Just finished a wonderful spooncarving course. Lovely folk and with 6 of us carving for 3 days and learning new skills and techniques not single drop of blood was spilled of plaster used. I think this North West Coast style feast ladle is one of the nicest things I have had carved on a course and the spoon is a…
I am in search of the perfect cooking spoon. My charity work with HCA is very fulfilling but increasingly eats into work time, as a trustee of a charity I can’t be paid for any work I do for HCA. I still have bills to pay and kids to feed so my latest attempt to keep head above water is…
All of a sudden I have heard lots of folk talking about “sloyd”. Like “utsushi” in my last post this is a foreign word which has many subtle meanings which are lost in the normal translation simply as “handcraft”. This word I know a little more about though having spent some time in Sweden and teaching at the national handcraft…
My spoon and bowl carving courses are great fun and a really inspiring start in green woodworking. Whether you are an absolute beginner just thinking of trying your hand at woodcarving or someone with more experience that wants to take things to another level I hope to have courses to suit. 2011 dates have just gone on the website here.…
Woodcarving is so much easier if you have the right tools for the job and thankfully in this case the right tools need not cost a fortune. So what makes the best knife for wood carving and whittling and what should you look for when buying one? It should be made of a good quality steel, reasonably hard and take…
Five years ago I got an email from a 23 year old chap asking if I take on apprentices, he had been playing with woodturning from the age of 12 and done A level design and a degree but wanted to work without the dust and machinery. “Like many people, who i’m sure email you far to often, i want…
Our house is pretty spoon obsessed at the moment but also a very creative place. Barnaby Carder “Barn the Spoon” is staying with us and we have been having great fun discussing the most minor refined details of spoon design and cutting technique. It is a joy to share this stuff with someone as deeply interested (obsessed?) as me. We…
This week we had a fantastic spooncarving course here are a few pictures. It was so much fun I forgot to take photos until the last few minutes. As always there was a tremendous range of really wonderful folk from Yvonne the biodynamic beekeeper to Duncan the knifemaker and Barn the itinerant spooncarver who has been staying with me for…
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…
This week we had a “developers” carving course. Thanks to a great bunch of folk we had a fun time and carved some lovely work. My daughter Jojo has just done her basic food hygiene training so she can work in the village cafe so she was in charge of catering for the first time. Phil and Peter having…
