Turnfest 2011 Gold Coast, Australia

Turnfest - A first for me – 3 days of turning demonstrations with Australian and Overseas professional turners, together with 350 woodturners from Australia & New Zealand attending. What do you call a group of wood turners anyway? A circle of turners (too bad a pun) or a forest of turners…?  Turning at the Seaworld resort was quite different from down the club or out in the garage, all those carpeted conference rooms with aircon. Was a bit like turning in your living room, didn’t feel quite right, almost expected a sighing cleaning lady to brush past you with an overloaded vacuum, muttering about the shavings. However, could not complain about the location or setting, was quite beautiful.

The line up of expertise was inspiringly varied, each turner with their own different background, skills, advice and experience. From Al Stirt (NE America, near Canadian border) , Jimmy Clewes (English, living in the States) and Pat Kramer (Hawaii) to Australian Glenn Roberts (NSW), Tony Hansen (QLD) and Vaughn Richmond (WA) and all those others I didn’t manage to get to. The variety of demo styles was refreshing too. 
Have to say Jimmy Clewes for me, as a beginner turner, was the most accessible. He came across as a genuine guy, an efficient teacher and excellent communicator of woodturning skills and techniques. Ray has invited him to our club next year, during Turnfest and he is interested in teaching some groups for a Turning Down Under series of his videos. That would be great.

So what did I learn? Some bits of wisdom I picked up and could decipher from my pages of scribbled notes:

Al Stirt – did a session on balancing the grain in an open bowl. Seems obvious but you can move your mounted bowl to manage where the grain patterns are lying ie to the middle of your bowl instead of accepting the offset location you are uncovering. The use of water to lubricate if you are getting chattering as cutting. Buying bolt covers (for sticking out bolts) at your hardware and using them to cover the outside end of your calipers so you don’t mark the finished surface when you are measuring wall thickness of your bowl.  Creating his square edged platter with the little bowl in the middle was great to watch.

Jimmy Clewes – liked his clear explanations of technique, too basic for experienced turners to read but great for me. Although did hear the same comment repeated that experienced guys liked his back to basics approach and his packed sessions spoke for themselves. Each project followed a common sense working through the stages, like the bowl hollowing out – finish your cut at the rim, then move down in steps, clear out middle bulk (as far as you have come down the wall), back to edge, cut, clear and move down. His theory behind this was that the bulk (or guts in the middle) should be left in for support, get each bit right before moving further down as the wood is not supported if you go back to trim up by the rim once the bulk is removed.

Sharpen your tool for the finishing cut so can’t blame your tool if it goes wrong!

Use the lathe at a fast speed, there’s less resistance to the cut, can work more fluidly and get a better resulting finish on the surface. He introduced his audience to the word “shetoiancy”, can’t imagine how you spell it but it means that almost 3 D shimmer you sometimes see in the grain of wood. Bevel rubbing, parting tool cut before start with bowl gouge, mistakes in thickness of bowl and how to avoid the trap of the wrong cut, design, ergonomics etc etc. He had a wealth of information and an easy patter with his audience.

Glenn Roberts obviously has a very creative, problem solving mind and had devised many gadgets to tackle situations he encountered. Loved his sandpaper velcroed onto an electric knife and also onto a plastic bendy spatula for awkward sanding places, a nail file cut in half also doing the job. The effect of his bleaching technique was interesting to see. Have to say though that when Glenn Roberts and Vaughn Richmond were both presenting their versions of how to still get something out of a stuff up or rather “it’s not a mistake but a design opportunity”, they seemed to make perfect things then purposely create a mistake to “fix” with something arty which there was a public demand for. Seems ironic that when you are so good,  you have to make mistakes to sell your work. Hey, if it’s a stuff up they need, they should just shout for a few beginners to volunteer to turn at the beginning of the session, then they’d have something real to show us how to rescue!

Tony Hansen’s approach was different again. He doesn’t have time for mistakes. It’s a tealight every 25 seconds or productivity will suffer. Obviously driven by a need to produce to sell, his presentations were quick and simple. Easy projects, well they looked easy compared with the design creations of Pat Kramer. Beautiful, simple vessel shapes lured you to his talk, with additional information on a slide presentation illustrating varied and creative work. Obviously extremely talented and at the arty end of the turning spectrum.

But back to Tony, a down to earth, hard working turner who moved quickly and easily through his demo with projects you are keen to try at home, especially with a different medium like his banksia nuts. I believe Alan bought a bagful if anyone wants to offer him bucks to part with them.

 Our club members are the friendliest bunch I reckon. Well, miles better than the guy I sat next to, who seriously told someone to "shut the door to keep the women out" after I sat down. Gold Coast Woodturners have a future, they have old and young, men and women and all with a genuine enthusiasm for the craft. Woodturning is certainly alive and kicking on the Gold Coast.

Turnfest 2011 was a great experience. 2012 is the 10^th anniversary, hosting the largest group of professional turners in one place that the world has ever seen and promising to be a truly unique event.