My daughter Jojo is very talented with many hand skills from cake baking to knife forging. Whilst she has carved bowls and spoons before she has never turned a bowl on the pole lathe. I think it is a bit intimidating when you have grown up seeing someone doing it at full speed professionally but she finally felt it was…
I don’t normally work Sundays unless at a show but today I had a rush job on and made a pair of bowls and spoons for BBCs hairy bikers. Nest week they are filming at HMS Victory and needed some appropriate tableware so this morning I started with a beech log and cherry log and this afternoon I had a…
I spent yesterday filming with the BBC in the workshop and turning a nice nest of bowls. Stopped on way home and dropped them in a clump of heather, I love to see it in flower. The beeb are doing a series on Heritage at Risk and it sounds like it will be a good mix of old buildings and…
I quite often get asked to comment on wooden bowls from excavations and for me it is very special to see, the work of turners from centuries ago who were using exactly the same tools and techniques as I use today. To see the toolmarks gives a direct connection to a craftsperson working 1000 years ago in a very tangible…
Whilst everyone else was glued to their TVs watching the royal wedding I was hosting some Japanese woodwork tourists. These were representatives of the Japan Green Woodwork Association and they wanted to see my workshop and learn a little about bowlturning. We only had 3 hours at the workshop but they all had a go on the lathe, I forged…
Barnaby Carder aka “Barn the spoon” is still with us and so over the weekend we played in the workshop. First we forged hook tools then ground hardened and tempered them. Then Barn turned a rather nice beech bowl, this is starting the outside. Hollowing the inside. Nearly finished, just undercutting the core, the most difficult part. And cleaning up…
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…
Just clearing photos off my camera, it was interesting to see how dry and brown everything was down south, I think it is only when you travel abroad and come home that you realise how amazingly green Britain generally is. Driving home coming back into Edale we met sheep in the road which made us feel like we were back…
Friday was sourcing wood day for me, I bought a tree which will make many hundreds of bowls and keep me busy for a few months. The importance of getting the right tree can create or save hundreds of hours work over that time and will also affect the character of the bowls available for sale on the website over…
Wooden bowls and spoons are a joy to use, wood is a natural insulator so keeps your food warm without having to heat the bowl first and mealtimes are quieter without the scraping of metal on ceramic. This was dinner last night. The duck bowl was one I made a couple of years ago and is painted with natural home…
