Robin Wood

can we define what craft is?

2012-01-21T13:27:00.002Z

Yesterday I was a meeting in London of the steering group for a major piece of government funded research into the state of heritage crafts in England. The first and perhaps most difficult task is to define very precisely what heritage crafts are in such a way as the research company can go away and start counting and measuring.

Crafts consultant Hillary Jennings had prepared us a draft discussion paper which runs to about 15 pages, we hope to be able to make this document public in due course but for now I can share a few of the most important points.

It was felt that heritage craft could be defined as practice which encompassed these points

Knowledge and use of traditional materials

Skilled use of hand tools and hand operated machinery

Knowledge and application of traditional, often functional designs

Then this was boiled down into an even more concise version for when we need a one line definition.

"Practices which employ skilled use of hand tools and an understanding of material and have their roots in traditional functional design."

It's not easy to define traditional craft, how would you do it? can you come up with anything better? One thing we were sure about was that heritage is not the same as old, it is more a question of what we value and wish to pass on to future generations.

To make the most of my London trip I also got to meet two people I have been corresponding with for a while. First was Adam Thompson who writes the excellent "manufacture and industry" blog here
We only had time for a quick coffee and chat but it was good to meet, his blog is well worth following.

Then last thing I visited potter Kate Malone. Folk who know Kate's work may be surprised as she is very much a high end art potter making pieces which sell for thousands of pounds, she does have very strong roots in traditional practice however and believes that it is crucial that ceramicists learn basic craft skills first before considering any sort of innovative self expression. Here is a lovely film of her studio.

I am in London next Tuesday and Wednesday for more meetings including John Hayes skills minister, Martina Milburn CEO of the Princes Trust, the BBC to discuss potential craft TV programs, Baroness Garden at the Lords and I am particularly pleased to be able to meet up with Betsy Greer, craft activist who is over from the US.

craft conference at the V&A "evolving craft communities"

2012-01-18T14:51:00.000Z

This year's Heritage Crafts Association conference at the V&A has the theme "Evolving Craft Communities"

Since you are reading this on the web and presumably have an interest in craft you are part of an online craft community which did not exist 20 years ago. At the same time many of us are also part of other craft communities whether local, regional or national with a particular craft theme. I am quite involved with the Association of pole lathe turners and greenwoodworkers who have a good online forum here but also an annual meeting where we all get together to exchange skills and ideas.

We are live in exciting times as we can exchange and source information freely across the web, how does this change our craft practice and how does it compare to past practices of passing skills? Is it possible to feel connected to other folk we have never met who live in other continents and what sort of meaning does that bring to our lives? How do we make the best use of changes that are happening and new opportunities available to us?

Speakers at the conference will include Professor Richard Sennett, talking about "Making and thinking". Richard is author of the well-received book The Craftsman, and professor of sociology at New York University and LSE. He popularised the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master a craft skill, he also talks from personal experience of hand skills having put those hours in training as a cellist.

Lida Kindersley runs the highly successful Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge. Lida was trained by David Kindersley who was himself trained by Eric Gill. She wrote a nice book on apprenticeship Her workshop practices solidly "old school" with apprentices learning letter-cutting alongside the team of experienced craftspeople.

Ele Carpenter is a curator, artist and researcher working within the field of visual arts and new media. She will talk about the open source embroidered digital commons

Stuart Mitchell's apprenticeship in the Sheffield cutlery industry was very traditional. He started at the bottom and worked all hours until eventually even his father took pride in the knives that he built. His workshop, and indeed work ethic, is still steeped in the traditions of Sheffield of old, but things have changed.

And then I will be talking about how I feel to be part of a global online woodworking community but how I still value physical get togethers and particularly working on craft projects together alongside other people whether sharing my knowledge through courses or learning from others.

Here is the full program, you can book here and this year we are offering an £5 early bird discount to save us having the stress of last minute bookings. It will be a great day, hope you can join us.

10.15am - Registration in the Lecture Theatre.
10.45am - Conference starts. Welcome from Patricia Lovett, Vice-Chair of the HCA.
10.55am - Professor Richard Sennett - 'Making and Thinking'.
11.55am - Lida Kindersley, lettercutter in stone - 'Learning by Doing'
1.00pm - HCA Annual General Meeting - all welcome.
2.30pm - Afternoon session begins. Patricia Lovett.
2.35pm - Presentation of Marsh Awards for trainer and volunteer in Heritage Crafts by Alex Langlands
3.00pm - Ele Carpenter, 'Open Source Embroidery Project - the embroidered digital commons'
3.25pm - Robin Wood, wood turner and Chair of the HCA - 'Bringing Craft out of the Woods'
3.50pm - Stuart Mitchell, knifemaker - 'Web Mester'
4.15pm - Closing remarks and HCA updates
4.30pm - Conference ends

gorgeous Welsh lovespoon

2012-01-11T08:38:00.000Z

I really dislike the tourist tat Welsh lovespoons that most people know but I was recently sent photos of a gorgeous original Welsh lovespoon which is a simple beautiful understated form with just the right amount of decoration. I have not done a copy yet, but I will. Would it be right to make a spoon like this and offer it for sale? to me then the whole point of lovespoons was that they were made as love tokens by someone for someone. Anyway here are the pics hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This particular spoon belonged to the grandmother of the lady that sent me the pictures. She was born in the 1890's, lived in Pontrober and later Llanfair Caereinion.
I did a previous post on Welsh lovespoons and cawl spoons here

a cup o’ kindness

2012-01-03T19:02:00.001Z

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

What better way to bring in the new year than gathered with friends and sharing a communal cup of kindness of good whisky? So it was that I said hello to 2012. Edale is a small and very sociable village and about 150 folk or half the population of the village partied in the village hall. As is traditional at the stroke of mifdnight we all sang Auld lang syne and my quaich did the rounds.

This sort of ceremonial use of drinking vessels has been lost to much of our culture which I feel is a shame, whether weddings, parties, new year or just a gathering of friends, sharing a cup of kindness is somehow a very special and enjoyable thing to do. From the Vikings through medieval period right up Robert Burns and Thomas Hardy folk would share a communal drink and it was only Victorian prudishness that brought individual vessels. I highly recommend giving it a try.

Thank you

2011-12-27T22:45:00.000Z

Well, 4 years and this is blog post 500. Considerably more writing and photos than in most woodworking books all cast out into cyberspace for free. The feedback makes it all worthwhile though and I want to thank everyone that continues to read, post links to my blog, tells others about it and those who have sent me lovely stories about their own woodworking journeys.

Let's start with a thank you to Luke Townsley, I know many folk come to my blog via his blog at unpluggedshop if you want to find a range of interesting reading on the web about traditional woodworking this list of blog posts is a good place to start.

When I asked last week who reads my blog I was blown away by the response, as well as the 26 comments below the post I had lots of supportive emails and stories of folk who drew inspiration for their woodworking journeys from various online sources including my blog. I can't feature everyone here and it would be impossible to try to select amongst them so here are a random sample, I like to see the variety of folk from those who are clearly very competent craftspeople to enthusiastic amateurs.

Daniel making handmade shoes in Oregon http://babushoe.com/
Fellow woody bloggers
Brian saw-milling in Scotland http://brian-logsblog.blogspot.com/
Mack whittling in Colorado http://flyingchips.blogspot.com/
Rico and Beth also in Colorado simple living and traditional crafts http://www.survivalinthewasteland.blogspot.com/
Kev on carpentry and living the good life http://sawdustinmysocks.blogspot.com/
Lena on Archaeology http://ossamenta.dreamwidth.org/ like this post about medieval bone and antler combs.
Bushcrafty stuff in Sweden http://deepwoods.dreamwidth.org/
Anthony's figurative sculpture in NYC http://www.santella.org/anthony/ hope you don't mind me sharing a picture Anthony.

My good friend Steve with his blog on a variety of wood crafts http://stevetomlincrafts.wordpress.com
Steve's spoons

George Walker's nicely designed blog on design http://georgewalkerdesign.wordpress.com/
Jack Wheeler sculpture

and finally Richard's entertaining woody blog http://flyingshavings.co.uk/

Thanks for all the comments about which sorts of posts you enjoy, I am conscious that many folk come here primarily for the woodworking and sometimes fear my philosophical ramblings or extensive posts about my work advocating for traditional crafts through the Heritage Crafts Association could be rather a diversion. It appears some folk enjoy these things too which was nice to know.

So thanks all for reading, sharing and linking to my blog in the past and I hope you all have a great 2012.
Robin

learn to carve spoons in 2012

2011-12-16T09:05:00.002Z

2011 was my fifth year of teaching spooncarving profesionally after nearly 20 years carving as a hoby. These courses are now recognised as the best possible way to learn the skills of carving with an axe and knife. Many of the folk I taught in the first few years are now running courses themsleves and many more are carrying on enjoying carving as a hoby. I am proud of how folk from all sorts of backgrounds manage to pick up these skills quickly and easily when they are taught properly, the courses are also great fun though.

I know many folk are waiting for these course dates to buy a Christmas present for someone special, I am sorry I have left it to rather the last minute but hope you can find some suitable dates. Full details of the content of the various courses with links to photos of previous courses are all here

Spooncarvers foundation course
25-27 April 2012
23-25 May2012
17-19 October 2012

Developers course
27-29 June 2012

Bowlcarving
16-18 May 2012

20-22 June 2012

24-26 October 2012
28-30 November2012

Fun carving
21-23 November 2012

Courses all booked up quickly last year and prices have been held at the same rate again this year so book soon to guarantee a place. Cheque or Paypal for £50 deposit secures a place.

Hope to see some of you in 2012.

For my blog readers overseas or unable to come on courses rest assured there will be plenty of photos and posts about spooncarving here for inspiration.

I don't normally post lots of past testomonials but this email came in this moring from Ian who has done a spooncarving foundation course and developers course with me.

"I have to say your Spoon Carving courses have been the best I have ever attended. This is because (and I can say this with some prior expertise as an ex-teacher and consumer of lot's of craft tuition over the years) you fundamentally understand the learning process. You have taught me carving skills in ways that are accessible and 'stick'. I can remember all the skills taught and I can use them. Unlike other courses I can replicate, practice and embed them. I just 'know' what to do governed by your prior taught process. The soup is good too!
"

Who reads my blog?

2011-12-13T00:18:00.002Z

In 4 years blogging I have made some great friends around the world, quite a few of whom I have met in person and others I hope to meet in the future. I feel to be very much a part of a growing online craft community with links around the globe and I'd like this blog post to help strengthen that community and be a way of introducing all my online friends to each other, a virtual craft meet up if you like. It would be great if we could all meet in Edale village hall round a table with tea or a beer and lots of nice craftwork to chat about, I hope to organise that in 2012. I know there are some readers who are very talented woodworkers or skilled in other crafts whilst others are just starting out. I would love to hear from you all. In fact I hope to give you all a platform to say hello and maybe send me a link to your own blogs or websites if you have them.

You can get in touch by using the comments box below this post or by sending email to robin@robin-wood.co.uk I'd love to hear from lot's of you and so my 500th blog post (this is 498) can be all about my blog readers.

