I've been wondering lately if the growth we've seen in woodturning in general that we witnessed over the last decade or so has now leveled off, or is actually in decline? Seems there is not near as much activity on the turning forums as it used to be, and it seems the selection of lathe offerings has decreased over the last two years. Now, that might be pandemic related, but there sure does seem to be a downward trend in turning activity on the whole versus about 10 years ago. What are your observations....what is your assessment? This little corner of the whole called the GGMG has not had any posts by anyone other than myself since 8/30/21. Seems SMC is a good bit slower in volume in the turners forum than usual as well. I know for a fact the turning clubs have been greatly affected in their activities due to the covid pandemic. Do you think the whole of turning has decreased in recent years, or are we just not talking about it as much?
Probably not talking about as much due to hunkering down due to covid. Two of the turning groups that I am in have only just started face to face meetings within the last 3 months. We tried Zoom meetings, without a lot of success. Did some IRD's that worked pretty well. It's getting towards gift making time, maybe things will pick up at that point(hopefully)
I started turning in 2019 so I don't have many years to compare to. My turning club just recently went back to meeting in person. If they had stayed with the zoom meetings much longer, I probably would have not continued my membership another year. I like the social aspect of the woodturning club and going to the demonstrations in person. I don't get that from Zoom meetings. The zoom meetings/demonstrations were better than nothing but got old pretty quick and attendance really dropped off. I also think this rapid inflation we are seeing is going to spook a lot of consumers when it comes to big ticket items. Especially expensive toys like turning lathes.
