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.
