These old beauties are at a scrap yard and heading to be weighed in for scrap if we can’t find a good home for them. I know nothing about them, they look at a glance like 3 phase but no doubt could have single phase motors fitted. They came from a shoe factory in Herefordshire three of them and the…
This is just a great video, a lovely simple project that I will be having a go at over the Xmas break
I want to share some ideas about what craft means to me. My starting point will be an essay by Chris Eckersley as part of his exhibition “Real Craft” He starts the essay “The idea of things being ‘crafted’ has rarely been as popular as it is today. Whereas in the 1990s the marketing buzz-word applied to almost everything was…
A couple of weeks ago I took my lathe to Acton Scott the place where Victorian Farm series was filmed to film for a special episode of Countryfile which will all be about traditional crafts. Ellie had a go at making a plate on the lathe. The program will also feature my friend Adrian Legge the blacksmith and reruns of…
I care passionately about traditional crafts but had no idea that anyone in the UK still made wooden lacrosse sticks. It turns out Tom Becket, just over the hill from me in Eccles has been making them for 50 years. The BBC reported last week that Tom will retire at the end of the year bringing an end to 102…
Today I am sending off a set of cherry eating spoons. This Galician spoon has been my favourite style eating spoon since I was inspired by an old spoon in a museum in Spain 5 years ago. and these spoons I posted last week. They were made for the new Stone Henge visitor centre and based on neolithic originals. …
As a craftsman I care about how and where things are made. I like quality, I like to know a bit of the story about the stuff in my life, I like things that last. When it came time for new glasses there was only one option really and that was Savile Row Eyewear. This is the model I went…
This film has some of the most amazing handwork I have ever seen. Filmed in India in 1971 it shows handwork in large glass factories. The skill level, the amazing flow of bodies around the factory all carrying hot glass, the total internalisation of skill so that they can work three pieces of hot glass simultaneously and still have time…
Jeremy Atkinson is the last clogmaker in England making all his clog soles in the traditional way with three traditional clog knives, the blocker, hollower and gripper. The razor sharp knives have a handle nearly three feet long which generates huge leverage and control allowing him to carve the fresh wood into clog soles. Here is his website I have…
Way back in June I documented the various stages of our birch bark canoe build, this is the final chapter. Ther last blog post had us fitting the gunwales and thwarts once that was done we had to fit the ribs. These are made from cleft and shaved cedar. Here is Jarrod working with the crooked knife to shave down the…
