, explain how it is carved, and show a finish-carved urchin box. She will show and discuss embellishment and texturing techniques using dyes and modelling paste. While dyes are familiar, modelling paste may be a novel material for some turners. It is a tintable paste of fine marble dust mixed with an acrylic binder that dries to a rigid but machinable surface. By adding this material, either as a film or site-selectively, very fine textures are created that are difficult to achieve through carving or burning. The final effect can range from spiky to pearly, scaled to stucco, adding interesting dimensions. The outcome from these techniques can range from subtle and natural looking, to brilliant fantasy.
And that's not all....
Nicole will be running a small workshop on Saturday April 13th from 9 AM to 1 PM (with a break) at Lee Valley Tools on Morrison Drive, in the Seminar Room. Students are invited to bring a pre-turned form or two, which they will embellish using the techniques demonstrated in the Friday evening demonstration. The dyes, modelling paste and equipment will be supplied.
The workshop will be limited to 10 students; first come, first served. There are still a few seats remaining. The fee to participate in the workshop is $50, with registration and payment to the treasurer (ovwtreasurer@gmail.com) by 5 April, 2024.
Wood Hat Raffle!
The winner of our wood hat raffle on 19 March, 2024 was none other than Rick Crook!! Looks like it fits quite nicely!
Thanks to all who participated in our fund raiser!
Thanks to all who participated in our fund raiser!
Special Notices
Introduction to Woodturning courses are underway and being filled.
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What's Changed Recently:
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30th Anniversary Party a Smash hit!
It took a little while, but we have the photos on a special 30th Anniversary Page in our Gallery! In case you missed the email, Murray (our club President) sent a note out to the Membership. Take a read:
As Club President I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who attended this special meeting. It was nice to see Renaud Prefontaine there - we all owe him a debt of gratitude for getting the ball rolling, and then shepherding the Valley Woodturners Club through those first years - so thank-you once again Renaud!
I'd like to especially thank those brave souls who put their reputations on the line in our "bowl turning challenge" - the chips were flying, and the results were excellent all around - just one funnel and one exploding tenon to mention! Also, who is going to soon forget the head-to-head battle royale between Louis and Bart? There were at least two reports of UFOs coming from Louis' side of the cafetorium!
All-in-all the anniversary gathering was well received and we're planning on repeating the meeting's hands-on format at least once more this season.
One of the main points of my opening monologue was to emphasize the critical role that volunteers play in the well-being of our club. It's only because of the dedication and efforts of our volunteers that we have:
In addition to those I thanked above, there are others who we all owe our gratitude to for their efforts organizing our amazing anniversary party:
Thank you to everyone for participating and sharing your feedback. If you liked the format, please let us know what you think worked and what didn't. You can email the OVW Secretary with your feedback.
As Club President I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who attended this special meeting. It was nice to see Renaud Prefontaine there - we all owe him a debt of gratitude for getting the ball rolling, and then shepherding the Valley Woodturners Club through those first years - so thank-you once again Renaud!
I'd like to especially thank those brave souls who put their reputations on the line in our "bowl turning challenge" - the chips were flying, and the results were excellent all around - just one funnel and one exploding tenon to mention! Also, who is going to soon forget the head-to-head battle royale between Louis and Bart? There were at least two reports of UFOs coming from Louis' side of the cafetorium!
All-in-all the anniversary gathering was well received and we're planning on repeating the meeting's hands-on format at least once more this season.
One of the main points of my opening monologue was to emphasize the critical role that volunteers play in the well-being of our club. It's only because of the dedication and efforts of our volunteers that we have:
- in-person/hybrid meetings;
- interesting programming and demonstrations;
- a well functioning, fiscally sound administration;
- dedicated training program including organizers and trainers;
- a responsive website;
- and fun, anniversary parties!
In addition to those I thanked above, there are others who we all owe our gratitude to for their efforts organizing our amazing anniversary party:
- all of the volunteers who arrived at 5pm to set up the cafetorium for our special gathering
- everyone who stayed and helped to cleanup after the meeting
- the club executive for all the planning required for this party
- some special mentions:
- Jayne Torr for arranging the cake, drinks and decorations
- Louis Boucher for providing all the wood for the bowl challenge
- Bart Poulter for organizing the lathes and other equipment for the bowl challenge
- Keith Spurrel and Dave Parker for chainsawing all that curly maple, and Louis Boucher and Denis Gauthier for evaluating and then bandsawing all those curly maple blanks on the hottest day of the year!
- KJP for the free victoriaville wooden bat blanks
Thank you to everyone for participating and sharing your feedback. If you liked the format, please let us know what you think worked and what didn't. You can email the OVW Secretary with your feedback.
CONGRATULATIONS - INTRO TO WOODTURNING Class 2402
Congratulations to our 2402 class graduates!
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