Life membership bestowed on Whanganui woodworkers

Bill Rod (left) and Des Kendrick have been made life members of the Wanganui Turners and Woodcraft Group. Photo / Ray Cooper

Bill Rod and Des Kendrick have been made life members of the Wanganui Turners and Woodcraft Group.

At a ceremony last month the two men received their framed certificates and gold lapel shields.

Bill is the longest serving member of the group.

"[The group] goes back to the mid-70s, when Austin Brasell, from Sovereign Woodworkers, started it as a carving club," says Bill.

"I didn't come along until towards the late 1980s, when it was known as the Woodturners Club. We were using City College for our activities ... there wasn't a lot of turning done at that stage: just bring stuff along that you'd done at home. It wasn't until Des here came along, and, after a little while he got into projects."

At that time the club was using the school's lathes.

Des says when they had demonstrators come to the club they did not want to use the school lathes, being in the wrong position for demonstrating, partly.

"My ambition was for the club to own a DVR lathe. So, the club, collectively, made a Harley-Davidson motorbike [out of wood] and we sold that through the Paraparaumu woodturning shop. We made another one a little bit later, and we raffled it."

They also raffled off a dolls' house which was given to the club for members to finish off. It was quite a job.

"We made 3000 roof tiles out of cedar," says Bill. "We spent six Saturdays — me, Des, Dave Brockway and Bob Loader, just carving these little tiles."

The donor of the dolls' house also gave them enough miniature furniture to completely outfit the house.

"We raffled that and halved the money with Hospice," says Des.

"The club now owns eight lathes," he says. "Seven we have at the school and one we have permanently at the market. The market was something we decided to do to attract more members, which it has done."

The club meets three times a month on the first, second and last Wednesdays. Members have shown their work at a recent exhibition at the Community Arts Centre and they successfully compete at the annual Kawerau Woodskills.

Both men accepted the life membership awards with typical modesty.