I first read about North House Folk School several years ago when I discovered their website. It seemed like an inspirational place for the teaching of traditional crafts and I marked it down as a place I needed to visit one day. The opportunity finally presented itself and last week I taught a bowlturning class there.It’s a great facility right…
I am Wisconsin to learn and share. We have a had a brief break from canoe building work to get ready for the bowl turning course I am teaching at North House Folk School. We visited Jarrod’s friend Mike to borrow his well equipped blacksmith workshop and to forge a bunch of tools for the students to use. I’ll be…
Tomorrow I fly to the USA to build a birch bark canoe. This is one of the worlds great traditional woodwork projects and something I have dreamed about for nearly 20 years since first seeing the film Ceasars bark canoe. That film is now available free online thanks to the National Film Board of Canada so you can see just…
SPOONFEST tickets went on sale yesterday and I just wanted to let regular blog readers know that they are going very fast just 45 left as I write so get em fast if you want to come. It is the first and best international celebration of the carved wooden spoon. Last year we had around 200 folk from 11 countries.…
“Physics-exploiting axe splits wood in record time.” reads the headline. There are some folk that think that 4000 years of development of a traditional tool can be improved by modern design thinking. I am all in favour of questioning things and sometimes it is true genuine improvements can be made but this axe is all over the internet at the…
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…
Stanage Edge is a world famous climbing spot just outside Sheffield. I rarely go there because it is busy I like to find wild moorland with few people but it is stunning. Here are a few phone snaps I took on a walk yesterday.
Which is more important speaking and writing or making? I just listened to a fascinating interview with prof Mark Miodownik of UCLs institute of making on BBC radio 4 “The life Scientific”. “You can change whom makes the stuff that you use and who’s expression it is. Is it the expression of a big corporation? Most of the stuff that…
My talented daughter Jojo has spoons for sale on her blog. They are I have to admit better than mine.
A short blog post in honour of John Ruskin’s birthday. Ruskin’s writing have been a major influence on my own philosophy both directly and indirectly through Gandhi and Morris. The work that has most influenced me is The Nature of Gothic, from the Stones of Venice here is a sample quote. “We want one man to be always thinking, and…
