Jolly July

We held a virtual turning competition in July 2020 (as we couldn't meet face-to-face due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic). The title was "Jolly July", and the theme was "A humorous piece". Here are the results.

The competition was judged independently and anonymously by Dave Gunner and Graham Mee. They were judging on four categories: Brief, Form, Function and Finish. The committee decided not to publish the scores, but to show the entry photographs and a summary of the judges' comments for each entry. We received a total of 4 entries.

Member	Judges' Comments
Liz Lock	Thinking out of the box to interpret the brief. Did well to envisage the end result from the original branch. Brief well met: we asked for a humorous piece and got a funny bone, a brilliant interpretation.	The original bone idea was converted to a candle stick. The yew worked well to represent the bone. I really like the usability of the piece as a candle stick although I wonder if the small footprint has any effect on stability?	As a humorous bone the piece worked but as a candlestick it is a bit clunky. The turning has revealed an attractive piece of Yew I really like the flare on the top of the piece it goes well with the beads that have also been added.	Finish is very high gloss, the retention of the branch stems in the final piece adds to its appeal but having decided to make it a candlestick the base could possibly have been refined a little more. It looks like a really good finish very smooth and polished. I think the wood may be yew so there is a lot of colour variation and grain pattern on show really nice overall look.
Dave Grainger	Only one photo and difficult to know what the submission is - is the hat included (probably a winner if it was!)? The mouse and cheese fit the brief but can't really see the detail of the cheese board - is it part of the submission? Assuming only the mouse and cheese are to be judged. A piece of cheese with a mouse popping out is a great interpretation and the addition of what looks like a wooden top hat makes it even better. My only issue is that it is a photo of a photo which makes it difficult to see the piece in it's entirety also I guess it's not something that has been turned specifically for the competition.	The choice of wood for the cheese and mouse appear to be excellent but the detail is difficult to judge from the image provided. From what I can see the cheese and the hat look really good.	The cheese and mouse are in proportion and fit with the cheese board (not sure what the bits on the cheese board are made of or meant to represent). The base for the cheese seems a bit thick; the hat looks great - I wish we could see more of it.	Difficult to see much detail. Does the mouse have ears? Does it have a body? Cheese looks to have a matt finish which is appropriate and mouse has a sheen which again seems appropriate. Again it's difficult to tell from the image but what I can see looks like a decent finish on both pieces.
Neil Innes	Quirky and humorous. Good choice of materials to realise the idea. Consistently replicating the join across all the elements and maintaining the fit was good. Brilliant interpretation - I love the look of the beer tipped in all the glasses.	The pieces represent the idea. More detail could have been incorporated into the tray, e.g. creating a rim. Described as beer falling off a tray but looks more like coffees especially with the detailing on the tops? I think it works really well and I like that they found a way to maintain the tilt using the thin wedge underneath without it being too obtrusive to the final piece.	All the pieces are in proportion however an indication of the size of the piece would be useful; are the glasses 1" or 1 ft tall? Could there have been more shape if they are beer glasses. Assuming the piece of wood used as a prop is just to assist the photography and not part of the piece, if it's not, what is it? I love the use of two woods to differentiate between beer and glass. I also like the way they have tried to use darker wood spots to create a bubble effect on the beer top.	Good finish overall - some tear out visible on the cup handles It looks really well finished especially the tray; the only thing I truly notice is where the screw hole has been filled on the wedge underneath.
Richard Peers (winner)	Bunny is deliberately quirky in line with the brief. Body of the Bunny is relatively simple in construction though the ears are a more complex shape. Absolutely brilliant - this one actually made me laugh. There's something about this bunny that really makes me happy.	Personally, would have liked to have seen a wonky body to go with the wonky head. Like the way the grain has been used to provide the outline to the face, good use of material. I think it works really well as an ornamental quirky piece. In terms of complexity I like the fact that different techniques have been used from turning different woods to the carved corian teeth and even the artwork for the nose and whiskers.	I think the ears could be a little shorter / fatter but that's personal preference. It just screams wonky bunny every time I look at it and I seriously can't stop smiling so in my opinion the proportions are bob on.	The finish is good and the face details work well although the fit of one of the ears to the head is not flush. The teeth could have benefitted from being inset slightly, as the eyes appear to have been. I think the finish is fine one slight criticism would be that there is a slight gap under the right ear but hey what do you want it's a wonky bunny lol.