I love to hear stories about folk that have been inspired in some way by my work or blog, it gives me the incentive to carry on writing. Here is a recent one Wilson Burnham of Brokeoff Mountain Lutherie is currently making a pole lathe to turn bowls.
and here are a couple of other woodworkers I have a lot of time for Jarrod StoneDahl makes wonderful pole lathe bowls and spoons in northern Wisconsin and one day I hope to visit and help him build one of his gorgeous birch bark canoes.

Peter Follansbee is the joiner making wonderful furniture using original techniques at Plimouth Plantation, his blog is well worth a read, particularly his posts with photos of original 17th century pieces like this. He also turns bowls every now and then.

Rivkah Mentzer is a medieval historian and homemaker. which involves many crafts, in my early days of blogging she encouraged me by posting nice comments. Later she visited the workshop and bought a bowl which she calles Mambrino and makes bread dough in, she posts pictures of the bowl from time to time and it is ageing nicely.

Next March for the Heritage Crafts Association spring conference at the V&A we have chosen the theme "Evolving Craft Communities" Richard Sennett author of "The Craftsman" will be our keynote speaker. I'll be speaking about the way in which the internet has allowed me to feel connected with a wonderful community of folk in the UK and worldwide, my blog gets around 1500 readers a day so I am hoping some of you will join in the conversation, let me know who you are, where you are, what your interests are and maybe whether you draw inspiration or just a feeling of connectedness from following web blogs about subjects that have meaning for you. Over to you.......
robin@robin-wood.co.uk
Thanks
ps if any of you do facebook I do that a little too here

Steve Jobs

2011-12-11T18:21:00.001Z

These inspirational quotes from Steve Jobs were put together by Mike Press for his great blog here the most craft related ones are at the end but I think they are all great.

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.”

“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

And whilst looking back at Mike's old blog archive I came across this remarkable post from 2007. It seems quite visionary now showing the way handmade crafts using web 2 software, blogs, etsy etc are in a position to grow rapidly, comment, and be far more proactive in addressing issues about the way we make, work and consume in the 21st century.

"Craft 2.0 is the true inheritor of the Morris legacy. Unlike the professionalised 'art school' educated craft makers it has an ideological position which, while largely ill-defined and diverse, represents a constructive reaction to the inequities and politics of the market economy. It is clearly using the market economy as a means of developing sustainable livelihoods, but is bringing economic and cultural innovation to it. Above all it is dealing with the politics of work and consumption in ways that the professionalised sector cannot."

life is a gym for head, hand and heart.

2011-12-10T23:56:00.001Z

It seems to me that the life many people aspire to at the moment involves spending the working day in important meetings or at a computer or doing similar cerebral work, then in the morning or evening jogging or pumping iron at the gym to get that perfect body.

These gyms seem bizarre places to me, I have walked past them in London full of folk pounding away like so many hamsters on wheels. The bizarre thing is that all those machines are consuming electricity, I'd like to see a gym that generated electricity or better see those folk out carrying shopping for old ladies or some other useful physical activity. Besides that I struggle with the idea of pounding away just to get the current trendy body shape. I think far better to live a balanced life that involves a mix of cerebral and physical activity. At the moment I am converting my ex village police station into a holiday cottage, there is a lot of hard labouring work which a hard nosed business annalist would say I should pay a labourer £50 a day to do whilst I got on with more lucrative work. I earn an average of £80 a day so I can't argue with the economics but there is something more important than economics to me. By doing the labouring myself I get a feeling of empowerment, and also a good workout which would cost my cerebral friends a hefty gym fee. Here I am starting to demolish the old wall separating the old garage from the police station office, I reckon you could charge for this it was such fun.

Why is it that doing this stuff as part of the working day is looked down upon whilst paying to sweat in the gym is viewed as a good thing? This is all part of my philosophy of living a balanced life with work involving hand, head and heart. Past posts on the subject here or see more posts in similar vein by clicking the philosophy link to the right.

new music video featuring me

2011-12-08T13:59:00.001Z

Often folk picture heritage and traditional crafts as being backward looking, and having nothing to say today. This is a misunderstanding, today in times of global financial adversity people tend to reassess their priorities and question what good work and a good life means, what is of value and what is not. The traditional crafts have always been closely linked with the politics of work, from William Morris to Eric Gill to Mahatma Gandhi craft, work, philosophy, politics all together.

Craft is still relevant today and far from being backward looking the Heritage Crafts Association are at the cutting edge of debate about what is good work today. Music sometimes also carries political messages and one of my favourite young punk bands are the King Blues. This is their new video shot on a very cold day last spring and you might notice a clip of me in the workshop.

It was quite an eye opener being part of the video, we had an afternoon in the workshop them most of the day starting at 8am in Manchester and it was cold....
This quick clip taken on my pocket camera gives an idea of how it was made.

and a few stills

Nice Finnish blacksmith film

2011-12-07T13:53:00.001Z

Here is a really nice film of Finnish blacksmith Jesse Sipola, he has developed a system of using hand held air hammers for fine forging work, particularly faces, it's a nicely shot and edited film too. Worth double clicking to get full screen.

Jesse Sipola, Seppä | Blacksmith (2011) from Eero Y on Vimeo.

Who reads my blog?

2011-12-05T07:31:00.001Z

Next March for the Heritage Crafts Association spring conference at the V&A we have chosen the theme "Evolving Craft Communities" Richard Sennett author of "The Craftsman" will be our keynote speaker. I'll be speaking about the way in which the internet has allowed me to feel connected with a wonderful community of folk in the UK and worldwide, my blog gets around 1500 readers a day so I am hoping some of you will join in the conversation, let me know who you are, where you are, what your interests are and maybe whether you draw inspiration or just a feeling of connectedness from following web blogs about subjects that have meaning for you. Over to you.......
robin@robin-wood.co.uk

ps if any of you do facebook I do that a little too here

A gem of an old wood craft film.

2011-12-05T03:21:00.001Z

This is an absolute gem. Sent to me by blog Reader Tim Marshall, recorded in 1984 two "bushmen" Bill Boyd and Mark Garner fell a tree, split "slabs" off it and hew them to make house timbers. I have worked with some seriously talented hewers in Japan, Germany and the best from the UK, when I watched the first few seconds of this film with these two chaps sat on the porch sharpening their axes I thought it all looked a bit hammed up for the cameras but just stick with it, they are as skilled and effortless as anyone I have ever seen with an axe.

It was uploaded a year ago and has had only 500 views it deserves to be much better known, lets share it and celebrate the skills of these wonderful folk.

Just for comparison I'll post a couple of vids I made in 2005 of German and Japanese style hewing

Britain to be proud of?

2011-12-03T12:25:00.001Z

An interesting piece of research has just been published looking at what British people are proud of.

Respondents were more likely to take pride in the things that were closest to them – for instance their family and home – than in the ‘nation’ more generally:

87% said ‘I am proud of my family’.
77% said ‘I am proud of my friends’.
62% said ‘I am proud of my work’.
80% were ‘proud of my attitude to others’.
90% said ‘I am proud of my values’.
Gosh we are beginiing to sound like a smug lot now how about this
79% said ‘I am proud of my knowledge/intelligence’.

"Overwhelmingly, British people believe that we are – collectively – less proud of Britain than our forefathers: 53 per cent believe that Britain is less patriotic than it was 25 years ago and 61 per cent argue that patriotism has declined over the last 50 years – over half of British people believe that we are ‘a lot less proud’ than we once were of Britain.
However, four in five British people are still happy to declare themselves ‘proud to be a British citizen’ and levels of patriotism in the UK are – when compared with those in other European nations – relatively healthy."

81% said ‘I am proud of how Britain looks (eg landscape, architecture and style)’.
74% were ‘proud of British culture’.

"British citizens had a strong disengagement from ‘patriotism’ People felt that ‘patriotism’ meant the last night of the Proms, the Union Jack and singing ‘Jerusalem’.... while they are proud of Britain and of being British, assume that the term ‘patriotic’ just doesn’t, really, describe them:

"Patriotic means flying the flag and standing up for the national anthem and things like that. I think it’s fine that people do that but it’s not really me, if you know what I mean? I suppose I’m not really ‘patriotic’ but I do think I’m proud of British things."

"It’s a bit weird to be really, really patriotic. I don’t think it’s racist or anything, like people say, I think it’s harmless really but it’s more that it’s old-fashioned. It’s sort of more for posh people, isn’t it?"

"When you ask about what’s best about being British I think of all the people that give up their time to help other people, or to do good things in the community. That’s what makes me proud of this country."

"At the same time, shame and embarrassment in Britain are strongly felt. More than half of British people have been ‘embarrassed to be British’ "

"The British are among the most likely people in the world to give up our time to volunteer. We have significantly higher levels of social action – and a greater and more established independent charitable sector – than most peer European countries."

"I think of being British as being about littler things, more boring I suppose. Like doing your bit and manners and helping out. The thing about British people is that we do things for each other, you know? Being British is more about the way we are than things like Buckingham Palace or Parliament."

"We find that pride in Britain is strong but that people are alienated by the way in which politicians talk about patriotism. British people are highly dubious of efforts to politicise their everyday, felt patriotic sentiments and they deeply distrust efforts to intellectualise their pride in their country. British politicians are at risk – through their wide-of-the-mark ventures into the discourse of patriotism – of turning British people off their sense of themselves."

"I’m always a bit dubious when the politicians see something good and then say ‘that’s what I believe in’ because usually they take that thing and they ruin it."

"Sometimes when they [politicians] talk about volunteering and all that, it sounds like they think they invented it or something. I don’t volunteer because the Government tells me to, I volunteer because I want to – I enjoy it and I think it’s important,"

"our research undermined many of the traditional narratives about patriotism and British-identity. Participants identified a mis- match between history presented as a ‘great island story’ and what they felt was important, and inspiring, about modern Britain."

and here is one last statistic which shows that folk answering quesions from research companies maybe say what they would like to think they do in an idealised vision rather than what they actually do in the real world.

"74% of respondents agreed with the statement ‘it’s important to buy British’.

Full report can be downloaded here

NIACE craft "tool kit"

2011-12-02T15:54:00.001Z

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education NIACE want to know how you got into the crafts, the results will be published on their website with links back to your website so worth 5 minutes to answer a few questions.

Details of NIACE craft "tool kit" from Jan Lasnon

"Rather than me phoning individuals and (as is always the way) choosing the most inconvenient time, I’m hoping that you will contact me – either by phone or email – at a time that suits you.
The information I need from as many craft practitioners as possible is:
Name:
Location: (Where you are based)
Discipline: (General description of your craft)
How long you have been working as a craft practitioner:
Please describe briefly how you learned your craft:
Detail any training courses you have attended (these can be accredited or non-accredited, from half-day workshops through to degree courses)
Advise any courses which you would like to have access to (include any that may have been discontinued)
State how/where your work is sold: (ie website, galleries, etc). Please include here your website details if you have one so that people can look at what you do.
If applicable add alternative career information (this may be a former career or paid work you currently do to prop up your income)
You can either email the information through to me at jan@craftanddesign.net (in which case please also give me a contact number in case I need to clarify anything) or just email with the best time to call and a number you can be reached on and I’ll give you a call.
This is the most major project that’s taken in place in crafts for decades so I really hope that you can spare five or ten minutes to be part of it.
Thanks to everyone for your help,
Jan"

and a follow up note from Jan explaining how this relates to the Mapping Survey which HCA have been working on with John Hayes's team and CCSkills.

