Nothing to see here unless you like pictures of nice Japanese axes. These gorgeous woodworking tools came from my Japanese friend Tomio Imaru. Imarusan and his woodworking friends have very kindly scoured Japanese auctions for me to collect these beautiful tools. I hope to share some of them with the European carpenters that came to Japan with me and also…
I think it is common for craftspeople to have very ambivalent feelings about selling their work. On the one hand it can be a wonderful experience when we meet someone who really apreciates what we are doing and will enjoy the objects we make, on the other it can leave us feeling cheapened, as if our work has been turned…
Here it is, click the image for a big picture. Last week I finished off my bridge across Padley Brook. This was commissioned in memory of local man Arthur Haslam 1911-2009 and you can see the work in progress here and here The lovely photos were taken by a friend who was working in the area last week, thanks Addo.…
I get to work in some of the most beautiful places and am currently building a new oak footbridge at Padley Gorge on the National Trust Longshaw Estate on the moors just outside Sheffield. The bridge was commissioned in memory of Arthur Haslam so Barn carved his initials. I have a real dislike for brass plaques on memorials, carved initials…
The life of a craftsman often leaves little distinction between work and play, certainly there are less “days off” than those in full time employment but the work is very rewarding. So this was my weekend. Saturday was a suit day, a trip to London to chair the Heritage Crafts Association committee meeting. Our committee have been working incredibly hard…
Today I came across this video of the most wonderful wooden bridges in China and wanted to share. This is some of the most wonderful woodworking I have seen for a long time. It reminded me of some wooden bridges I first saw on a trip round Europe 25 years ago. I revisited them this year whilst on a motorbike…
I seem to have had quite a run of bridge building recently, I don’t think I ever posted finished pictures of the last one so let’s start with that. It has apparently become the place in Bradfield for wedding photos which I find rather flattering. Someone mentioned that a previous bridge at Goldenclough in Edale appeared in a [photography competition…
Just a few more photos showing progress on my new bridge. It looks over-engineered for the tiny stream but 6 weeks ago the water would have been lapping just under the main timbers. Cutting the last handrails. If you look closely bottom centre you’ll see a newly hatched family of mallards. View across the cricket field. It’s all coming together…
Having cut the main timbers for the bridge I needed to move them over a wall and to the worksite. It was a fun days work and a friend and neighbour Mark Wallington came to help. Mark is a scriptwriter and author so I think it was a bit of a change for him but a gorgeous day which we…
I have had little time for blogging recently but have been making good progress on my green oak bridge at Bradfield. This post showed the start of the work on the stone abutments. The next step was finding a suitable tree for the main timbers. I have been looking for this tree for many months. It needed to be and…