Member

Image

Judges' Comments

Brief

Form

Function

Finish

Liz Lock

Thinking out of the box to interpret the brief. Did well to envisage the end result from the original branch.
Brief well met: we asked for a humorous piece and got a funny bone, a brilliant interpretation.

The original bone idea was converted to a candle stick. The yew worked well to represent the bone.
I really like the usability of the piece as a candle stick although I wonder if the small footprint has any effect on stability?

As a humorous bone the piece worked but as a candlestick it is a bit clunky. The turning has revealed an attractive piece of Yew
I really like the flare on the top of the piece it goes well with the beads that have also been added.

Finish is very high gloss, the retention of the branch stems in the final piece adds to its appeal but having decided to make it a candlestick the base could possibly have been refined a little more.
It looks like a really good finish very smooth and polished. I think the wood may be yew so there is a lot of colour variation and grain pattern on show really nice overall look.

Dave Grainger

Only one photo and difficult to know what the submission is - is the hat included (probably a winner if it was!)? The mouse and cheese fit the brief but can't really see the detail of the cheese board - is it part of the submission? Assuming only the mouse and cheese are to be judged.
A piece of cheese with a mouse popping out is a great interpretation and the addition of what looks like a wooden top hat makes it even better. My only issue is that it is a photo of a photo which makes it difficult to see the piece in it's entirety also I guess it's not something that has been turned specifically for the competition.

The choice of wood for the cheese and mouse appear to be excellent but the detail is difficult to judge from the image provided.
From what I can see the cheese and the hat look really good.

The cheese and mouse are in proportion and fit with the cheese board (not sure what the bits on the cheese board are made of or meant to represent).
The base for the cheese seems a bit thick; the hat looks great - I wish we could see more of it.

Difficult to see much detail. Does the mouse have ears? Does it have a body? Cheese looks to have a matt finish which is appropriate and mouse has a sheen which again seems appropriate.
Again it's difficult to tell from the image but what I can see looks like a decent finish on both pieces.

Neil Innes

Quirky and humorous. Good choice of materials to realise the idea. Consistently replicating the join across all the elements and maintaining the fit was good.
Brilliant interpretation - I love the look of the beer tipped in all the glasses.

The pieces represent the idea. More detail could have been incorporated into the tray, e.g. creating a rim. Described as beer falling off a tray but looks more like coffees especially with the detailing on the tops?
I think it works really well and I like that they found a way to maintain the tilt using the thin wedge underneath without it being too obtrusive to the final piece.

All the pieces are in proportion however an indication of the size of the piece would be useful; are the glasses 1" or 1 ft tall? Could there have been more shape if they are beer glasses. Assuming the piece of wood used as a prop is just to assist the photography and not part of the piece, if it's not, what is it?
I love the use of two woods to differentiate between beer and glass. I also like the way they have tried to use darker wood spots to create a bubble effect on the beer top.

Good finish overall - some tear out visible on the cup handles
It looks really well finished especially the tray; the only thing I truly notice is where the screw hole has been filled on the wedge underneath.

Richard Peers (winner)

Bunny is deliberately quirky in line with the brief. Body of the Bunny is relatively simple in construction though the ears are a more complex shape.
Absolutely brilliant - this one actually made me laugh. There's something about this bunny that really makes me happy.

Personally, would have liked to have seen a wonky body to go with the wonky head. Like the way the grain has been used to provide the outline to the face, good use of material.
I think it works really well as an ornamental quirky piece. In terms of complexity I like the fact that different techniques have been used from turning different woods to the carved corian teeth and even the artwork for the nose and whiskers.

I think the ears could be a little shorter / fatter but that's personal preference.
It just screams wonky bunny every time I look at it and I seriously can't stop smiling so in my opinion the proportions are bob on.

The finish is good and the face details work well although the fit of one of the ears to the head is not flush. The teeth could have benefitted from being inset slightly, as the eyes appear to have been.
I think the finish is fine one slight criticism would be that there is a slight gap under the right ear but hey what do you want it's a wonky bunny lol.