I am an environmentalist. I sincerely believe that our current consumerist society is trashing the earth and robbing our children and grandchildren of the inheritance that we had. They sadly will not inherit an earth in sound health ready to sustain life, fecund with healthy soil, stable climate, clean water and air. I have been a professional craftsperson for twenty…
QUALITY. I always struggled with the commissioning process. When it gets to that point where you hand the work over I never knew if the client really liked it. I think that is a self doubt many craftspeople feel. Several years ago I met a blacksmith who told me he never felt that doubt. In fact he knew what was best…
How can a maker rebel against the worst excesses of consumerism yet still make a living from making and selling stuff? This is a dilemma I struggle with. The Western world is too full of stuff, most of it produced in far off lands with working conditions and environmental practices we outlawed years ago. Most of it is designed to…
Last year I helped my friend Jarrod Stone Dahl build a birch bark canoe, it was quite simply one of the highlights of my traditional woodworking life. We only had about an hour with it on the water though and part of the dream was always to paddle a canoe in a proper wilderness area in the far North. This…
Thirty years ago Hitchhiking in the USA I was picked up by a chap in a big old truck heading South toward Richmond Virginia. We became great friends and traveled Europe and the USA together, we lead a 5 week environmental program with students camping and working building the Appalachian Trail, I owe him much of my life philosophy, particularly…
In yesterday’s Guardian I read about an artist I had never heard of yet his work has just broken records at auction for the work of a living artist. Peter Doig’s “Swamped” instantly appealed to me in many ways. It captures the spirit of a natural habitat that I love. It is what I think of as a proper painting,…
This is just a great 91 seconds on the philosophy of creativity, listen to this guy and feel better about the work you do. He seems like an inspiring guy check out more of his work here
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…
I think a lot about what makes a good life, what makes people happy and fulfilled. Tom Bartlett just brought this great summary to my attention. Contrary to what the media and advertisers would have us believe happiness is definitely not related to the amount of money or stuff we have. As a wise man once said to me “Ask…
I just came across this short film on the internet and wanted to share it. I love seeing work done well, can you imagine what a mess it would be possible to make doing this? and how smoothly and effortlessly these two get the job done. This impresses me as much as a premiership footballers skills, I suspect they are paid…
