Sorry about the soccer result, no I'm not going to pass on any of the appalling jokes that have been doing the rounds

I hope everyone is well and enjoying this fantastic weather we are having at the moment.

I have just finished setting up my course dates until March next year, they are mostly 2 days but I have done them so most of them are Thursday/Friday so they are easily extendable into the Saturday for a hat course for instance.

At the moment I haven't given each course a theme as I have found that  a bit restricting.

During the courses I take loads of images and after editing them post them in the course photos section of the website. It's a good way for participants to be able to show wives, friends etc what they've been up to during the course, it also can be used as a reference to remind you of a technique or how the tool is held and how much fun you had.

The dates for Richard Raffan have changed slightly and are now likely to be July/August before he goes on the Norway Cruise. When they are firmed up I will work out numbers and costs and let everyone who has already expressed an interest know before I advertise more widely.

It will be one of the very few times that Richard has agreed to teach in this country, an opportunity not to be missed, he was certainly my inspiration when I started turning and am looking forward to it immensely.

I know I've said it before but this should become a regular item now that things have settled down a bit. I have moved the business during the year and built the new workshop, it will be a work in progress as I know better where I want to put tool racks and shelves etc, but because it is a 55mm thick log cabin it's easy to move things without having to resort to masonry drills and all the hassle that goes with fixing anything to brickwork. The workshop has an area of 48 square metres, 4.8m x 10m with a loo and kitchen, a clean gallery area to sit down in in the winter for coffee and a lovely paved area for table and chairs outside when the weather permits.  The lathes are lined up down one wall with extraction at each lathe, a PVC tiled floor so that any dropped tools don't get damaged and it's also comfortable to stand on, a shavings burner to keep it warm and get rid of the waste. There's even views of the stream that I occasionally see a Kingfisher perched on a branch looking for a feed.

The big plus point for me is that it is at home so I am making again which I have sorely missed. 

Courses:

The new workshop is now finished and ready to start  running courses, I will be posting course dates soon. It's quite a job juggling dates for courses, demo's and shows. The courses on offer will be: Hollow forms from green wood (2 days), Colour, carve and texture(3 days), Wearable wooden hats (3 days) and a new course on turning the dns Twister pens that I have recently become the agent for.

I have asked Richard Raffan to do some courses in early September next year after he has been on the Norwegian Woodturning cruise. The dates are yet to be finalized as are the topics but they will probably be on his standard themes of boxes and bowls. There will be a maximum of 5 people per course so you will get lots of attention and they will be 2-3 days duration, it will all depend on the demand for places so if you are interested please let me know. As soon as I know the costings I will be posting them in this newsletter and on the main website.

New products:

I never thought I would become a pen turner due to the fact I don't like framing somebody else's work, it just didn't appeal to me being bound by the constraints of the mechanisms. But that has changed with the arrival of these kits from my friend Martin Weinbrecht in Germany. Martin only does quality so these kits have to be seen to realise the quality of the mechanisms and the way they write. They are made by the same company (Schmidt Technologies) that makes and supplies pen mechanisms for the worlds leading pen manufacturers. Now I had never made a pen in all the 20 or so years that I have been turning but I have had a lot of fun and some frustration making a dozen of these pens after I got back from my week of teaching for Martin and the results are not too bad. The reason I like them so much is the fact that there is no limit to the design, yes you are limited by the common sense dimensions of a pen but within that critera the only obstacle is your imagination. There are some pictures of them on the Twister pen pages on the site.  My biggest critic when it comes to my work bagged one of them for herself that she won't even let me borrow.

For salt and pepper mill turners Woodcut have introduced the "Mill Drill", a tailstock mounted mandrel that drills the double step needed for CrushGrind® mechanisms in one pass to the correct depth. It also has the facility hold a  25mm saw tooth bit needed to drill the main hole up the middle of the body provided the bit has a 25mm shank. I have to photograph it and get it onto the site but that won't take long.

I will keep you posted with any updates on Richard's course dates and costs.

Best regards

Phil