"The exciting announcement Creative & Cultural Skills have commissioned research agency TBR to map the heritage crafts sector seems to have caused a little confusion as to how that impacts or sits with the work I’m doing with NIACE so I thought I’d explain how it all fits together.
When Skills Minister John Hayes first featured in craft&design magazine he explained that he was looking at how to address training the next generation of craftspeople.
The first issue recognised by the Minister was the need to harness the expertise and knowledge of the sector so he set up a BIS Craft Skills Advisory Board which has already been holding meetings.
The Minister pledged to undertake a national mapping exercise for heritage craft skills sector, working with a range of sector bodies.
John Hayes has also invited NIACE to produce a map of apprenticeship frameworks that support the sector and to look at opportunities for future growth. NIACE is also developing a tool kit – this is what I”m working on specifically.
The toolkit is basically a micro website which can be accessed by anyone but in particular people hoping to pursue a career in craft. I am collecting case studies from people currently working in the industry which details their chosen discipline and how they got there.
These human stories will be really helpful and, in some cases, inspirational. And, as we are now adding photos, they may also generate new business.
Some of the people that have contacted me also run their own workshops. There is a separate part of the toolkit dedicated to courses, both through educational institutions as well as independently run. I’m preparing a list of these as I go and will ensure that any courses advised to me will also be included in the toolkit.
In short then, the mapping exercise will show where heritage craft is at the moment. The toolkit will be preparing craft for the future.
I have had a great response so far – thank you to all those who have contacted me. However, I would still love to hear from more of you please. And don’t forget, if you are running short courses and workshops, include them in the information you send me or, if you haven’t got time to write it, just email me with a convenient time to call you and I’ll write it for you.
This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a craft-focused project that is the biggest of its kind and it costs you nothing to get involved. Just a few minutes of your time.
I urge you not to miss out."

raising the status of art and craft?

2011-12-02T08:27:00.001Z

How do we raise the status of studying artistic rather than pure academic subjects? There has been much discussion recently about how society values academic vs tacit knowledge, skills minister John Hayes said "In my view, the skills of a bricklayer are in no way less admirable and certainly no less hard-won than those of a stockbroker. Matt Crawford's book "The case for working with your hands" made a similar case but how do we convince parents and bright kids that a career in the arts, crafts or trades is a viable choice and not something for academic low achievers?

I just came across this wonderful witty ad campoaign for the College for Creative Studies in Detroit mimicking anti drugs campaigns. Entertaining and makes the point but does it reinforce the image, challenge it or change it?

“Talk to your kids about art school”

Information / Credits

1 in 5 teenagers will experiment with art. Talk to your kids about art school.
Advertising Agency: Team Detroit, Dearborn, MI USAChief Creative Officer: Toby BarlowCreative Director: Gary PascoeArt Director: Vic QuattrinCopywriter: Joel WescottPublished: October, 2011

quality goes a long way

2011-11-28T22:00:00.001Z

I have no doubt dear blog readers that you have a good appreciation of quality, probably far more so that the average person in the street for whom quantity seems more important. Does quality have to cost though? Are we just the fortunate few to enjoy quality? A few weeks ago I had to say goodbye to this pair of shoes.

They were made for me about ten years ago by Jeremy Atkinson and as you can see they have had a hard life but served me well. Normally bespoke footwear is very expensive. Even a pair of off the shelf Church's cost £300-£400. A pair of proper bespoke shoes by John Lobb will set you back £3000. If you can find a good shoemaker with low overheads and buy direct however you can get quality bespoke shoes that cost less per year than cheap Chinese shoes. When I helped judge the Balvenie masters of craft awards last year Ruth Emily Davy a young shoemaker in Wales was one of our winners, her shoes are around £300, now if you get 10 years out of them that is better than £30 a year on cheap shoes going into landfill.

My shoes from Jeremy were less than half that price yet the quality is superb. The leather is thick and supple like the best saddle leather, it comes from Clayton's tannery at Chesterfield. They fit, like a glove? er well like a shoe? or well like a shoe should do if it's been made exactly to fit your foot. There is no doubt over the ten years my previous pair lasted, and I am very very hard on my footwear, that these were far better value than buying a new pair of cheap shoes each year.

These two pairs are the only shoes just like this Jeremy has ever made, they are basically a clog upper on a shoe sole. I love my welsh slipper clogs and particularly this clever little clasp which allows you to slip the shoes on and walk away or clip them up tight with a flick of the finger. He does more normal shoes with lace ups as well and wonderful clogsl Now just before you click off to check his website be warned it can take a while to buy from him, you need to be persistent.

Now I have been blogging for a couple of years and really value the support and feedback I get in comments posted, people mentioning they read when we meet and nice emails. If you were here I would offer you a drink. To continue the theme of quality going a long way it would probably be a drop of Balvenie. I won this bottle of Balvenie 30 year old 2 years ago when I was Balvenie's "Artisan of the Year". It's not quite finished yet, I have made it last. It only comes out on special occasions and generally as part of a Balvenie tasting where we start with the £25 12yr old doublewood then have my favourite the 15yr old £40 single barrel and only then a little taste of the £300 30yr old. It may be extravagant but with whisky like this you only need a small amount to enjoy the flavours so there are maybe 70 good tasters in a bottle. Compared to a bottle of wine from which you get 4 glasses my £300 bottle equates to £4 a taste or a £16 bottle of wine which probably is no where near as special. Now what you are asking is that strange small sample beside the 30yr old?

let me pop the lid and let you sniff....pretty special yes? Careful don't spill it...

Well this one is pure indulgence of the John Lobb level, no way I can even try to justify this as being quality but really better value than cheap wine or shoes. No this is extravagant. Two weeks ago I had an invite to the launch of the Balvenie 40yr old at the V&A. It fell in the middle of a bowl carving course and I couldn't let my students down so I was gutted to have to decline. Thankfully those lovely folk at the Balvenie sent me this 10ml taster in the post. How special? Well there are only 150 bottles available worldwide with only 18 allocated to the UK 2 of which they drank at that launch at the V&A. At £2500 a bottle my tiny 10ml bottle works out about £35. I'm saving this one and just sniffing it occasionally at the moment. I'll probably share a tiny taste with my dad over Christmas.

big old Japanese saw

2011-11-26T20:05:00.001Z

Yesterday the postman brought an unexpected gift from Japan, a big old Japanese saw.

It is wonderful condition and sharpened ready to use. This was sent to me by my friend Tomio.
When I spent time working with traditional Japanese carpenters last year this was the particular saw that I most coveted. More details and pictures of the saws in Japan on this post from last year. This particular type is apparently called "Madonoko" or "window saw" the windows being the deep gullets to carry away sawdust during rapid cross cutting.

Also in the parcel was a book showing archaeological woodware with much turned work from Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Archaeology. This again was very exciting for me, I have seen a few pictures of old turned Japanese woodware before particularly laquerware and there is such a strong tradition of laquered woodware surviving today I knew there must be a long history. I hope to post some pictures when I have talked more with Tomio about the individual pieces and know more about where and when they are from. See one of Tomio's gorgeos turned laquered bowls here.

how to warm a craftsman's heart....wedding quaich

2011-11-24T00:35:00.001Z

As craftspeople we put our heart and soul into our work. Most of us make work that only a minority of folk truly understand and appreciate. The most heartwarming thing of all is when we see people enjoying using what we have made in their daily lives, sitting on a chair, drinking from a favourite mug, wearing a scarf we knitted or whatever.

Mostly my work fits into fairly humble normal daily lives and I like that, when someone meets me and tells me they have eaten their breakfast from one of my bowls for 10 years and that they get pleasure from it every day it inspires me to carry on with my work. This is a favourite photo sent to me a while a go of one of my porringers in use.

Today I was sent these photos which made me deeply happy at an even more meaningful level. They are from the wedding in Scotland of Bryan & Fiona Campbell who chose to use one of my quaichs to toast their marriage.

Bryan said "It was such a lovely part of our wedding ceremony, and we can't thank you enough for creating such a beautiful, meaningful object."

And I can't thank Bryan and Fiona enough for giving me the chance to live by making these things and to share the joy of seeing them being used.

London town

2011-11-23T19:29:00.001Z

Last week I spent 3 days in London for meetings.

That's a London plane leaf by the way, London is full of truly astonishing trees that few folk ever notice. And from an old London landmark to a new one, this is the shard, the first very tall modern building on the South bank, it is going to be pretty impressive when finished. I love the south bank, lots of cultural stuff there from the Globe Theatre to Tate Modern, the Golden Hinde to Southwark Cathedral. On my way to a meeting I came across this lovely sculpture. At a glance it looks like just one more chainsaw sculpture (I am not a fan) but on closer inspection it was clearly hewn with axe and adze.

It's the work of Stephan Balkenhol I liked it a lot.

Anyway our meeting was at the old leather market, now home of Creative and Cultural Skills. It was the inception meeting for a £90,000 research project to assess the current state of traditional crafts in England.

We have lots of anecdotal evidence about issues in the sector, particularly difficulties of passing skills from one generation to the next. This research will find out the extent of the problem as well as assessing the commercial value of the sector and the opportunities for growth. This is exactly what we need in order to convince folk that they should be investing in the traditional crafts and ensuring skills are passed on. The meeting went well and probably in January there will be opportunity for individual craftspeople to input into the research project. The day after we had our first meeting of the Heritage Crafts Association skills working group. These are a team of folk from across a broad spectrum of the crafts and including folk familiar with the educational system. The object is to take forward the recommendations of the 110 delegates at the skills forum
It may sound a bit dull but we are all committed to our crafts, to seeing craft back in education, decent apprenticeships in craft and adequate support for mastercraftspeople whilst they take time away from making in order to pass their skills on. I am determined that when we look back in 10 years time that we will have made a difference.

entertaining orange

2011-11-23T00:19:00.001Z

Today's blog is simply a very entertaining image that I found on the internet, I just love it and hope you enjoy it too.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 7

2011-11-16T14:26:00.001Z

One last post on my time with the replica Oseberg ship. I always like to have an overview of this sort of project and share what I have learnt. Often the interest is the detail but the most important things are the big picture about how the worksite works and the project is organised. This is clearly a multimillion pound/dollar project and most big projects that work are driven by one passionate individual. This project is the brainchild of Geir Rørvik. Geir runs a boatyard outside Tonsberg and his passion is for traditional boats. Since the Oseberg boat, the most iconic Viking ship of all, was found here it seems an obvious thing to have some recognition in the town. The original ship is in the museum in Oslo so a replica that could serve as an icon for the town would be a wonderful project. The New Oseberg Ship Foundation was set up and now they have a great team headed by chairman Einar Erlingsen. As well as succeding in attracting considerable funding for the project they have done really well at getting sponsorship in kind. The worksite is right in the centre of town on the tourist trail along the waterfront. This land is owned by the Quality Hotel (green clad building in the background) and as well as giving the land they feed the whole worksite crew lunch for free every day.

