Bodgers Ball
Within the world of the pole lathe, the Bodgers ball is almost legendary and this event could not be missed in our program. It is a meeting for members of the English Association of Pole-Lathe Turners & Green Woodworkers. During this event there are workshops, demonstrations and competitions and it offers a wonderful opportunity to meet other turners.
And the latter went very well! Upon arrival at the ball, we had an empty field in front of our camp. Within a few days however, our camp had grown into a whole forest of lathes of turners from several countries. With some it was a nice first acquaintance and with others a happy reunion.
Although there are of course many workshops for the pole lathe, there are also other crafts to learn at the Ball. For example, Martijn put the hook tools aside for a day and made a basket from split hazel. Or actually it was two days, including the actual splitting and preparation of the twigs.
Matty Whittaker
In the meantime, Pieterjan did a workshop on forging hooks with Matty Whittaker. He has a completely different approach to forging and making hooks than Martijn does, which has allowed Pieterjan to learn different techniques.
Besides the workshop and lots of fun, there was also time to visit the location of the Bodgers Ball, namely the Weald and Downland Living Museum. This is an open-air museum with mainly buildings that are several centuries old, which have been demolished and rebuilt in the museum. In addition to a pole lathe, there was also a beautiful great wheel lathe.
Ali Asadi
During the Bodgers Ball we also saw one of our favorite teachers again, Ali Asadi. A great teacher who has a lot of patience and at the same time knows how to maneuver you so that you do it just a little bit better than you thought you could. Under his expert guidance we made a so-called nest of bowls. You start with a (preferably) large piece of wood, from which you make several bowls inside each other. From the inside of the largest bowl, you make a smaller one, and from the inside of that one another smaller one. You continue like this until you can’t make any smaller ones. It was a long day of hard work, but we learned a lot and, besides the necessary frustrations, also had a lot of fun.
