Golden Triangle Woodturners plan member-led tips session and German Ring challenge

Golden Triangle Woodturners met Monday at 7 p.m. at the Greater Denton Arts Council, 400 E Hickory St. in Denton, with a June program built around a member-led Tips and Tricks session rather than a single featured demonstrator. For turners who wanted something immediately useful at the lathe, the format promised shop-tested fixes, shortcuts and workarounds they could carry straight home.

The club presented the session as an open forum for both newcomers and long-time turners, inviting members to share what they had learned, how they solved a problem and where a different approach or a simple jig changed the outcome. That made the meeting more than a routine monthly gathering. It turned the chapter into a working bench of ideas, where practical answers mattered as much as finished pieces.

The president’s challenge also kept the energy from the previous month alive. After Simon Begg’s May demonstration on German Rings, members were asked to make a German Ring project of their own, or, if they wanted a lower-pressure entry point, a bowl with decorative design work. The club made clear that the challenge did not have to be fancy or intricate, which lowered the barrier for anyone who wanted to follow the demo with a real project instead of shelving the technique for later.

German ring turning, also known as Reifendrehen, comes from Germany’s Erzgebirge region and has long been associated with toy-making and folk-art figures. Begg’s presentation gave Golden Triangle members a direct link to that tradition, and his June 20-21 German Ring Turning class at Marc Adams School of Woodworking pointed to how the technique continues to be taught and refined well beyond a single club night.

The setting added another layer of relevance. The Greater Denton Arts Council says the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center is its home, and the organization frames its work around celebrating the arts, inspiring innovation and engaging the community. For a woodturning club built on shared problem-solving, that made the venue a natural fit for a meeting centered on peer exchange and practical skill building.

By the end of the night, the value was plain: members had a place to compare notes, revisit Begg’s German Ring lesson and leave with a project that could send them back to the lathe with a clearer plan.