Another key feature of the project is that it is happening in full view of the public. Not only is there this busy cycle/footpath around the outside of the site there is a path right through the centre of the site too. The whole town are involved with the project and are watching it gradually grow. Many of them come along and help out as volunteers, young and old alike.

Tuesday evenings and Saturdays are volunteer days, it's important to co ordinate volunteer work, you need to have less precious tools available (these are Hultafors axes, still good but £50 each rather than £350) And having a reasonable number of regular volunteers who have a reasonable skill level saves the shipwrights time in training and supervision. Having lots of untrained folk visiting for a few days would actually slow things down rather than help. Here is a young blacksmith using the on site forge on a volunteer day.

And the textile group have 40 volunteers, they made the woolen sail and the costumes for the worksite. Here they are working on natural dying.

Public events keep locals and press up to date with progress, this is a Viking market day and the opening of the new shop.

The worksite felt a happy and relaxed place which is important each morning the shipwrights met and Thomas would ask if everyone knew what they were going to do today, if they didn't he would allocate work. Geir is in the red to the left. One thing I did miss compared to the Japanese work site last year was we used to do warm up exercises and stretches each morning which reduced the risk of injury when doing heavy work, it was good for creating a feeling of togetherness in the team too.

Another keen supporter of the project has been Tonsberg youth hostel voted recently as "the friendliest youth hostel in the world" and I can understand why. They have been able to support the project by occasionally offering free accommodation to visiting workers when they are out of season (in season they are booked full months in advance) This was a huge help to me as the cost of living in Norway is very expensive. This was breakfast.

And to show the cost of living this is £16 worth of groceries from the supermarket I was very grateful for my free breakfast and lunch. I resisted the temptation to join friends for a beer at £7 a pint.

Tonsberg is close to Oslo Torp airport and flights from the UK very reasonable. I would highly recommend a visit, feel free to email me for contact details if you are planning to go. They aim to complete the build by next May and I hope to go back in the spring to see the project develop. In the meantime you can keep in touch with progress via the official website here and facebook page

As for me my next big project in the spring is helping build a replica of the Bronze age Dover boat. Even bigger timbers on that one and bronze tools to work with, it will be more of a mix of technologies though with some power tools used to meet the budgets.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 6

2011-11-16T12:53:00.001Z

Well I think it is time for some tool pictures. The tools made for the building of the new Oseberg ship form the largest collection of replica Viking woodworking tools in the world. This is the main tool room. It's easy to see at a glance whether a tool is missing at the end of the day, this helps when you are tired and it's dark.

Those who have followed my blog for a while will know I have a bit of a thing for axes, these are long bladed hewing axes for finishing the surface I got on really well with the top one, the other worked OK but was just not as sweet for me.

Lots more pics of axes now, Thomas Finderup could tell you everything about each axe, the location and date of the original find, which smith made the replica etc. Unfortunately I didn't have time to ask about each axe and record it but I do know Thomas spent some time recently working with the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo on a book on Viking woodworking tools so I look forward to that being published.

This is the one I fell in love with, totally sublime to use, a snip at £350, one day maybe

I love this tool, so simple yet so very very effective. It works like a scratchstock and puts two decorative grooves and even distance in along the edge of the planks.

These two tools fascinated me, they look remarkably similar to North West Coast carvers crook knives and when I look at NWC art and Viking carving I can see similarities in form. Often the tools you use tend to create certain forms. Again I am afraid I don't know where the original was from but it will be 9th C

People sometimes ask me about the quality of tools in earlier periods or even, "what did they do before they had steel?" There is a common misconception that steel was invented in the industrial revolution, actually it was only the mass production of cheap homogeneous steel which was created by Huntsman's crucible process, just down the road form me in Sheffield. In Viking times they had excelent steel and knew how to use it, much as Japanese sword and tool makers work from detailed knowledge of materials with very simple technology so the Viking smiths created excellent tools and weapons with high carbon steel edges.

In 1998 I visited the archaeological site of Novgorod in Russia. I was mainly there to see medieval bowls but there is much interesting information on tools too. This image shows the gradual change in composition of knives over a 500 year period with the black being high carbon steel and the white area being softer, tougher iron.

At a glance it looks as if knives are getting progressively better until you know that level 5 is about 1425 level 28 is 960AD, in fact the early knives are the best ones.

And finally this one is for Kari an archaeological drawing showing one of the small bladed planes, most of the ones we used had slightly broader blades but the same principle. It seams to be drawn with the blade over the pin but it clearly goes underneath.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 5

2011-11-16T10:38:00.001Z

This post will mostly be pictures, some of the replica, some of the original Oseberg ship. The last post left a board steamed, bent fitted and riveted or klinked on to the hull. As the hull takes shape each point is measured and set to ±5mm. It can be adjusted slightly by pressing up from underneath with props or by adding heavy rocks inside. These rocks look randomly scattered but they are very precisely placed to get exactly the right shape into the hull. Once it is dried and the ribs fitted the shape will be set.

And what a shape it is too, such sweet lines.

One of the iconic features fo the Oseberg ship are the carvings. These are some close ups of the original taken in the Viking ship museum in Oslo in 2004.

and some images showing the replica

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 4

2011-11-16T08:45:00.001Z

Ships built with overlapping planks like Viking ships are called "lapstrake" in the USA, in the UK we call them "clinker built". I had never known why until I hammered home one of the rivets that is the key to this construction and asked what it's name was in Norwegian, it's called a klink and the verb klinking fits perfectly as you'll see from the video at the end of this post.

These are the tools for the job, a fairly small cross pein hammer, a copy of a 9th century one of course, a rose head boat nail and a rove, that's the square washer which fits tightly over the nail head and when driven down on to it grips hard.

So now the finished dressed board is clamped in place for the final time and holes drilled through the 1" overlap with the board below. The nail is driven up through the hole and the rove driven down on top using the hammer with the hole in it to push the rove down tight. It's a noisy job if you are doing it all day so here Jan is wearing a mix of Viking clothing and ear defenders. You can also see in this picture the scarf joint where two planks join end to end. This is a simple chamfer, the joint is sealed with woolen cloth and pine tar and two klinks will go through the scarf to hold it tight.

Now the end of the klink needs to be cut off this is a 2 person job with sharp cold chisels.

and finally we get to the klinking first a photo, this is where the end of the klink is hammered in such a way as to spread it out into a sort of dome that holds the rove very tightly in place. First you tap with the cross pein to spread the klink and then flip the hammer over and go round and round the outside to dome it nicely.

When it's done it looks like this. This is one of mine and goes through a scarf joint.

That's my klink, it really is a great feeling to be a small part of this project and to know there is some of my work in the final ship. As the timber in the ship dries it will shrink slightly and all these klinks will need hammering again to tighten them up, I don't know just how many there are but it must run into several thousand and no one is looking forward to that job.

and now a little video clip of klinking

In the UK with our often acidic soil conditions when we do find old clinker built ships the klinks are often the only thing to survive when all the wood has been dissolved away. That was the case at our most famous ship burial Sutton Hoo this image shows the klinks or rivets in place and the outline of the boat in the sand but all the wood was gone.

The same is true for the ship found recently in Scotland, the only Viking age ship burial so far found on the UK mainland. It will be interesting to learn more of that find as it is excavated.

Just a couple more posts to come now showing all the replica Viking tools, and some more shots of the boat and it's fantastic carvings.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 3

2011-11-16T07:23:00.001Z

So in our next installment in Viking boatbuilding we take the planks that were previously cleft, rough hewn and planed and trial fit them to the boat. Each and every board is different and is an exact replica of a particular board on the original ship. This is the office with the masterplan and to the left you can see scaled versions of each plank.

These are then turned into full scale plans which are taken out to the rough planks, drawn around and the profile cut out. This is Jan finishing a plank before trial fitting for the first time. Most planks have raised sections which will be used later for lashing the ribs to.

Next we take these simple but very effective clamps

and trial fit the board in place.

Working along the plank I bend it to shape whilst Jan applies the powerful clamps, once the base of the board is clamped tightly we can twist the outside edge to check it will take the correct shape. It is not so much a bend as a twist in each board that gives the boat it's shape. You can see here the clamp with the rope is pulling the bow end inwards and the stern end is pulled outwards and downwards giving about 15 degrees of twist on this board, it will get a little more later.

We have two datum lines to check the shape against, a row of pins set into the keel and a taught wire stretched above the ship. Using these two as measuring points it is possible to triangulate out to set each board in precisely the right place, we worked to a tolerance of ±5mm. Once each board was in it's final place the props underneath were fixed holding it's position.

Once we were happy with the trial fitting and had done any final rough shaping the board went into the steamer for 1 hour 20 minutes. When it comes out you have about a minute during which it moves very easily and then a couple of minutes for fine adjustment so everything has to be planned and to hand and everything happens quickly.

By the time the plank Jan and I had been working on was ready in the steamer it was already dark, it starts going dark at 3.30pm we did have big floodlights to work under sorry about dodgy pic quality.

Here the plank is in place and Jan is just tweaking the final line, you can clearly see the twist with the two ends of the plank being maybe 20 degrees out of line. We took the top and bottom corners 10mm further than they will end up expecting them to relax slightly when the pressure is taken off.

Now the board stays in place overnight after which time it's shape is set, it can be removed and very precise fitting work done, planing the joint to that it fits without the slightest gap. Once that is done it's time to rivet it in place, and that riveting, the whole essence of clinker boat building, is the next post.

building the world's most iconic Viking ship, part 2

2011-11-15T09:25:00.001Z

In part 1 we covered a little of the history of the Oseberg ship and the project to make a reconstruction and then cleft a large oak into 16 thin pie shaped wedges to make boards. The next stage is to hew these boards down from the pie shape into an even 1" thickness. There are various ways of holding the board whilst you do this, I like to have the surface I am working sloping away from me at an angle of around 30 degrees. I cut notches with the axe down to the marked line then hew off the chunks between. This particular replica Viking axe was my favourite and was a dream to use. It was remarkably similar in use to Japanese carpenters axes.

This axe was forged by a Danish smith, I think it is a thing of great beauty but not only that it's balance and edge holding were perfect too, it just worked like a dream.

and these are the axes I used in Japan last year, equally good and remarkably similar considering they are separated by 1200 years and half a world.

Next step is to turn your plank over mark 1" thickness for the smaller boards 1 1/4 for the largest boards and hew away the excess. This is Gregorius at work with the ship in the background. The four legged things for resting boards on which we would call horses in Norway are known as pigs or swine, I thought it suited them well.

This rough hewing laves a coarse surface and now we raise the board up vertical so the axe can be used downwards across the face of the board and at a slight angle to get a slicing cut. This is Ola at work he was really very good at this.

Taking a wide clean cut like this and leaving a near finished surface is not easy but it is clearly shown in many old illustrations like this from the 15th C. I should say Ola's stance is far safer, hewing accidents are not common but when they occur it is nearly always due to working in the position illustrated below, if the axe catches a glancing blow off the wood it can bounce out into the right shin. I have seen it and it is very nasty.

