Newsletters – Cheam Woodturners Association

March 2026

News from Cheam Woodturners Association. Welcome to The Spin, March 2026. From the Chairman The funeral of Brain Ash, one of our founder members took place last week. In accordance with the family’s wishes, a charitable donation was made to the Children with Cancer charity on behalf of Cheam Woodturners, in recognition of Brian’s service. Last Meeting We welcomed back Glenn Cornish, who has recently started a production turning venture. Glenn gave an insight...

February 2026

News from Cheam Woodturners Association. Welcome to The Spin, February 2026. From the Chairman Last month we lost Brain Ash, one of our founder members. Brian passed away on the 10th Feb after an operation associated with the radiation treatment he had nearly 20 years ago for bowel cancer. We observed a minute’s silence prior to the meeting, thank you to all those in attendance. Brians funeral is to be held at the Surrey & Sussex crematorium, Crawley on Th...

January 2026

THE SPIN issue no 134 News from Cheam Woodturners Association. Welcome to The Spin, January 2026. From the Chairman Looking forward to another successful year with some great demonstrations scheduled. We are always looking to bolster the program. Please come forward if you have any ideas / suggestions for a forthcoming club night as there are a few dates we need to fill.

December 2025

Great end to the year and well done to everyone that submitted a bowl for one of the Frank Clarke Trophies, a varied and interesting array of items with some worthy winners. Many thanks to Max for his fluting jig demo, the results are absolutely stunning. If anyone would like to give a short demo at a forthcoming club night please let me know as there are a few dates we need to fill.

November 2025

We started the last meeting with an OGM to discuss membership fees for the coming year. Maxdetailed our projected expenditure against anticipated income. The conclusion being that membership fees would need to increase to £80 for the year, discounted to £75 for existing members if paid by Dec 31st. The proposal was carried unanimously. I have since had representation regarding the possibility of staggering the payment to avoid this now quite significant amount g...

October 2025

Great demo from Kade Bolger last month. Many thanks to everyone that helped, whether providing wood / equipment or setting / clearing up on the night. A special thank you to Rob and his wife for hosting Kade at their home overnight. Thanks to all for a fabulous display on the show table, I’m sure our visitors were very impressed. Breaking news: Axminster went into Administration last week. Many offers available on their website.

September 2025

We have Kade Bolger demonstrating at the next meeting when he hopes to create 2 separate pieces of work. To give him a fighting chance, a prompt 7:30 start is required. Kade is an internationally renown turner and we are part of his UK tour which hopefully will attract a good number of visitors on the night. Setting up will be a challenge so any help would be much appreciated.

August 2025

Next month we have a talk from Gordon followed by a critique session, which is always both informative and enjoyable so please come along. Further to many suggestions and ideas on how to resurrect my bowl disaster last month (see below), I will be sharing a quick update.

July 2025

We had the pleasure of welcoming Terry from Chestnut Products this month. The demonstration of the numerous finishing projects was both interesting and informative, especially to the less experienced amongst us. I certainly came away feeling better equipped to experiment with some alternative finishing techniques.

June 2025

Our yearly date with Martin Saban Smith. Martin made, coloured and polished a hollow form which he finished off with a very fine finial. Considering the amount of work involved I think he did well to complete the project within the timeframe. Another enjoyable demonstration.