Midland Chapter - June 2023
A workshop day was held at Emmet Kane’s workshop/studio in Castledermot, County Kildare. It was lovely to see members from other Chapters attend. What made the event so special was a gathering of like-minded people which created a great atmosphere.
The demonstrations had something for everyone. Sharpening stations, pyrography, box and bowl making, thread chasing, spindle turning & lathe work, texturing, turning a sphere with a sphere jig and a demonstration of the Mc Naughton Nesting System. All the demonstrations were entertaining and inspirational and there was a nice flow of people between each stand throughout the day with everyone chatting and excited to go home and try out different things.
Martin McNamara demonstrated how to sharpen woodturning tools on the Oneway system and Noel Roche on the Tormek grinder. They emphasized that the sharpening station is one of the most important pieces of equipment and essential when woodturning. Martin demonstrated turning a walnut Japanese pergola shape lidded box and showcased a variety of boxes of different designs. He discussed how mixing woods such as ash and mahogany will give a lovely visual effect to any piece.
Marie Farrell demonstrated pyrography, a method of decorating wood that allows you to personalise designs to wood surfaces. She recommends purchasing a good quality pyrography machine with variable heat settings. Marie uses a Peter Child machine. You can trace the design onto the wood using graphite paper or sketch freehand. Marie had some lovely displays of her work on show, one of these was a Lazy Susan decorated with butterflies.
Emmet Kane demonstrated texturing using various techniques. He used power and hand tools such as, dremel rotary tools, wood routers, arbortech tools and a variety of cutters and burrs. Each tool creates a specific pattern on the wood and makes a piece more interesting.
Michael McGuigan from the North East Chapter turned a sphere with a Paul Howard sphere turning jig. The speed, the setting up of the jig and calculations are all very important. Michael who works from a wheelchair likes to have access to all equipment around him. A movable headstock is very important as is the height of the lathe. The end result was a beautiful turned sphere. On display was his lovely collection of mood owls. Michael wants to bring more awareness that people with similar challenges can participate in the craft of woodturning.
Paddy O’Connor demonstrated the McNaughton Nesting System which can cut two or three bowls out of the one piece of wood. Paddy also demonstrated spindle turning, the use of hollowing tools and thread chasing.
We were delighted to have such experienced demonstrators and we would like to thank them all for sharing their knowledge and skill with us. We would like to thank Emmet for holding the event at his workshop, his family for their hospitality, all those who helped set up the workshop and the attendees for making it such a wonderful informative and enjoyable day.
The award-winning Crane and Seed Sower were on display on the IWG stand at the craft village at Bord Bia Bloom supported by the Design and Craft Council of Ireland.