After removing the bulk of the wood you go back over makign finer shavings and tidying the surface.

This is all done in a very public worksite with a footpath right through the middle. Norwegian attitude to health and safety apparently puts much more responsibility on individuals to be sensible look after their own safety. I don't know how their accident figures compare but it does mean that folk get to see the work up close in a way that would be more difficult in the UK.

This is my small board after hewing both sides, this is where you are expected to get to with just the axe. You work right up to but leave the pencil marks showing. Then you can move on to planing.

They had on the worksite the largest collection of Viking replica tools in the world, I'll do another post showing lots of them but they included various replica planes. This was my favourite. You plane first across the grain or at a slight angle then down the grain.

Here's a close up of this lovely plane with it's simple but beautiful horse head decoration.

The final finishing was done with a scraping tool, the original boards showed the medulary rays standing proud and this is what happens when you use this tool again a replica of a 9th century find.

So that gives us a prepared board. Compared to sawing you get less than half the planks from a tree though they are very strong and flexible since you know the fibres run down the length of the plank. Today we would consider it wasteful but in the 9th century large timber trees were plentiful and all heating and cooking in the homes in the area was done on wood so in some ways you could say we were making lots of kindling and firewood and the ship was a by product. More posts to come on steaming and bending and fitting the boards to the ship as well as lots of gorgeous tools.

building the world's most iconic viking ship, part 1

2011-11-14T16:41:00.001Z

In 1903 a Norwegian farmer dug into a mound in one of his fields and made a discovery which archaeologists rate as comparable in importance to the grave of Tutankhamun. The Oseberg farm is 60 miles south of Oslo outside the town of Tonsberg andfor years Oscar Rom had wondered what lay under the mound in his field, people said it was haunted and that it contained graves from the black death. Soon after he started digging he came across some highly carved wood and contacted archaeologists. The whole mound was excavated in 1905/5 revealing the earliest, the most complete and most beautiful Viking ship to survive. The burial mound contained many high status grave goods and the bodies of two women all of which shed much light on Viking life but for now I want to concentrate on the ship itself.

The ship was preserved and is displayed in the wonderful Viking Ship Museum at Oslo.

On June17th 2010 a new era in the exciting history of this ship began with a project to build an exact replica using the same tools and techniques as were used to build the original. As soon as I heard about the project I knew I had to visit and hopefully work on the ship. An internet friend Tim Allen had been volunteering on the worksite and put me in contact with the New Oseberg Ship Foundation arrangements were made and last week I spent 4 days working on this most remarkable of building sites. My camera cards are bursting with pictures so I'll do a few posts starting with the raw material.

The ship is built entirely of cleft and hewn oak, no saws were used. The trees by modern standards were impressive fat tall and straight grained, a foresters or saw-millers dream. Here are a couple of typical trees for the project with the part built ship in the background. Trees of this quality have proved impossible to source in Norway so most of the planking trees have come from Denmark. The oak for the keel, the backbone of the ship was however felled locally.

This is Thomas Finderup who built the 4 large replica viking ships at the famous Roskilde viking ship museum in Denmark. Nobody alive knows more about Viking shipbuilding or tools.

The trees are split with hammers and wedges, first in half then quarters, eighths and finally sixteenths, the last is the hardest split to get to run true. Whenever you split wood if you get exactly even amounts of wood either side of your slit it is more likely to run true and straight, get it wrong and the split will "run out" leaving you with one heavy thick chunk and one too thin to use. The important thing is to get as wide a plank as possible by avoiding the split running out as it heads toward the thin centre. To do this the shipwrights start by cleaning a 2" wide flat at the centre of the tree scoring a centre line down this with a chisel and then inserting small wooden wedges. Only then do they start opening up the split with metal wedges knocked in from the end, this is Gregorius.

And once they are happy they let visitors who's skill level they are not yet sure about have a go :0)

This split started to run off on the underside so we started again from the far end, this time it ran true. It was worth taking the time as the original tree was nearly £1000 and would yield just 16 of the widest planks.

once the split is going well you can use a bit more force, Tim with the big mell.

The thick wedge this produces is then hewn down to a single plank with a axe, planed, steamed, fitted and finally riveted into place with iron boat nails. More on that in the following posts. I'll also post about the organisation and running of the project and the gorgeous replica axes and other tools. Cleaving timber for ships like this died out, Thomas told me, in the 1200s, we can clearly see that the timbers of earlier ships were cleft and later they were sawn but the art of cleaving wide long boards for shipbuilding was completely lost for 800 years. Thomas and the team from Roskilde developed their way of working but no-one really knows exactly how the Vikings did it.

Next stages are hewing the planks part 2
steaming and fitting part 3
riveting or klinking Part 4
carving, worksite organisation and funding Part 5

more old woodworking films

2011-11-14T11:30:00.001Z

first a nice new one about rakemakers the Rudd family in Cumbria.

16 TEETH - Cumbria's last traditional rakemakers from Rii Schroer on Vimeo.

and some old ones about sussex trug making, first in colour from 1963

TRUGS

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and then back to 1929

BASKET MEN OF SUSSEX

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and finally Irish coracle making, nice shots at the end of using them for fishing.

A BYGONE CRAFT

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off to build a Viking longboat

2011-11-07T10:22:00.001Z

I have just booked plane tickets to Oslo to help build a Viking longboat. Not just any longboat mind you this is a full size replica of the Oseberg boat, the most iconic surviving Viking ship.

The original is in the gorgeous Viking boat museum at Oslo and I visited in 2004. The boat, the artefacts and the museum building itself are all incredible. I was lucky enough to be shown around and taken round the reserve collection by Arne Emil Christensen who was curator at the time and more knowledgeable about Viking boats that pretty well anyone else. There is something about Viking carving that I find captivating, this was one of the great woodworking cultures of the world and I still find it inspirational.

In the 1980s they built a replica of this boat which sank on it's maiden voyage, they raised it and sailed it carefully for a short while before it sank again. This lead some archaeologists to question whether ships in burials were actually working ships or whether they were constructed especially for the burial. The current project have scanned each timber and used computer modeling to reconstruct models of the ship, they now think that when archaeologists reconstructed the ship in the museum the shape was effectively altered making it unseaworthy. Testing of the new model in a wavetank suggests that it will sail very well.

This photo was taken 18th October and shows the current progress on the ship. The occasion was a visit by the Norwegian president, he was apparently quite skilled at hewing with an axe. I hope to have lots of photos to share of the worksite and maybe will return next year when the project is completed.

More details on the Oseberg replica site here

Barbara Hepworth sculpture

2011-11-06T22:57:00.001Z

A simple blog post to share pictures of Barbara Hepworth's sculpture, some were taken at the major centenary exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture park in 2003, others were taken last week at the new Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.

My favourite of all is "pelagos"

This is the all new Hepworth Gallery on the banks of the Calder river in Wakefield.

Inside the big windows give lovely light and great views.

The rooms with most of my favourite sculptures in had no photography allowed but some rooms did allow photography.

major crafts research goes ahead

2011-11-03T19:00:00.001Z

A major new research project promisses to shed light on the UK traditional craft sector for the first time.

When we started the Heritage Crafts Association 2 1/2 years ago one of our first objectives was to properly map the sector, to find out which crafts were endangered, which were doing well and which offered potential for growth. In fact it was the first objective in my wish list back in Jan 2009. We were told that to do this job properly would cost between £50,000 and £100,000 not the sort of money we had handy as a new charity.

After 2 years of gentle advocacy we were delighted when Skills Minister John Hayes announced that he would find funds for just the research we had been asking for. HCA were part of the interview panel and we are delighted that Trends Business Research Ltd have now been appointed to undertake this major project. The final report is due to be completed by next March and a whole lot of work has to be completed by then, creating a database of as many practicing craftspeople as possible will be key and we hope HCA friends and followers will be able to help us spread t=he word when the time comes.

What good will it do?

Well we have lots of anecdotal evidence that there are certain issues within our sector. eg elderly skilled craftspeople not able to pass on their skills to a following generation, lack of entry routes for young people to start in a career etc.

The stories we have collected have been enough to convince many people there is a real problem but in order to access funding to address the issues we need more proof of the size and nature of the situation, genuine research will also help us see clearly where the most pressing issues are and prioritise action. It will also be great to help publicise the fantastic work that does go on within the traditional craft sector which has often played second fiddle to the better funded innovative contemporary crafts.

1373 opportunities to go wrong

2011-10-31T23:01:00.000Z

Today I have been making quaichs, the traditional vessel for drinking whisky. I have often wondered how many cuts on the lathe it takes to turn a bowl, today I know, 696 cuts on the lathe. Each depression of the treadle spins the quaich 3 revolutions and I make a spiral cut with the tool. Then the quaich spins back. By my calculation the rim has traveled 3,824 feet or 3/4 of a mile. Added to the turning are 113 cuts with the axe roughing the blank out, 189 cuts with the axe after turning roughly shaping the handles, 305 cuts with a knife refining the handle shape, 70 cuts with the hook knife smoothing the inside where the centre point snapped out. That is a grand total of 1373 individual cuts to make a quaich like this.

David Pye used to describe this kind of work as "the workmanship of risk" that means that at the point of making the cut it could go wrong and it is only the skill of the maker and their knowledge of the tools and materials that ensures success. That then is 1373 opportunities to go wrong but thankfully every one worked out just fine. Some of them will be fitted to silver rims like this

I packaged these ones up today to go to a couple in Scotland who are getting married on Saturday, the silver rimmed quaich is a rather special one in bur maple and the three plain quaichs are in cherry for the groomsmen.

woodcarving course shrink pots and kuksa

2011-10-29T22:34:00.000+01:00

This is Yvonne with a cherry kuksa she carved on my "fun carving course" last week.

Close up of the kuksa, these are based on traditional Sami drinking cups. Yvonne is a beekeeper who's business is selling the alternative products of the hive. I am a fan of a drop of propolis (bee glue) on a cut to speed healing, it is remarkable stuff.

The idea of the course was for people who were already experienced carvers or had been on previous courses could come back and enjoy carving in good company, try out some new tools or materials and work on individual projects with me there to give advice or help when needed. Actually everyone wanted to try out shrink pot making so we all started on that. They are a lovely simple project I have blogged about them before this one from 2008. This photo shows the work of just 4 folk over the three day course.

I do feel really privileged to be able to make a living whilst sharing such special times with wonderful people.

Welsh love spoons and cawl spoons

2011-10-28T22:02:00.002+01:00

I love Welsh spoons, whilst the tradition of spooncarving died out in England it continued to be strong in Wales with many folk still alive that ate all the time with wooden bowls and spoons in their youth. This was particularly the case for the Welsh national dish a traditional broth called cawl (recipe below). Then there is the strong tradition of "love spoons" and probably more spoons made today for the tourist trade than were ever made in the past. Lets have a look at some of these spoons and learn a little more about them.

