On the 8th of June as a thank you to all my regular blog readers and folk that post comments and send emails keeping me inspired I offered a free bowl which I would send to someone randomly chosen from those replying to the blog post. I was astonished that 73 folk responded, the bowl is now dried and finished,…
At the Norfolk show I had distant memories of childhood rekindled by watching Margaret making corn dollies. I remember as a child on the neighboring farm where I spent much of my time they still made dollies every year to ensure a good harvest the following year. Corn dollies are fascinating because they bridge the gap between folk craft and…
Until a couple of years ago Jeremy was the only clogmaker in the country still using the traditional knives to hand cut clog soles and make traditional British clogs. As was traditional in the mill towns of Lancashire and Rural Wales I have a pair of working clogs and a pair of posh clogs, I also have a pair of…
This is my mate Adam King, he has been into traditional crafts all his life having grown up doing craft events with his dad Stuart King. Stuart and I visited Romania together researching traditional craftspeople in 1998. Adam is one of the last besom broom makers, he cuts young birch branches in the winter and dries them thoroughly, bundles them…
Whilst there are more willow basketmakers than swillers or trugmakers it is still a declining craft. There are a good number of amateurs and many people using basketmaking skills to produce sculpture, the area that is in decline is the full time working basketmaker producing functional baskets and this is arguably the area that demands the highest skill, some would…
Owen is one of my craft heroes. He learnt the craft from a retired swiller at a time when nobody else would take it on and has single handedly kept it alive for nearly 20 years. The swill is a Lakeland basket and they are regularly pictured in Beatrix Potters books. Designed for tough farm use such as picking potatoes,…
The last week has been rather chaotic. Last Tuesday I drove to Norwich to set the lathe up ready for Norfolk Show on Wednesday and Thursday. Saturday I did the flint knapping with John Lord just south of Kings Lynn then camped overnight and headed off to London first thing Sunday for a Heritage Crafts Association committee meeting. We signed…
If you want to learn flint knapping in the UK there is no one more respected than John Lord. John teaches courses for various folks and demos around the country but by far the best way to do it is to go and work with him at his home in Norfolk. A friend and I booked a days knapping tuition…
I love nice pots, especially ones that you can use everyday in the kitchen. Yesterday we visited “Fire and Earth” an annual event at Rufford AbbeyThere were lots of nice pots to see and potters to chat with including a blogging friend Doug Fitch. I don’t have time to follow many other craftspeoples blogs but Doug’s is always interesting. He…
Last week we had a very enjoyable developers spooncarving course which turned into more of a kuksa carving course. After the first 2 days covering the basics of spoon design and carving spoons from crooks or bent pieces of wood to get a strong but light spoon I always offer a range of projects for the last day. Everyone chose…
