Yesterday was another London trip to meet with Rosy Greenlees and Amanda Jones, executive director and director of external relations of the Crafts Council. The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary crafts in the UK their funding comes through the arts council and in their programs they tend to promote work which is innovative rather than traditional.…
Last week we were on holiday in Germany visiting Michail and Hannes the friends that built our woodshed for us last year. We lived in a yurt for the week the sun shone, we carved lots of spoons visited craftspeople sat late into the evening round the campfire and had a lovely time. I have not sorted the pictures from…
I finally had a reply via my MP from culture minister Barbara Follet to my letter sent in February asking what the government were doing for heritage crafts in response to the UNESCO convention on living heritage. I am disappointed in the lack of depth to the answer given it took over 3 months to prepare, but at least it…
I have just been finishing off some mazers for English Heritage, they are for new displays at Dover Castle. They are turned quite thin from maple and when I oiled them and sat them on the table I noticed the sunlight shining through them as if they were glowing. The rims have been decorated with engraved patterns in Norman style…
I have just been reviewing course bookings for the year and am delighted to see that our developers courses are filling up rapidly with folk wanting to come back after doing a foundation course last year. Our June developers course has only 1 place left and October is already half full. I have always said I would like to judge…
Last weekend was spent camping at Cusworth Hall near Doncaster. It was the agm of the association of pole lathe turners and green woodworkers. At this annual event I run the workshop area where various people teach 40 minute taster sessions on green wood crafts, I also teach basic knife and axe carving sessions. All these workshops book up in…
Yesterday I rough forged a set of turners tools to go with my old lathe on the set of Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood film. These have been forged then ground and now go back in the forge to have the curved cutting hook forged. I have also been working on a quote for building an education shelter at the site…
Tom Levitt has asked Culture minister Andy Burnham to recognize some of England’s dying craft skills as being as worthy of preservation as famous castles and paintings. “Many of these skills are dying out,” says the MP. “In areas like High Peak they are truly part of the cultural fabric of rural communities in particular, and it is right that…
This excellent article was published in the Times on SaturdayGardeners turning to the rural craftsmen to sweep away gloom by Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor The worst recession in 60 years might have hit the City hard, but the world of traditional country crafts is enjoying something of a boom.Across Britain craftsmen who have been honing their skills without fanfare for…
On Saturday Morning I went along to one of my MP’s surgeries. I think most MP’s do this in their constituencies, Tom Levitt books an hour in a local cafe and anyone can turn up and raise issues with him. I took along a riddle made by the last riddle maker one of Tom’s constituents in Whaley Bridge. We have…