The oldest dated love spoon in the collection of St Fagans National History Museum is dated 1667

they say
"The lovespoon tradition stems from the times when the ordinary people of Wales used wooden utensils to eat. The collection of lovespoons at the Museum includes some 200 spoons, most of which were carved during the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest spoon housed at the Museum is dated 1667. The adornments on these carvings are symbolic. For example, the dragon is a symbol of protection, diamonds are for luck, and a cross carved into a spoon is a sign of the carver's faith. The number of wooden balls in a cage symbolises the number of children that the carver wished to have with his loved one."
Pinto in his seminal book Treen has a whole chapter of authoritative text on love tokens which puts love spoons in context. Many domestic items used to be decorated and presented as tokens of affection across all of Europe from stay busks and knitting sheaths to lace bobbins and small furniture. Here are some impressive early Welsh love spoons from Pinto's collection.

The love token tradition was particularly strong in maritime culture with sailors doing carving and scrimshaw work on wood and ivory. This was transformed in Wales in Victorian times at the same time as the advent of gift cards and love spoons became an item of commerce, produced for sale as a curio or memento. Today most of the love spoons produced are......I shall be polite and say not to my taste. This is typical, bandsawn and powersanded churned out with little love or skill to feed the insatiable demand for cheap consumer tat, oh Wales what did you do with your great tradition? If you must buy a lovespoon get a decent one from Ralph Hental or Adam King.

Now cawl spoons, there is something still to be proud of. The gorgeous spoons below are from Jonathan Levi's collection and in his book "treen for the table" (recommended)

More examples of good old love spoons

and these dolphin shaped ones he suggests are from Caernarvonshire.

I have some spoons and bowls made for me by Gwyndaff Breeze who used to work at St Fagan's his cawl spoons had two different ends, one tapering to a point he called a rat tail. These he claimed came from areas where peat was the dominant fuel and the point could be spiked into a piece of peat beside the fire. I'll try to add photos of Gwyndaff's spoons after the weekend.

So I promised a recipe, there are lots to choose from because like most living traditions it varies with region and each home develops their own. I like this one from the BBC Wales website.

Alsion Argument from Llanfair Caereinion shares a family secret:
"I make this delicious lamb broth in the same way as my Grandmother would have. It is a dish which was served in our family each Thursday, although we felt that it was always better on Friday if there was any left as the vegetable had become a bit mushy and absorbed the lovely juice. It is not quick to make properly but it is very simple.
You will need a piece of lamb - usually shoulder or breast (whichever is cheapest). Cover the lamb with water and add a whole onion, roughly chopped, some peppercorns (about six) and a little salt.
Bring the water to the boil and then allow to simmer until the meat falls easily off the bone. This will take up to a couple of hours.
Remove the lamb from the water and strain the stock that is left. When the lamb is cooled a little, remove all the meat from the bone and discard the bone and any excess fat. Cut or break the meat into bite size pieces.
Allow the stock to cool and skim off the excess fat, if you wish (you can also do this by leaving the stock overnight and this will leave a hard fat covering on the top which can be removed in one piece.
The vegetables you will need are a small swede, two or three parsnips, three or four carrots, three or four large potatoes and about two or three large leeks.
Clean and prepare the vegetables and chop into decent size chunks (not too small - you are making a stew rather than a fine soup).
Now you will need to melt some butter in large pan (O.K. - so this is not a low cholesterol dish!) and start by softening the vegetables in the butter. If you start with the firm vegetables like swede and carrot and leave them to fry for a little while before adding the parsnip, potato.
Add the leeks when the rest of the vegetables are nice and buttery and starting to soften. Then add back in your strained lamb stock and the lamb chunks.
You may need to add a little extra water - just make sure the vegetables are covered at all times. Bring to the boil again and simmer for about one hour until the vegetables are cooked.
The only other seasoning you will need is a handful of chopped parsley and you might like to adjust the salt and pepper content at the end.
Serve the stew piping hot with some freshly ground pepper and a good chunk of crusty bread and maybe a piece of good cheddar cheese."
By Alyson Argument from Llanfair Caereinion

And now to give you an authentic Welsh voice talking about cawl spoons I rather like this youtube

learning how to sharpen a knife properly

2011-10-25T22:45:00.000+01:00

Just finished an enjoyable 1 day knife and axe sharpening course. Sharp tools are essential for any woodworker and one of the things where we maybe don't always put in the time we should. Well today we put the time in. We started by looking at the sharpening systems everyone was currently using mostly a combination of diamonds, wet and dry paper and waterstones. We discussed good working positions and set up sharpening stations on a sturdy bench. One of the most important things is a good workstation fairly high with good light and you must be able to splash lots of water about.

I like this set up with a waterstone set on top of a 6"x6" beam offcut and a garden water squirter for slooshing the stone very regularly. A good broad stance helps keep the bevel flat on the stone. Fingers of the left hand on the back of the blade help feel it registering the bevel and also apply gently downward and forward pressure. The thing most folk fail on is not knowing when exactly they have created a single flat bevel all the way to the edge. If judging by the naked eye it is actually remarkably easy to leave a tiny bit of the old dull edge showing before moving on to the finer stones, close examination of the edge shows exactly what you are doing. Once the technique is learned you don't need the microscope but it helps a lot whilst learning.

At the end of the day we had razor sharp knives but more important everyone felt they could achieve razor sharp knives entirely on their own with their own equipment at home. This is very empowering. We had been chatting about how many folk buy new tools and fear taking them to the stone the first time in case they make them worse. Once you have taken a clearly blunt and damaged knife into a state where it will produce a mirror polish on the wood it cuts you loose all that fear.

More about Japanese sharpening from my blog when I visited Japan and worked with traditional carpenters last year.

using woodware in the kitchen and at table

2011-10-23T23:33:00.003+01:00

Over the last week or two I have been snapping meals before eating. All done under artificial light quick snaps but hopefully give an idea of what it's like living with wooden tableware. One big difference is the sound, no harsh scratching of metal on porcelain and a lovely woody noise as you set the table. Wood does also keep your food warm being a natural insulator.

Most folk are happy using a nice salad bowl, this bowl is by Richard Raffan, one of the worlds top turners (he eats his breakfast from one of my bowls) the servers are by Fritiof Runhall. Carrot and apple salad, 3 carrot's 2 apples grates together with a splash of lemon juice, great winter salad.

Feta and tomato salad with coriander leaves. Scortched elm bowl by me and Fritiof's spoon.

Tzatziki, have not made this for ages and it was a joyful rediscovery, grated cucumber with lots of garlic and some yogurt, takes me straight to Greece.

Grilled aubergine with salads and merlot. Mary Rose replica plate and Sheffield cutlery.

This huge wild horse mushroom was in perfect condition, cut up with some onion chill, garlic and shredded cabbage then into the wok. Sycamore chopping boards and a knife I forged with Owen Bush.

And this was tonight, ginger, garlic, chill. I keep ginger and chilis in the freezer and shave the root with a good knife, far better than having it drying out or going mouldy in the fridge.

Quick blast in the wok with carrot and onion before adding spinach scallops and haddock.

yum yum..... Tastes so much better from a wooden dish too.

More details on using woodware including results of a scientific paper comparing wood and plastic chopping boards here.

bowl carving course

2011-10-23T23:11:00.000+01:00

Just a few snap from last weeks bowl carving course. Some nice bowls and a really nice bunch of folk. We don't normally carve round bowls since it involves a lot of cutting across end grain but this time everyone wanted to try. It was hard work and a lot of hands were worn through but the results were good.

Still a few places available for the next bowl course Nov 22-24 details here

Grayson Perry Art and Craft

2011-10-16T00:30:00.000+01:00

As the only person working in a craft medium to be taken seriously by the art world and having won the Turner Prize Grayson Perry is often outspoken, entertaining and thought provoking. He famously said the Art world found it easier to accept the fact that he was a transvestite than that he made pots. He wrote a well argued piece in 2005 describing the contemporary craft scene as "a refuge for artists who play it safe"
He does have a lot of respect though for well made traditional craftwork and so I was quite excited when I heard that he would be having a show at the British Museum titled "the tomb of the unknown craftsman" This surely I thought references Soetsu Yanagi's great book "The unknown Craftsman" and given that the British Museum itself is a temple to the best unknown craftsmen of ages past from around the world I was expecting an homage to those craftspeople, perhaps something that brought the objects to life again.
On my way into the museum I paused in room 24 which is themed "living and dying" it's a room I have spent time in before and has magnificent artifacts varying from Inuit hunting implements and clothing to one of the wonderful Easter Island sculptures. Here are just a few of the wonderful items on display. A Maori food bowl, the carving on the underside particularly special.

An axe from the Solomon Islands early 20th C. Clearly an English Kent pattern head I have re-handled many of these but always in rather more utilitarian fashion.

Solomon islands food bowl.

Haida carving.

and moving into the great court a magnificent Haida house frontal pole

the Haida people and all North West Coast carvers are truly one of the great woodworking cultures of the world, the design and craftsmanship are just wonderful, look at the toolmarks here, no sandpaper, a thousand precise cuts with sharp tools.

So back to Grayson at the entrance to the exhibition is his glorious AM1 motorcycle.

Inside we were not allowed to take photos. Did I find my unknown craftspeople brought to life? Well sadly no. I did find a good retrospective of Grayson's work and dotted alongside it were pieces of work from the museums collection which felt like they were there to give understanding, comparison and credibility to Grayson's pieces, I didn't really get any feeling that Grayson's works were in any way helping me to better understand the museum pieces. The museum pieces had very minimal interpretation, so for instance of my favourite pieces was labled

"Bonnet, Samoa, early 1800's Turtle shell and cotton"

I learned nothing of the context the object came from, the people who made it, when such an incredible thing was worn etc. maybe that is the job of a museum not an art exhibition. Amongst Grayson's work it was interesting to see a wide range of his big pots but I was most taken by his cast iron sculptures and two in particular from 2007 titled our father and our mother, strange pilgrim figures with their worldly goods on their backs. The tomb itself was also a large cast iron sculpture of a ship adorned with casts of objects from the BM collections, some how it didn't grab me, I went back out for another look at the Haida pole.

Maybe what I like best about Grayson is actually his writing, I enjoy the blog allegedly written by his teddy bear/god figure Alan Measles often ireverant and thought provoking. This is what he had to say at the end of the exhibition on Craftsmanship.

"Craftsmanship is often equated with precision but I think there is more to it. I feel it is more important to have a long and sympathetic hands-on relationship with materials. A relaxed, humble, ever-curious love of stuff is central to my idea of being an artist. An important quality of great art of the past was the pure skill in the artists use of materials. In celebrating craftsmanship I also salute artists, well most of them."

some more nice films

2011-10-13T11:15:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to share a few nice film shorts I have seen recently, they are all loosely about craft and manufacturing with passion but also they are good examples of the craft of filmaking.

A pair of nutty chocolate makers, I love the idea of sailing the beans

Running shoes made in England, I thought all this sort of production had gone East, great to see and bril film.

New Balance - Made in England from Sneakersnstuff on Vimeo.

Another short film ad for a US shoe company but again nicely made film with those gorgeous soft focus shots.

The Mark Of A True Craftsman: Overview from Alex Hamlin on Vimeo.

