Computer time is very limited in the office in Japan so this is just a quick blog. Our project is progressing very nicely, I have been primarily working on building the Japanese tea house learning how to use Japanese hewing tools, pull saws, chisels and planes all of which work quite differently to European tools. We start work at 7.30am…
I am just wrapping things up here ready to fly to Japan first thing Thursday. I shall be busy hewing timber all day whilst there but Nicola will be busy recording, photographing, and hopefully blogging on the kesurokai blog here On Saturday I should be at the work site close to Mount Fuji with these folk, ready to start building…
Everyone has a rough idea what craftsmanship is but I want to delve a little deeper and see if we can pin it down. I am hoping my blog readers will help by contributing in the comments. I recently watched a wonderful film about a guy who commissioned his dream bicycle using parts made in some of the best workshops…
Meet Dietrich a German Journeyman. His odd costume tells those in the know that he is a fully trained craftsman traveling and looking for work to broaden his experience. In Germany folk instantly recognise this and so it makes life easy to get lifts when hitchiking or folk will simply offer him food and lodgings in exchange for some work.…
I get asked which is the best axe for carving a lot so thought it would be good to make a blog post which I can refer folk back to. In the world of Bushcraft most folk go for the Gransfors Bruks small forest axe, it is recommended by Ray Mears which no doubt helps it’s popularity. It is like…
A grand day out today the the YSP. We have been regular visitors to YSP since moving to the area 15 years ago. Just 5 minutes off junction 38 of the M1 you will find seveeral hundred acres of rolling parkland dotted with sculptures by Henry Moore, Anthony Claro, Barbara Hepworth and many more. A few years ago they built…
We all know that as a country we have to tighten our belt and spend less. In Jeremy Hunt’s first speech as Culture Secretary he said he could assure the arts community that it would not be a soft option for cuts though he also wanted to promote American style philanthropy within the art world. There is now a bit…
In 1997 I visited Wharton Eshericks house in the USA and was utterly charmed. The whole house is a piece of functional sculpture. Centerpiece is the spiral staircase which has been much copied elsewhere. It is rare for me to find the work of a 20th century woodworker that I admire as much as that of medieval woodworkers but here…
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…
I have just finished a little batch of quaiches and am really pleased with them. I first started taking a real interest in mazers and quaiches when writing my book on the history of the wooden bowl. Up to that point I had regarded mazers as overly ostentatious and not my thing. When I started handling original ones in museums…
