The Royal Presentation
One day in April a few years ago, a young lady representing
South Crofty Collection called and asked it I could produce a turned presentation
piece for Her Majesty The Queen, on the occasion of her visit to the Royal Cornwall
Show in 2000. At this point they were not certain what sort of thing they wanted,
the only stipulations were: -
1. A dark coloured Cornish Wood
2.
It must contain Cornish Tin
3. To be inlaid with copper.
I asked for a few days to think about it, and with these three things in mind,
I came up with the idea of a Pot-Pourri bowl, but with one exception, the copper
inlay. Although I worked out a way the copper could be inlaid, I was of the opinion
that it just would not be practical for the following reasons. When cleaning the
copper, as inevitably one would have to (not THE ONE of course) the wood would
become stained by the cleaner. The chemical reaction between copper and the wood
would also have a staining effect.
Having passed these conclusions on to
South Crofty they asked if it could be inlaid with another wood, which was no
problem. So we were ready to go but for one snag, no dark wood. I happened to
be talking to Jeremy Capper at one of our meetings and he said that he had got
a chunk of walnut that he had kept for about four years, it sounded perfect. We
went to his place to collect it and it looked even better than expected. I decided
to turn a sample piece first to make sure that the Royal Cornwall Show committee
and South Crofty were happy with what I had in mind. I did not want them changing
their minds as the supply of Walnut was finite.
The sample piece was
accepted, and South Crofty produced a three inch circular Tin insert for the top
with the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association shield on it. They originally
asked me to make the bowl first, into which the insert would be fitted. But in
over a week to ten days the size of the insert went from 3" to 3.5"
and at this point I said "you finish the insert and then I’ll make the
bowl", this they did. All we had to do now was to find an appropriate piece
of banding, which I found at Steve Collett's shop. The wood from Jeremy was first
class for turning and had lovely graining in it, ranging from very dark brown
through the tans and even some pink.
The turning, inlaying and finishing
went O.K., but when I first fitted the Tin insert it was fractionally oval. This
turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had had visions of someone handing
the bowl to the Queen, and her turning it up-side-down and the insert falling
out, so by shaving a gnat’s whisker off the rim, the slightly oval insert
could be rotated, thus locking it in position.
The R.C.A.S. committee were generous in their praise of the bowl and said that it was even better than they expected (big sigh of relief all round). The presentation went without a hitch. Unfortunately Dave could not get through the crowds to get close enough to video it for the club records, but I have a good press photo of the Queen holding my bowl in her hot little hands!
John Coley
PS. I had a letter from Buck House to say "Ta" very much.
In May, H.R.H. the Princess Royal paid a visit to Chiverton Riding for the disabled. On this occasion she was presented with an oak bowl made by Bryan Thomas, one of our club's well respected members. Bryan's wife, Daphne is very much involved with the riding group. It ws great for Bryan to be asked to produce such an important piece and the picture shows the Princess holding Bryan's presentation bowl.
Well done Bryan.
In 2004, a young man named Andrew Price (21), travelled to the mountains of Hardanger-Vidda in Norway as a member of a "Heroes of Telemark" expedition, arranged by Woodlore School of Wilderness Bushcraft, a company founded by survival expert Ray Mears. It was to be for non-skiers who would learn cross-country skiing and winter survival, whilst raising sponsorship money for charity. Andrew was hoping to raise £1000.00 for Guide dogs for the Blind. The expedition would retrace the route of resistance fighters who sabotaged the plant of Telemark making "Heavy water" for Hitler's atomic bomb project in world war 2, combining history with the challenge of surviving in one of Northern Europe's most hostile environments.
Mike Hosking heard an appeal on the radio for help with this adventure with a request for a wooden drinking vessel. Due to the extreme cold, down to -40 degrees C, a normal mug of pottery or steel would not be suitable as it would crack or be too cold to put to ones lips. Mike answered the call and turned a wooden mug as part of the charity effort and was happy to donate it to Andew. Mike received a letter of thanks from Andrew.
On completion of the expedition, Mike heard from Andrew's grandparents in Looe, that the mug had performed it's function and survived the trip in perfect condition and thanking Mike for his generosity.
Could it be that we will hear of Mike doing craft fairs in Norway as an outlet for his future new line in wooden mugs?
Feature by Mike Hosking, produced by Barry Robinson.