The 2022 Jacaranda Festival Woodwork Display is on again.
The Competition Section is open to all woodworkers. Members of other woodworking clubs are especially welcome. Categories include Furniture, Turned Articles, Small articles, Free Expression and more.
The entry form can be downloaded here or at the link below.
At a recent session at the CVWA’s Ulmarra workshop, Roy Ellery produced this fine small box with lid during morning tea discussion. The piece is made from tiger myrtle, with a finely turned finial. The finial is so fine that the tip broke when Roy was painting it!
Roy often makes his own turning tools -these miniature scrapers were made from old Allen keys – a good choice because of the quality of steel used.
The moral of the story – don’t waste the finest off cuts of beautiful timbers!
The Australian Wood Review magazine is running its Maker of the Year event, with support from Carbatec and other sponsors. The event sets out to encourage talented and innovative woodworkers from Australia, New Zealand and around the world, with a prize pool of $23,000.
Neil Cryer has entered his award winning ‘Butterfly Fantasy’ – a wonderfully light and delicate turned and pierced piece. (Neil was awarded ‘Best Overall’ in the Lower Clarence Art and Crafts Festival woodwork competition).
Over the course of the event, Australian Wood Review showcases selected works from the competition entries on its Facebook and Instagram pages throughout the year.
This week, it was Neil’s entry that was chosen to be showcased via Facebook and Instagram, with the caption as follows:-
“Here’s Neil Cryer’s entry: Butterfly Fantasy is “transparent in part and incredibly light in construction from the end of a heavy 400mm diameter windfall jacaranda log”.
Note that entries to the ‘Maker of the Year’ close on 5 September.
The June club meeting was well attended, despite the cold but sunny weather!
The highlight of the meeting was a presentation by Bob Aitken and Terry Hulm on the use of resins in their work. Unfortunately, I had to leave early, and missed a very slick and informative presentation – regretfully, we have no photos!
A diverse range of pieces were put up for ‘Show and Tell’. Steve Dodd and Alan Bishop shared the draw for vouchers.
As we head towards the next Jacaranda Festival Exhibition (Saturday 29 October through Sunday 6 November), our members are hard at work. The Jacaranda display and sales is the Clarence Valley Woodworkers Association’s major event of the year. All members are encouraged to participate. Members can display and sell made items or choose to just display only.
Here are some new pieces by Bob Aitken and Roy Ellery
Apologies – this article was written back in April, but someone forgot to press the ‘publish’ button!
The CVWA General Meeting of 30-April, 2022 was followed by a demonstration by President Roy Ellery. Roy brought in the range of tools he uses to carve and texture his turned and sculpted pieces. Roy’s demo generated a lot of interest, with questions from the floor. Some of Roy’s tools have a reverse switch option, apparently, that feature can be used to correct mistakes…
As usual, the meeting featured the traditional Show and Tell section, with numerous items and plenty of discussion.
The meeting concluded with a sausage sizzle and good conversation – thanks to Colin Lang.
The Lower Clarence Arts and Crafts Association held its Clarence River Arts and Crafts Festival (22/23 January) after cancellations and delays. The woodworking section was well supported with a very strong and diverse range of entries.
The Clarence Valley Woodworkers dominated – both in quantity and quality of entries!
The work was judged by Bim Morton, a studio woodworker and educator of more than 30 years experience. Bim is also a co-founder of the Tree-O Gallery in Raleigh, just off the Bellingen Road. In addition to fine woodwork, Tree-O
Gallery features other arts and crafts, such as ceramics, painting and sculpture. Next time you find yourselves traveling to Coffs Harbour, take the time to visit!
Neil Cryer won the prize for Best Overall with his tour de force piece ‘Butterfly Fantasy’. Everyone was drawn to this piece, and it was widely admired.
Pat Johnson’s ‘Flower Bowl’ as another wonderful piece, taking out First Prize for the Carved, Sculpted or Joined Section. Although partly turned, the real work was in the detailed carving around the rim and underneath. The piece was made from a stunning piece of curly Mango.
Steve Dodd’s wonderful ‘Musical Bench’ took second place in the Carved, Sculpted or Joined Section. The choice of timbers, the design of the piece and the execution were outstanding.
First Prize in the Turned Section went to Roy Ellery for this beautiful ‘Leafed Bowl’. It was no surprise that this piece sold very quickly. The judge had no problem selecting this piece, and he noted the form and the beautiful finish on the inside of the bowl.
Pat Johnson’s ‘Grinders’ in ebony and jacaranda took second place in the turned section.
The Grafton Jacaranda Festival is normally held during late October and early November. This year the festival has been reduced in scope and postponed until December subject to the continuing Covid 19 health restrictions.
Following some discussions, there was consensus within the CVWA that we would not proceed with our (more or less) annual Jacaranda display – primarily due to uncertainty regarding restrictions and access..
The CVWA instead took the advantage of an empty shopfront in the Grafton Link arcade to have a ‘pop-up’ display of members work.
Steve Dodd, Roy Ellery and Colin Lang set up the display with more than 50 items of members work on show. The display highlighted the quality and diversity of members work – ranging from Steve’s wonderful music bench through Bill Andrew’s model semi-trailer, Bob Holder’s carvings and Roy Ellery’s turned bowls – plus more splendid work by other members.
The display ran for a month, from October 6 through November 3 and was well received, with club fielding many inquiries from the public.
Earlier this year, before lock-downs, the ‘My Clarence’ exhibition was held at the Coldstream Gallery, Ulmarra. Roy entered a beautiful surfboard depicting Iluka and surrounds. Roy’s surfboard went on to win the ‘People’s Choice’ award, and of course it sold quickly! (see a brief video of Roy presenting his surfboard here)
Roy has subsequently made another surfboard (see photos) and those who have seen it think this one is even better!
Roy described his process:
I start by acquiring a second hand surf board from the recycle centre. I then remove the top half of the fibre glass and sand until I have a flat surface. I then layer the top half with 3 ply timber giving myself a flat surface to work on, then using different timbers, start to display a theme. This one is my interpretation of Iluka with a sunset over the Clarence looking through coastal grasses. A walk through the rainforest onto the beach with the rockwall, ocean and river. The timbers are Jacaranda, Mango, Camphor Laurel, Cedar and Huon Pine. Carving and air brushing give the details.
If you are in town and running errands instead of getting out to the shed, drop into your newsagents and get the latest issue of Australian Woodworker magazine. The magazine features an article by CVWA member and Jacaranda festival stalwart Bob Aitken on his adventures in making clocks with poured resin decorations.
Congratulations to Bob!
Clarence Valley Woodworkers Association 