Golden Triangle Woodturners announce lidded-box challenge and German ring turning demo

German ring turning will take center stage when Golden Triangle Woodturners meets with a demonstration that blends history, pattern work and a highly visual payoff at the lathe. Simon Begg is set to show his interpretation of the technique, known in German as Reifendrehen, a process that starts with a ring of timber and ends with sliced forms that reveal animals or figures.

The club’s May challenge gives members a second target with immediate shop appeal: turn a lidded box, and earn bonus points for using resin. That combination pushes the month’s work toward a familiar utilitarian form, then adds room for contrast, color and ornament. A well-fitted box already demands clean joinery and careful proportions; the resin bonus opens the door to a more decorative build, whether in the lid, body or accent details.

Golden Triangle Woodturners says the next meeting will be at 7:00 PM on May 4, 2026, at the Greater Denton Arts Council, 400 E Hickory St, Denton, TX 76201. The program gives local turners both a project to take back to the shop and a demonstration that is harder to find on a regular club night. German ring turning has deep roots in Germany’s Erzgebirge region, especially around Seiffen, where it developed as mining declined and toy making became more important. The technique was used to make wooden toys and folk-art figures, and animals are among the most common subjects.

Begg’s background gives the demo added weight. He says he made his first bowl at school in 2009 and bought a lathe that summer. A trip to Turnfest in 2016 pushed him to turn the hobby into a career, and he has since displayed work in galleries in Australia, demonstrated and taught in Australia and overseas, and worked with more than 200 species of wood. A Montgomery County Woodturners PDF describes him as a full-time wood turner and carver from Australia who has been turning as a career for more than nine years.

For a club audience, the pairing is sharp: one side of the evening offers a practical lidded-box challenge with a resin twist, while the other promises a specialist process that turns a shaped ring into crisp decorative figures. That mix of object-making and technique is exactly the kind of program that keeps a turning calendar worth watching.