By Callum Ludwig
The Eastern Woodturners are holding an exhibition throughout June in the Ray Oliver Gallery at the Mont De Lancey Historic Homestead.
The Eastern Woodturners meet at Mont De Lancey twice a month to work on various projects.
President and Life Member of Eastern Woodturners Charlie Chamberlain said the group has been around for 30 years.
“We have been based at Mont De Lancey for 14 years, we were Maroondah Woodturners before that. We have 28 members, mostly older fellows of different skill levels,” he said.
“The work on display comes from mostly the more-experienced turners, and we all have different ideas about the way we do things.”
Woodturning is a craft where the artists use a wood lathe and hand-held tools, rotating the wood around and allowing the wood to be shaped.
Mr Chamberlain said it is great to have their works shown off in the gallery and he hopes it will promote the club and keep membership up.
“We run classes for beginners, which are very reasonable because they’re done on a voluntary basis, so none of the people who run the classes have to get paid,” he said.
“The best thing to do is to come and have a lesson, don’t buy expensive equipment and then decide it’s not for you, that’s why we have our taster courses.”
Eastern Woodturner’s taster courses are three hours long and provide attendees with a range of equipment and materials to test out before they decide if they’d like to become a member.
Mr Chamberlain said it is a small group with a big heart.
“It’s a very social group, and the knowledge that the older ones or the more experienced ones have got, they are only too happy to pass it on to the newer members,” he said.
“I’ve been in the group 26 or 27 of its 30 years, I started by taking up French polishing and furniture restoration then decided I needed to make some pieces so took up woodturning and haven’t looked back.”
Anyone interested in the Eastern Woodturners group can find out more at www.easternwoodturners.club/.
