Rhon woodturners show their skills
Woodturning is an ancient craft, already mastered by the vikings. The rhon woodturners’ regulars’ table "drei-lander-drechslertreff" (three-lander woodturners’ meeting), in short: DDT , currently shows in the special exhibition "durchgedreht" in the biosphere center "house of the long rhon, the breadth of this craft. The woodturners from bavaria, hesse and thuringia not only exhibit finished workpieces, but also show a modern lathe as well as photos of woodturning tools from past epochs.
The exhibition fits perfectly into the biosphere center "house of the long rhon" , its head michael dohrmann emphasized: only in december unesco declared woodturning an intangible cultural heritage in germany. This puts the woodturning craft on a par with the art of bread baking or wickerwork. In woodturning, rotating workpieces made of natural materials (mainly wood) are refined with cutting tools to create handcrafted and artistic objects.
Michael geier, head of the bavarian biosphere reserve administration, is also very enthusiastic about the exhibition, saying that woodturning is an excellent fit for the rhon and the biosphere reserve. He was enthusiastic about the variety on display and the different types of wood. Rhonian hardwood in particular offers a wealth of design possibilities, and the different conditions of the wood in terms of age or fungal attack allow fascinating objects of art to be created.
"Absolutely fascinating. But they are not only something for the eyes", emphasized, geier made it clear that the turned, sanded and varnished woods also flatter the hands. "Buyers are welcome to come", he advertised the purchase of the exhibited art objects. The exhibition was organized by dieter pelka from bad neustadt, further exhibitors are andreas scholl from bad neustadt, gunter gopfert from ostheim vor der rhon, manfred kalb from kutzberg, herwig eckart from gossenheim, otmar kleinhenz from langendorf, robert spotta from leutershausen, martina behr from wulfershausen and siegfried baum from ostheim vor der rhon.
As different as the artists are, as different are the shown pieces of work. The palette ranges from bowls, plates and vases to candlesticks and tins to spice mills, dough rollers, letter openers or bottle stoppers. Pelka referred in particular to the art of "passigdrehen", which gunter gopfert from ostheim masterfully masters. In this variant, the wood is not only rough worked, but hollowed out. Through the long and transverse processing also angular forms, curved ornaments and hollow forms are created.
Dieter pelka thanked for the possibility of the exhibition in the biosphere center "house of the long rhon, because the three-lander-turners-meeting had made it to the task to hold the turner craft in the public in the consciousness. The informal get-together comprises around 30 participants, who, in addition to exchanging ideas, often receive practical help and demonstrations in andreas scholl’s workshop. Just as fascinating as this handicraft is also the history. Since the third century woodturning is proven in germany. But it was not until the middle ages that the flywheel was invented, enabling constant one-sided rotation. Later, hydropower plants with transmission belts came onto the market; today, drechsler uses electric motors with electronic speed control.
Anyone who would like to see for themselves how an object of art is created from a piece of wood clamped in the lathe has the opportunity to do so on sunday, 17. February, as part of the rhoner maskenfastnacht opportunity. The special exhibition is open until 18. February daily from 10 a.M. To 4 p.M. (closed on tuesday) to visit.