Bag making

Handicraft from Video Ergo Sum on Vimeo.

spooncarvers at play

2011-10-12T15:49:00.002+01:00

What do professional spooncarvers do for fun? This is Fritiof Runhall one of the very few professional spooncarvers in Sweden. In between teaching 2 masterclasses in Edale we had a few days off with glorious weather. First priority was getting up the hill to enjoy the scenery.

This was 1st of October and it was hot enough to swim in the stream on the way down.

I wanted to share this photo too, Fritioff sold many of the example spoons he brought with him to students on the first course (and me) So he spent the evenings carving more, here he is roughing out blanks with the axe by headtorch light.

After the second course my friends spooncarvers Steve and Barn stayed over and we had a day playing with tool design. Barn had a specific big spoon knife design idea he wanted to make and Steve and I were playing with ideas for more mass produced spoon knives. We had such a great time shame we didn't do a group photo but here is me bashing out some car spring.

Steve grinding.

A hook on it's way to be quenched to harden it, next stage final grinding and tempering.

A bunch of hooks, the tiny tight curve ones on the left are for making a smooth cut groove for making fan birds, Steve's latest new skill and he does them amazingly well.

When you get a bunch of skilled folk together who are willing to share skills freely and bounce ideas off each other the learning potential is great. We will have to do it again.

315 hours carving without a single plaster, record?

2011-10-09T23:05:00.000+01:00

Thank you Fritiof Runhall and my merry band of spooncarving students for a wonderful couple of weeks. For Fritiof's second course we again had some of the best carvers in the country. Here are Steve Tomlin and Barn the spoon chatting about the finer elements of spoon design.

One of the things that was nice about Fritiof was that he worked with a very simple small and cheap toolkit, when you have superb skills simple tools are enough. The bark sheaths are simple to make and work well. The larger hook is home made the smaller one is by Svante Djarve and after 10 years heavy use is ground down considerably.

Different folk record their learning in different ways, digital photography has made things much easier though I am unsure about video. Increasingly folk want to video at courses but I find it rather intrusive when demonstrating a technique to look up and see a bank of iphones staring back. A sketchbook is still a great way to learn and record, if you can draw it you can understand it.

Close attention while Fritiof signs his work with a delicate carving technique.

Steve and Barn were both taken by Fritof's tiny sculptural bowl, Steve carved a copy to take home.

Very impressive work and a far better way to remember than taking photos.

Some of Steve's work at the end of the course I liked the way he would see a feature he liked on a spoon handle or the birds head and just carve a copy of that for reference.

Fritiof taught us to work right and left handed, this helps a lot to achieve symmetry when carving as when you turn the piece to work right handed on the reverse side the tool is inevitably at a slightly different angle. This is Hannah working with her gorgeous Stefan Ronnqvist axe right handed...

and left handed

not to be outdone this is me having a go left handed. It is surprising how awkward it feels at first but how quick it is to pick it up.

We spent a lot of time working with crooked timber and finding interesting shapes to make ladles, eating spoons and small bowls. This bowl was carved from the buttress of a a Norway spruce but you can see how it could be made from the bent cherry behind.

Of course all this carving is no good if it doesn't make useful stuff and the best way to inspire folk to use it and to test out how well it works is to put it on the table.

Lunchtime, bread soup and cheese with as many wooden bowls and spoons as I can find excuse for.

Everyone made really wonderful work and through both of Fritiof's courses (315 person hours carving) we did not use a single plaster. This just goes to show with good technique cuts are not inevitable. Here are Dave, Sharif and Hannah working on their big spoons with hooks.

And last I should mention Alastair who I think gets the prize for longest travel by bike to one of my courses, he rode from Telford about 75 miles with camping gear.

There are just a few places still available on my spoon and bowl carving courses later in October and November details here.

UK Parliamentary Group recommend my work

2011-10-09T21:36:00.002+01:00

The all Part Parliamentary Manufacturing Group is an initiative of Vince Cable to highlight the great manufacturing that still goes on in the UK. Each MP is asked to recommend local manufacturers that we can be proud of.
I am delighted that my MP Andrew Bingham has recommended not only myself but fellow craft business Hill and Sons riddle and sieve-makers. Here we are on the official website

I get a picture of a bowl and spoon and bit of blurb
"Robin Wood turns wooden bowls on a foot powered lathe. The craft is 2000 years old and died out in 1958. Mr. Wood revived it and then taught the skill to people in the UK, USA, Sweden and Japan. He has supplied the Globe Theatre, Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London with his product. He also supplied props for the Ridley Scott film Robin Hood as well as exporting all over the world."

It would be nice to say it's great to be recognised for the work I do but the truth is it is shameless self promotion. When I heard about the scheme we tried to encourage other craftspeople through the HCA to recommend their MP put forward traditional craft businesses. I visited my MP at one of his regular surgeries and suggested he put forward a local craft and gave him some names including myself and Hill and Sons, he put us both forward. Over half the MPs have not made a recommendation yet so there is still time to suggest to your MP that they could put forward a traditional craft business. Stick your postcode in here to see is your MP has done it yet and if s/he has not wizz them an email.

Stott Park Bobbin Mill

2011-10-01T18:22:00.001+01:00

This is one of my favourite Heritage sites. Located in the South Cumbria it is the last bobbin mill surviving with all it's original machinery. I have visited several times and taken the tour, watching the turning machines peeling rough coppice roundwood down to round bobbins in second is a bit like watching a toilet roll unwinding at speed, just fantastic. This is a 20 minute film showing the whole tour you get when you visit and remarkably well shot for hand held camcorder. If you only have a couple of minutes drag the time slider along to 12.15 to skip the intros and get straight to the action. Look out for the swill baskets used for carting bobbins and blanks about.

Tour of a Victorian Bobbin Mill, Stott Park, Cumbria from Richard Elen on Vimeo.

The scale of the industry was huge, there were 64 bobbin mills in the area and each was managing hundreds of acres of coppice woodland churning out cotton bobbins for the Lancashire cotton mills.

And just a bit of nostalgia for those who made cotton reel tanks as kids here is a short film showing you how to make one.

spooncarving course with Fritiof Runhall

2011-09-30T13:45:00.001+01:00

Fritiof Runhall is one of Sweden's best spooncarvers, which also probably makes him one of the best spooncarvers in the world. It has been a real pleasure then to learn from him as he came to teach a masterclass course for us in Edale.

I feel spooncarving in the UK has come a long way in the last 5 years but has reached a sort of plateau, the spoons that are being produced have reached a good level but I know that much more is possible and wanted to share the inspiration I have found in Sweden with others. Fritiof is teaching 2 courses and we have many of the UK's top carvers and teachers coming, professionals alongside dedicated amateurs.We all learnt a lot on the first course and had a great time too. Fritof and I started with a day spent visiting my favourite wood collecting haunts from tree surgeons to this lovely birch woodland planted by a friend 20 years ago.

Frtiof was very pleased and we picked out 2 birch which had lots of natural crooks in to fell. We made the felling cut high so we could get a really low cut to get the best from the bottom crook.

After a quick run through the various knife grips Fritiof gave us all a blank to carve, an interesting way to teach. He knocked out blanks at great speed.

One of the things I picked up from him was the great benefit of being able to carve left handed, often it allows him to get the blank symmetrical and to see the line he is cutting to where if you were to turn the blank over to carve right handed then you can not see the line.

I thought I was pretty skilled with the axe but I do have to look what I am cutting.

These are the roughed out blanks, you can see where Fritiof has hollowed the bowl with 3 cuts with the axe, I sometimes do this with an adze but it takes a second to swap tools and it is quick and easy with the axe, saves a lot of time and wrist strain with the hook knife.

close up of a blank.

Here are a few shots of Fritiof carving a spoon, flattening the upper surface of the bowl.

Marking three points along the centre line, top of handle, narrow part of neck and centre of bowl, get these 3 in line and everything else will follow.

powerful controlled carving onto a block.

smoothing the line across the end grain.

a grip I use very little hollowing with the hook. Native American carvers use this grip a lot pushing and pivoting with the wrist is very powerful.

starting the distinctive grooves in the bowl.

and finishing them off.

The proof of the value of any spooncarving course is in the work of the students and I was very impressed.

The course was a useful mix of time spent carving

demonstrations of technique

and individual attention to help tweak our designs to get the best out of each piece.

Fritiof really enjoyed teaching a bunch of folk who already had a good skill level and were at the stage where they could understand the difference between an OK spoon and a great one.

Last few shots of students work

Thanks all for a great time.

edit to add post course comments

"many thanks for a truly inspirational time with you and Fritiof, it
took the craft of spoon carving to a new level. It will take me some time
and much practice to approach that level of skill but, it is great to have a
high pinnacle to aim for" Richard Charles

"I think this was/is a seminal course. Spoon carving in the UK will improve.
Fritof is a great teacher, like you, he has an amazing laid back style, but with the steel of hard production." Richard Law

"inspirational examples, challenging techniques, considerate help, fine weather, convivial company, good food, blood-free zone ... I'm sure the list could go on
For me, some of the key advances this week were:
Extending my mental model of what understated elegance is possible
Seeing potential spoons within surprisingly small stock
Appreciating the disproportionate visual effect of very subtle features, e.g. chamfers
Completing more of the spoon with the axe
Reducing the fluffy bits where the grain reverses
Nibbling less and making longer cuts with the knife
Realising that I can develop a reliable, left handed draw stroke" David Atkin

"thank you Fritiof it was inspiring meeting a true craftsman, I know for a fact that my work will improve immeasurably for the experience."
John Mullaney

one of Sweden's best spooncarvers Fritiof Runhall

2011-09-30T12:06:00.002+01:00

Meet Fritiof Runhall one of Sweden's best spooncarvers.

Sweden is known amongst green woodworkers for spooncarving largely through the writing of Wille Sundqvist and teaching of his son Jogge. There are very few professional spooncarvers though and Fritiof is one of the best.

Here is some of his work.

salad servers

The top eating spoon is made from spruce and has worked well in long use.

This small bird bowl was carved from the buttress of a spruce where the tree joins the roots so the grain follows the form.

gold leaf finial

very large 18" ladles

and this is his makers mark though when you see the distinctive clean cut grooved surface of the bowl you don't need to turn it over to see the mark. Fritiof has a range of characteristic forms too, a style that is immediately recognisable, traditional yet modern at the same time.

Fritiof is in the UK at the moment and has just finished teaching a spooncarving class in Edale, he has one more next week before heading home. I'll post pictures of him at work and the course in the next blog post.

a lovely little gem of a craft book

2011-09-25T12:24:00.000+01:00

I want to share a little gem of a book and you can be one of the first to own it as it is hot off the eco press.

Most craft books start by selecting the best, the last, the most famous craftspeople in each trade, this produces a particular type of book that has it's place but it has been done many times. How would it be if instead you selected a bunch of artisans at random, say by cycling round the coast of the British Isles and interviewing and photographing folk you met along the way?

That's was Nick Hand's idea and the results are wonderful. What I love most about this book is the humility of actuallyquite ordinary artisans chosen by chance as they came into focus onone man's remarkable journey around the coast. What we learn isthat when you take the time to look, even the apparently straightforward lives of a bicycle repairer, hat maker orbasket weaver are driven by passion and a deep seated love fortheir work. It is inspirational.

