This stor
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Woodturning on Water. How would you like to have to spend 12 days with Richard Raffan, Theo Haralampou
, Terry Martin (Aust), Nick Agar, Stuart Mortimer, Margaret Attard, Mark Baker (UK), Asmund Vignes, Knut Lien, Jim Sterling, Jan Tore Solberg, Magna Grude (Norway), Roly Munro, Peter Hewitt (NZ), Michael Gibson (USA), Michael Hosaluk (Canada)?
And these were just the woodturners!!!There were also other experts in their fields of woodcarving, pyrography, knife making, scrollsawing, router work, tool suppliers from Robert Sorby, Trend Routing Technology (UK), Woodcut Tools (NZ), and King Arthurs Tools (USA) on board.
There were even people on board from a Norwegian company that specialises in “felting” for the lady passengers who were not woodturners to try their hand at. By the end of the cruise there were felt hats, stoles, and scarves to be seen on many shore excursions.
Yes, it was like all of a woodturner’s dreams come true! It was just like a Working with Wood Show on Water!
My wife Robyn and I have recently returned from the Norwegian Woodturning Cruise which takes place every three years up the coast of Norway. A fantastic experience both for a woodturner and for a tourist!
We sailed out of Stavanger, calling in at 6 different places going north, turning south at Honningsvag (North Cape). Crossing the Arctic Circle at Bodo on my 70
th birthday made it a day not to be forgotten! North Cape is the northernmost point in Europe, and we were told by an Alaskan on the cruise that it is even further north than anywhere in Alaska.
The leg south was just as interesting as we called 6 different places and finished back at Stavanger. At each place we stopped, after the ship berthed, the side of the ship was opened up, the gangway lowered, and people from the local area came aboard to their “working with wood show”, while the passengers who had booked for the optional shore excursions went off in a local coach to wherever that day’s excursion took them. Jim Sterling is an Australian living in Norway, and he was our Pied Piper, as at every place we stopped, Jim was first ashore with his bagpipes drumming up business from the locals. In every port, locals turned up on foot, on bicycles, in their cars, and some even had trailers to take home their new toys.
At one port we stopped there was even an impromptu jam session held in the workshop area, where Jim with a guitar, Theo with improvised drums, he is a drummer in a band in real life, a local on guitar, and several others entertained us for quite a while.
Suffice to say, we saw many parts of Norway that are off the beaten track, and a lot that were regular tourist haunts. Norway is a beautiful country, where EVERYTHING is on a large scale.
Those passengers who did not go on every excursion spent the time on board reading, watching the demonstrators, mixing with the locals both on board and on local walks into the city, town, or village where we were.
The turners were available to the passengers at almost any mutually agreeable time, and it was just a matter of approaching them personally and arranging to meet them in the workshops for some personal tuition. I was lucky enough to spend one on one time with Michael Hosaluk, Richard Raffan, Asmund Vignes, Jan Tore Solberg, and Nick Agar. Much time was spent trying out tools with the tool suppliers on board or just watching anyone you wished, demonstrate. There were more turning accessories for sale than you could shake a stick at, and some I had not seen before. Due to our itinerary when we left the cruise, I bought very few bits and pieces back with me. The other reason for that, is that tools and accessories are much more expensive in Norway that they are here.
I even met one of the Norwegian passengers who buys his pen kits from Timberbits in Yennora.
During the cruise, there was a gallery on board and passengers were invited to bring along up to three pieces for display, and also invited to donate them towards an auction held on the last night at sea, with the proceeds going to a children’s cancer fund in Norway. I don’t know how many pieces were donated, but at the end of the auction, conducted by Nick Agar, the money raised was 90465 Norwegian Kroner, or US$14655. The best result from any cruise so far.
I hope the photos with this article give you some idea of the woodturning part of our holiday. I have tried to make the captions short but informative, and for those with access to the internet, the photos will be in colour in this issue of By Hand & Eye on our Guild web site.
After the cruise, we spent time in Munich, Stavanger, Copenhagen, Trelleborg, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallin, and Geneva before returning home.
It was a truly marvellous experience!
