The Bonded Warehouse’s Open Weekend has been a regular event in the club’s calendar for many years as it gives us an excellent opportunity to promote our heritage craft, and the club, to the public.
This year it was the 40th anniversary of the event, and it was fantastic that the club could once again be involved.
As usual we had our full club stand set up, with two lathes running and our craft shop well stocked. Over the weekend the public got to watch members turning a variety of items on the lathes, which could then be purchased.
Traditionally this is the last big outdoor event of the club year, and we usually have a great turnout of members who either man the stand or pop along to say hello – this year was no exception. We must thank Mike C, Tim, Jeff, Ray, Mike D, Matt, Jake & Trevor, and Lorraine who all came along to help out on the stand. Without their support we would not have had our stand and displays. On behalf of the club, thank you!
Over the course of the weekend we got to talk to number of people who are either existing turners who don’t know about our club, or are complete novices who want to know more about the craft and where to start. We all had to start somewhere, so it is great when we can tell them about the help and support that is available through the club.
Hopefully we will see a few new people take up the hobby and become club members.
With Christmas just around the corner, our craft stall gave the public the opportunity to purchase some unique and hand crafted Christmas presents. There were an excellent variety of items for people to buy (even without Trevor’s Christmas Trees or lucky acorns) as you can see below
Sadly, Sunday was slightly less wet than the canal as the rain poured down for the majority of the day. Thankfully it did not deter everyone from coming along, and we still had a number of people visit the stand. Everything was soaking when we finally took the stand down, but the rain hadn’t dampened the teams spirits following a great weekend.
