Badger Woodturners April meeting spotlights spinning tops with Rodney Bethel

Badger Woodturners’ April calendar did more than list a meeting. It linked a hands-on club night in Madison to a larger regional circuit, pairing Rodney Bethel’s spinning-top demonstration with the Midwest Penturners Gathering in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and giving members a clear route from a local demo to one of the Midwest’s biggest pen-turning draws.

That is the kind of range Badger Woodturners has built around since forming in early 2000. The Madison-based not-for-profit says its membership comes primarily from southern Wisconsin, and its monthly rhythm is built around sharing ideas and demonstrating woodturning techniques. The club describes itself as a place where hobbyists, part-timers and professional turners can trade approaches through education, outreach and social activity, and the April schedule reflected that mix of instruction and community.

The April regular meeting featured Rodney Bethel on spinning tops, with the topic framed as both simple and advanced. In the club newsletter, Bethel is described as a long-time Badger Woodturners member who planned to talk about his continuing fascination with the turned spinning top and show the various forms and shapes the project can take. That makes the demo useful on two levels: it works as a straightforward project for newer turners, but it also opens the door to finer shaping, balancing and decorative choices for anyone looking to push the form further.

The club’s calendar also placed the Midwest Penturners Gathering on the radar for April 17 and 18, 2026. The symposium, presented as PenMakers International Chicagoland MPG 2026, was scheduled for the Chicago Marriott Northwest, 4800 Hoffman Blvd., Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It billed itself as the largest and longest-running pen makers symposium, with two full days of programming for $59 and online registration closing April 14.

For turners weighing whether to make the trip, the draw was practical and immediate. The gathering promised contests, Turning for Troops updates, demos, door prizes and a third room of activity, and related listings have placed it on other woodturning calendars as a recognized regional stop. Together, the April meeting and the Hoffman Estates symposium showed how a club calendar can serve as a launch point, moving members from a single evening demo into the wider pen-turning community that keeps the craft moving across southern Wisconsin and beyond.