Proserpine Turnout 2005 part 1

I'll have to try this in two posts since I'm having trouble uploading all my photos into one. I arrived in Proserpine on Friday afternoon and was picked up at the airport by Bunnie Mclean. Bunnie was really kind and had prepared a sandwich for me to eat on the way to the campground where the Turnaround event was taking place.


I arrived to see four large tents set up, two for the lathes and accessories, and two for ladies crafts. There were about 120 people there for the weekend with around 40 lathes going at once.


Shin Ezuki (I'm not sure about the last name, I'll have to correct this later) and his apprentice came from Japan to demonstrate Japanese style woodturning.


The Japanese use a lathe setup very different from western styles. The tool rest moves around and the lathe is used in forward and reverse orientations. Everything is done with hand-forged tools that are bent into a hook. Push and pull cuts are used and all the cuts are done below center.


These are some of Shin's tools.


Here's the ladies tent where all the needlework and paper craft activities were going on. This makes the weekend very couple friendly. The guys can come play with wood and the wives do their domestic crafts. There were a few women turners, myself included, but only five of us turning were female.

I spent an afternoon demonstrating how I turn a bowl, and I think the guys learned a lot from watching me work.


Every meal was done in the dining hall. Long queues were the norm, and don't you dare ask for an extra portion of anything - the cook might smack your hand. The food was farm fare for the most - meat and three or four veggies. Very filling, which helped everyone get through the activities of the day.


Saturday afternoon was for the team races - four lathes going with teams of four or five. Everyone on the team had to do some turning. The race this year was to turn two identical chop sticks and an egg. The finalists had to run a race with the egg held in chop sticks.

I was supposed to be on the ladies team, but the afternoon sun got to me during the first heat. We were scheduled for the second heat, so I went in search of a shady spot and cold water. By the time I got back, the second heat was finished. Oh well - I didn't need to spend any more time in that heat. It was way too hot for my northern hemisphere genes.



The Saturday evening meal was a barbque up at the dam above the campground. It was a nice spot for a picnic.


The appetizer for the evening was "red claw" - a local crawdad. It was pretty good to eat.