The worshipful company of turners

In medieval times the various craftspeople formed guilds to support each other in times of hardship, promote excellence in their craft and to protect the trade against outside competition. In London these guilds evolved into the worshipful companies and together they elected the Lord Mayor and played a major role in the running of the city.

By Victorian times the companies importance had dwindled along with the importance of their crafts in the rapidly expanding city, they had become gentleman's clubs with little if any connection to their original craft. More recently some of the companies have attempted to reconnect with their craft routes and I am pleased to say that the turners company is one. They set up a "register of professional turners" I applied and was accepted onto this register about 5 years ago, the idea is that it helps promote the craft of turning. We are also treated once a year to a rather grand dinner in one of the oldest livery halls in London, the Apothecaries hall which was rebuilt shortly after the great fire.

Our dinner was on Wednesday last week and I had arranged a number of speakers for the day. We had Geoff Egan from the Museum of London Archaeology service to give us an overview of the history of the city, then I talked about medieval wooden bowls from London. Stuart King gave us insights into the turners company history and Paul Coker talked about early "Rose engine turning". Finally David Dewing curator of the Geffrye Museum in London and Chair of the regional furniture society talked about turning in 17th century London cane chairs, a subject that was completely new to me. One of the most interesting things that came out of the discussions that followed was the role that the great fire had coming as it did just at the point when pottery replaced wood as the daily tableware and when turned parts first became common in furniture and architectural features such as staircases.

It always feels a very different environment to my workshop and it is not often that I have to put a suit on for work but I found the day interesting and thought provoking. I also love the connection with an organisation that has its routes with the turners who made the medieval bowls which I love.

celebrating birch

A friend recently recommended this book "Celebrating Birch" published by North House Folk School in Minesota. I ordered a copy and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. It is a lovely inspirational book, full of projects using this most versatile tree, from bowls and spoons to birch tar glue and bark boxes.



The first project I was inspired to try was "shrink pots". I have been aware of these for many years in fact made one nearly 10 years ago when I had a visit from a Hungarian woodworker who showed me how to do them but I had not done one since. They are a very nice example of working with the natural properties of the wood and using the shrinkage as a tree dries as part of the design. A short section of the trunk is hollowed out completely by drilling a hole then expanding it with a knife. Then a groove is cut for a base to fit into. The base is made from dried wood and cut so it just fits the internal diameter of the pot. As the pot shrinks the base is drawn further into the groove until it makes a tight fit.

These shrink pots are sometimes regarded by archaeologists as the precursor to coppered vessels and they were common in Britain in the Bronze age. In Eastern Europe they are still made today, in 1998 I visited Ion Constantin a Romanian bowl turner and one of his products was butter churns made in just this way. In Russia I have seen big vessels made like this out of hollowed trees 2 feet in diameter but my favorites are Scandinavian. Here are some that we just made from a small birch log.




And here is one with carved and painted outside from the shop at Saterglantan, Sweden's national folk school, http://saterglantan.se/eng/index.htm I have always wished I bought this pot.


And a couple of small pictures from North House Folk School's website, it looks an inspirational place. www.northhouse.org/

a new bowlturning friend in Japan

Over the last few weeks I have had some very nice correspondence with a gentleman by the name of Tomio Imaru in Japan. Tomio visited the UK and worked on the pole lathe with Mike Abbott in 2004 and has since made chairs in Japan but more recently he became interested in bowls and found my youtube videos and book. As he says

"The book and video are full of inspiration, and I was just taught the bowls and it's craft.
The chair making with green woodwork tells me the time around the industrial revolution,
but wood bowl turning brings me a feeling of medival or ancient world."

So just from the videos and book he has built a beautiful lathe, forged his own tools and turned bowls, here are some pictures.






I am not sure if it will show on the small pictures on the blog but the lathe is a beautiful hand hewn finish and the bowls too are finished straight off the tools with no abrasives. It took me a few years before I could do that so I am very impressed. Interestingly it was another Japanese Soetsu Yanagi in his book "The Unknown Craftsman, A Japanese insight into beauty" translated by the English potter Bernard Leach that first helped me to understand why I liked these rough hewn surfaces and the sometimes coarse but skillful work of country craftsman. It is a real joy to be connected with folk around the world sharing in the enjoyment of traditional craft skills.
You can Visit Tomio's homepage here HTTP://homepage2.nifty.com/midorinocraft/?

I have also been busy in the workshop, this week I have been turning plates, these are copies of one from the wreck of the Mary Rose which sank in 1545. I have some ordered for the Mary Rose Trust but also have very few left in stock so need to get some more turned and dried. Here they are stacked on the workshop shelves where the air can pass around them for the next 6 weeks or so then they will be dry and ready for oiling.