Last week I was carving cherry spoons. I just had 2 small cherry logs about 6″ diameter and 6″ long. I carve just with an axe and knives and ended up with 21 finished spoons. (only 20 in the picture because one is already on the way to it’s new owner) When I blogged last week folk asked for sideways…
When a craft business that has a special part in our history is in danger of closing what should we do? How about buy it and spend large sums of public money on preserving the building, artifacts and accumulated detritus whilst letting the last skilled artisans stop work and walk away? Two years ago I blogged about JW Evans Silversmiths…
Can you imagine what it must feel like peeling the bark from a tree and making it into these. These gorgeous containers are the work of Jarrod Stone Dahl, they are a traditional basket design made by native Americans around the great lakes. I have admired Jarrod’s work for a while everything he makes from birch bark canoes, to snowshoes,…
This is my current evening entertainment, and my current favourite eating spoon design. I roughed these out from the green cherry log last night, let them dry then finished them off tonight. They are based on an old one I saw in a museum in Galicia though I keep changing them slightly. This batch I have experimented with a slightly…
Nice vid of Balvenie Masters of Craft. [vimeo 25972144 w=400 h=225]
We are approaching a very important centenary in the art world, the creation of Marcel Duchamp’s “fountain”, arguably the most important work of art of the 20th century. Was he taking the piss? and why should craftspeople have any interest in it? The point of fountain was that Duchamp was arguing that aesthetics and skill were not what made art,…
Yesterday I was in Westminster again for a meeting with John Hayes the skills minister.It is difficult to put into words how positive things are for traditional crafts at the moment. After years of being the poor relation to the innovative artistic end of the craft spectrum it seems things are really changing. The ministers officials are working on a…
For us traditional crafts people it is always difficult when it comes to applying for any grant, award scheme or whatever. The simple fact is innovative cutting edge work gets all the support, in the words of Kim Evans past director of the Arts Council… “You are correct in your analysis of support for innovative craftpractice; this is where nationally…
Just back from Glastonbury which for foreign readers is the biggest music and arts festival in the world and a rather special event. We had a Heritage Crafts Association area which was the nicest spot on the nicest field on the whole site, forget the horrendous mud images of the TV and papers we were camping in style. This was…
I am no expert on pottery in Stoke but was just horrified to learn that Wedgwood has moved production to Jakata, Indonesia. Here is a short youtube of the Wedgwood factory “Made in England” 2007[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkhkMXLjNwc] and a longer one of a guy demonstrating throwing.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYyhppVl_10] Now listen to BBC Radio Stoke doing a 3 minute feature from the Wedgwood factory in…
