NATIONAL WOODWORKERS SHOW - Alexandra Palace 9-ll th February 2007
This year the Woodworkers Show Exhibition and demonstrations were set up by the Chelmsford Group. The set-up day on Thursday saw a heavy fall of snow and we wondered if we would be able to get all our equipment and pictures to the show. However, Alan and Ann Townsend came to our rescue and volunteered to help out. Ann came with me and somehow we managed to follow Alan through London to Alexandra Palace . Unfortunately this was the easy part of the day. After much ado and queuing for an hour or more we eventually got into a snowy, icy, car park. The trouble being that we were three floors below the Exhibition Hall and everything had to be taken up by passenger lift (the goods lift was broken-down). Eventually we managed to manoeuvre everything in the lift and we soon found Enrico from St. Albans Group who helped us for the rest of the day to do the setting up.
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| When we located our allotted Stand it turned out to be twice the size we had been expecting - 20ft instead of 10ft. Enrico surveyed the space and said, "Everything you have brought will have to be used to fill the space." We set to work, in freezing cold conditions, and soon realised that we would have to use the Chelmsford stands we had brought with us as the walls did not easily accommodate the hanging strips used by Redbridge last year when the Society had been allocated the smaller 10ft stand.
We displayed 34 pictures covering all abilities from a Marquetarian of 3 months to a magnificent picture produced by a long-term member. We had only ordered two tables and we used one for demonstrations and the other for publicity. |
Members of the Chelmsford Group setting up the
marquetry exhibits for the visitors to enjoy
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This year the National Society gave away Marquetarian Magazines and small veneer packs with Membership Application Forms to help entice potential new membership. Ken Southall produced these veneer packs at short notice. Thanks Ken. They were well received and hopefully have increased awareness of the Society as well as enroll new members.
The Friday Show was staffed by Roy Murton and David Walker of the Redbridge Group, and Arthur Gunton and Denis Scott of the Thurrock Group. I believe they were able to recruit and sign up several new members.
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Hmm, yep, I think they look pretty good to me!
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Saturday and Sunday were run by the Chelmsford Group and again, on the Saturday we recruited another three members.
With demonstrations running non-stop we attracted large audiences - in fact, our Stewards said afterwards "Do you realise how many people have been watching you." I find that concentrating on the job in hand one just does not tend to realise the number of eyes upon you and giving a commentary on what you are doing takes all nervousness away.
So please, if you are a Marquetry Society member do try and volunteer to help by being a demonstrator at National and Local events as it makes for a much more interesting Show than just a few pictures. |
Our demonstrations were watched with interest by a Design and Technology teacher from Thundersley, Essex, who said that he would like to introduce Marquetry at his school - he said that the use of craft knives was not a problem as they already used them in his lessons. He has since made contact with us and hopes to give his pupils the option of adding marquetry to the items they will be making for their exams during the next school year. He says that he has obtained clearance for this and we have been invited to attend a lesson and tell his pupils about getting started with marquetry.
Our thanks to all who helped from other Groups and to Chelmsford 's Colin Roberts and his wife Marion, Pat Anderson and Alan Townsend who helped on Saturday. Also to Alan Townsend, Ted Higgs, Chris Davis and Mike Shipp who manned the Stand on Sunday.
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It was good to see some new faces volunteering to act as Stewards. I apologise for the fact that we have only a couple of photos - our appointed cameraman forgot to take his camera!
One last point - Yes, we did display a 'top-class' picture - but as mentioned there were plenty of beginner level pictures shown as well. Our feeling at the Show was that the sight of the `top' picture drew in an audience, and our Stewards had been well versed in the need to explain how a beginner could produce a worthwhile picture while aspiring to something better in the future. After all, we must not forget that the National Society is for all members whether advanced or beginner.
All in all, we at Chelmsford, feel that the 2007 Show was a success and we hope other Groups will agree.
Margaret Bonnett
28th February 2007
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"Yes, indeed, you do actually get two year's membership
for the price of one when you join as a new member!"
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