The annual Northern Turners exhibition, Wood Revisited, will run from October 4 to 19, 2014 at the Port Community Arts Centre, 66 Commercial Road, Port Adelaide. The exhibition will be open between 11 am and 4 pm weekdays and from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Entry is free.
The exhibition will showcase the latest work of a dedicated band of Adelaide woodturners. Items range from bowls and platters, salt and pepper grinders, jewellery boxes, pot pouri bowls, clocks, mirrors and abstract sculptures. All have been hand crafted from new or recycled wood. Some have their own interesting stories. Most are available for purchase.
Graham Reed is Coordinator of Northern Turners’ Exhibitions Group and responsible for organising Wood Revisited. Graham joined Northern Turners in 2000 and has been a member of the Wood Group Exhibition Committee for about 10 years and coordinator for the last four exhibitions.
'In the early years we had trouble getting enough quality pieces to show and we knew which members would be submitting items each year', said Graham. 'Now we have a greater support and diversity of entries to select from and they are now not all just round and brown. Over the years the range and standard of workmanship has greatly improved. Now we have not just turnings but clocks, mirrors, chairs, tables, etc, all with turning basic to their design but including other specialties such as carving, scroll-sawing, or pyrography.'
Chasing entries, organising the venue, and arranging publicity all start months before the exhibition opens. Rosters have to be developed for supervising the exhibition and for others giving turning demonstrations. Wife, Carol, ‘puts up with’ Graham’s heavy involvement (“it was her idea for me to have a hobby” quips Graham), provides suggestions regarding presentation and layout, and helps in many other ways.
'I love being involved', he says. 'I enjoy telling people about our club. Just the other day at (another exhibition) a lady and her husband were asking about some of the articles and the more we talked the more interested they became in joining the club. Three other people wanted to know where they could learn to turn so I told them to join Northern Turners. Northern Turners is a great club with a lot of members that are just as enthusiastic as I am, I will keep doing what I’m doing as long as I can.
Practical demonstrations of woodturning will be given on the weekends. Members of Northern Turners will be on hand every day to discuss woodturning processes with interested visitors.
Further information: www.woodgroupsa.org.au/northernturners/
See here for links to other woodworking clubs around Australian and New Zealand