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Chris Fisher turning a bowl

I hope that you are all coping with the strange way of life that we wake up to every morning. It still seems surreal to be joining queues to gain access to the shops. Nicola and I keep our face masks with us at all times.

In fact, Nicola now has a couple so that she can always keep one in the car. Mine is kept in my man bag, a necessity for me as I have so much kit to carry around. Poop bags for my Guide Dog, Bamber, hand sanitiser, face mask, multi-tool, packet of extra strong mints. The list goes on!

Nicola said we could spare a couple of days away so, a few weeks ago, we stayed at Biggin Hall Hotel in Derbyshire. It is a country house hotel which dates back to 1672. All the staff are amazing and the food is superb. Highly recommended. We love the Peak Park area so much that we are moving to Derbyshire later this year, and have bought a new build in a village not far from the market town of Ashbourne. The house should be completed towards the end of the year and we can’t wait to move to the countryside.

Woodturning and all the work associated with it is always at the forefront of my mind. Work is steadily beginning to gather pace and last week we did our first IRD (interactive remote demonstration). We were asked to provide a remote demonstration for Ely Guild of Woodturners and it was a great success. We used a combination of iPhones and iPads as our cameras and I used a wireless headset so that the club members could hear me clearly. Nicola acted as my moderator and we used Zoom as the technology to connect everyone. I turned a nine inch ash bowl which was power carved and coloured blue on the outside. The inside was left natural as a contrast – it feels great.

Staying in the workshop, I was then teaching on the following Saturday. My student was a lady called Valerie and it was her second class with me. This time she asked to do an introduction to the bowl gouge and some power carving using the King Arthur’s Tools Merlin 2 mini angle grinder. She did a brilliant job and went away with some new skills. Valerie has since bought her first bowl gouge and is keen to get turning with it. I have another student booked in soon but I will tell you how that goes in my next newsletter article. Keep on turning! – Chris Fisher RPT

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