The book is a joy and you can see thoughtfulness and passion in every aspect of it. I have no idea how Nick conducted his interviews but the folk open up in a deep and meaningful way and share the inner drive that makes them do what they do. Nick would say it is the bicycle that wins folk over, I guess when someone has ridden 1500 miles to your door you recognise the fellow dedication and that empathy comes through the pages. As you would expect from a top photojournalist the images are sublime.

It would have been easy to publish this as a coffee table book with big glossy pages printed cheaply in China, instead it is a small book printed on FSC paper made in the UK and printed and bound in Wales. It's difficult to spot just why it works but it has that lovely quality of the original Beatrix Potter books, I guess it is loving attention to detail, caring, craftsmanship.

I would really very highly recommend it as gift to yourself or a friend. Just £14 or £16.50 inc P&P, a few clicks and you can use Paypal if you like. Here is the link to the order page.
Oh yes and £1 of every sale goes to Parkinson's UK

how to carve fan birds

2011-09-24T17:37:00.000+01:00

fan birds are a wonderful traditional craft of eastern Europe. I first became aware of them when my friend Del Stubbs in the US wrote to me about them in the mid 1990's he carves very fine ones.

I saw lots of them when I visited Russia in 1998 including some huge ones in the Ethnographic museum in St Petersburg, I remembered these as being almost 4 foot wingspan but they could have been a little less. I took photos in poor light and they loose quality through transfer to digital but I shall put them up here anyway because I know folk that will be interested.

Around that time my friend Owen Jones the swill basket maker started making small ones from skip wood, recycled old pine. This is one of his.

I had a brief play about 4 years ago, this is as far as I got, too many other things on the go stopped me having time to play further.

I posted about them on the green woodworkers forum and my friend Sean Hellman followed it up, researching and experimenting until he now makes really very wonderful fan birds. Last weekend I visited him and photographed the process step by step. Sean carves them mostly from ash which is boiled first. The eastern European ones are mostly very slow grown pine. First 2 saw cuts.

chisel down into the saw cut, nice wide stance.

smooth out the little hollow with a knife.

Start riving off the feathers less than 1mm each.

most of the way there.

initially the base of the feathers was left at about 7mm or so for strength whilst riving, now it is taken down to about 1mm, Sean judges the thickness by holding it to the light, when it is see through it is thin enough.

This shows the profile you are aiming for well.

Next carve the head of the bird first rough sawing it then carving.

Now if you have done all that right the feathers should twist and pivot back quite happily.

Each one locks into the groove in the one before.

nearly there

The finished bird

Sean is one of the few green woodworkers I know who really puts the hours in to experimenting and working out new (or old) techniques. It takes a lot of dedication, he is currently working on large shrink pots.

and here are a few more of his finished birds.

I bought one from him a couple of years ago and it hangs above my stairs where I see it every day. This new one will hang from my mirror in the van. You can buy them from Sean mail order here

More on fan carving here

and related but different Japanese fan carving here

Making Futures conference "the crafts as change maker in sustainably aware cultures"

2011-09-24T13:36:00.001+01:00

This is the final post on this 2 day conference which will sum up the overall feel and meaning for me as well as mentioning a couple of speakers that didn't fit elsewhere.

Dartington felt an odd place geographically to run a conference on sustainability meaning many folk had very long journeys including quite a few flying. As a physical setting though it was wonderful, this is the magnificent fireplace in the great hall, and the history of the Elmhirsts pioneering work using the arts to reinvigorate rural culture resonated deeply. In 1952 there was a major international conference here looking at the future for craftsmanship particularly focusing on pottery and weaving.

So now again in 2011 we were looking at the role of crafts in creating a sustainable future. One interesting talk by Steve Swindells looked at a project addressing the issue of textiles (tents and sleeping bags) that are abandoned at UK music festivals.

The bags are collected by volunteers, washed and then given new life by students who make liners and embroider them to make them personalised. These are then given to homeless folk, having worked with folk in homeless shelters and asked about their needs they sewed safe pockets inside the sleeping bags for storing valuables. I felt ambiguous about the project, from one point of view it was good to see design students encouraged to do something other than adding to material wants. My reservations though are that this is tinkering and not addressing the real issue. Leaving tents, bags and other rubbish behind is a real problem that could and should be cured, just as festival organisers solved the ticket touting issue.

Another great presentation was by Mary Loveday-Edwards from Plymouth college of art. She took us on a roller-coaster ride through the history of "Nostalgia".
Nostalgia Noun; a wistful desire to return in thought or fact to a former time in ones life. A sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.

"Nostalgia is part of the narrative of craft; like all narratives it is ideological. The nostalgic narrative of craft is a utopian one, one that not only cannot exist but that has never existed. The romanticised nostalgic Crafts ideal is seen as proposing a way of life with a particular value, one which places value on the everyday rather than the sublime, one which overcomes the alienation of the contemporary world, one which values the human-sized approach. This narrative is not negative in itself; but seen in the sentimental light into which nostalgia can drift, it can place craft in a position of privilege or of withdrawal from the world, as William Morris found to his despair."

The talk was a real eye opener and ended with a very positive message about how we can take the best from the past and the present to shape the best possible future. I look forward to the full paper being published on the conference website.

As with all conferences much of the benefit of being there was in the informal chats had between presentations. New acquaintances made and good times spent in a more informal setting with others. in this photo to the left with red hair is Mila Burcacova who studies Morris and Craftivism, in the centre is Joe Kelly director of Craft Northern Ireland, a great chap who took me to visit Patterson's Spade Mill in 2009. Back to the camera is Hillary Jennings an advisor to the Heritage Craft Association who was presenting on the transition town movement and to her right is Diedre Figueiredo of Craftspace. Chatting with all these folk and bouncing ideas about where the craft world is going was very interesting. The subsidised art world is facing difficult times but craft has a lot to contribute to the sustainability agenda and that is definitely an area that is of growing importance.

Now I want to just add two gratuitous photos that don't fit but I have a strong connection to land and places and Devon and Dartington made big impresion on me. The screens passage between hall and kitchen at Dartington looks very Harry Potter.

And here just a shot of typical South Devon countryside, it was first time I have visited the area and I loved it.

craft communities and sustainability

2011-09-23T18:06:00.000+01:00

Connecting Craft and Communities is a networking project "to enable participants to examine the changing cultures, politics, practices and skills of Craft in the 21st century."
As part of that I attended a 2 day meeting at Dartington Hall focusing on crafting sustainability. It was a wonderful informal gathering and whilst folks were presenting short papers as a focus for disscusion others were knitting or embroidering.

I think we need to see a better picture of that wonderful roof

There were a bunch of good short presentations I'll just flag a couple of links the Small Is Beautiful project looking at small local businesses and shops in the Soth West, particularly the sort of place you can take stuff to get it mended, a declining asset that helped sustainability by keeping stuff in use and out of landfill.

Carolina Escobar Tello asked how material culture related to happiness. She presented good research showing that happiness does not corelate with degree of material consumption, that genuine happiness is more likely to be found in sustainable societies and that the happy planet index is a better judgment of well-being than GDP. Carolina felt that currently designers were merely meeting and adding to consumers desires, we need a new breed of designers to challenge how people live and meet thier true needs for a happy life.

Most interesting of the lot for me was Kate Fletcher (a good craft surname)

She talked about sustainable design in fashion, not an industry we normally associate with sustainable thinking. Her current project "Local Wisdom" looks at the craft of use, where most clothing manufacturers loose interest the moment the garment is sold Kate is studying how people wear, wash, alter, mend clothes and particularly how some clothes develop more character and meaning which in turn keeps them out of landfill.

Finally Jaqueline Atkinson presented the results of research into quilting and wellbeing, see this Daily Mail write up and NHS critique whilst this was only a small qualitative survey it did beg the question why no more research has been done into this area. The benefits of art therapy for instance are well documented.

In the evening I ran a spoon carving session, good to get craft academics, making craft.

and over the way they were doing embroidery.

At the end of the 2 days we split into groups and discussed what we felt the key things to act on for a more sustainable future were and how we would achieve them. Here were our groups feelings.

Key goals

change peoples habits of consumption
move from passive consumers to active citizens
share products and services
reduce material and energy consumption
reconnect; with community, niegbours, family, friends, earth, nature
build safe positive communities
true materialism; a positive, sustainable and healthy way of relating to material stuff

And our means to getting there?

sharing skills, by sharing skills we also share values
encourage individuals to organise skill share events
use enabling spaces for events eg village halls
use digital media to spread the message
this was all beginning to sound rather like craftivism but with a broader range of crafts
finally we got rather idealistic and imagined a "social tax" where in your 70 years in society you had a duty to give something back.

Most important of all we felt the sustainable message had been rather sold as a negative message, all about doing without stuff that is fun, like petrol. We felt we needed to show that contrary to popular belief excessive consumption does not bring happiness and that a simpler life with more time and less money is often more fun.

And on that note I went off to the beach.

the surf was a bit messy but I had borrowed a little surf kayak which was great fun.

This is my home from home, it even has a chopping block in the back for itinerant spooncarving.

My last comment on environmentalism is why don't we all avoid white? White clothes in particular simply do not work with any sort of environmentally friendly washing cycle. So having stayed one night in the rooms at Dartington hall my impact involved washing pure white sheets and towels and most folk no doubt throw away the soap bar after one use. That soap bar is made from palm oil no doubt grown on cleared rain forest land, I am buggered if I am going to use 2% of it and throw it away.

William Morris and Craftivism

2011-09-23T13:09:00.001+01:00

Was William Morris a Craftivist? and do the writings of Morris and the ideals of Craftivism have something to contribute to the personal philosophy of craftspeople today? That subject forms the basis of a forthcoming PhD for Mila Burcikova, a bit much to cram into one blog post but quite exciting and kept me engaged in conversation all evening in the pub last week, or maybe that was partly the beer.

Let's start with Craftivism. A new word coined in 2003 by Betsy Greer Craft + Activism = Craftivism

This is part of Betsy's Craftivist manifesto "Craftivism is the practice of engaged creativity, especially regarding political or social causes. By using their creative energy to help make the world a better place, craftivists help bring about positive change via personalized activism."

I wholeheartedly support her work and think the craftivist movement is great. It has grown rapidly particularly using traditionally feminine crafts like knitting and crochet reinvented as yarnbombing to give a more edgy 21st century meaning.

Sometimes just the act of making can be a political and ethical statement, sometimes it is just fun. The phone box above was made a group called knit the city Who are a bunch of friends that get together to knit stuff, stick it on things in public then run away giggling.
"We are unashamed to admit that we yarnstorm most simply because unleashing our squishy art on the world makes us and others happy. Put an 8-metre giant knitted squid on a statue of the father of modern biology, or a giant cosy on a phonebox under the paranoid gaze of CCTV, and see how it makes you feel."
Whilst many craftivists have a serious political agenda which tends to be anti war, environmentalist and anti sweat shop, others are simply turning away from being passive consumers of culture to do something active and fun with friends. A bit like making the move from supermarket shopper to allotment gardener these small changes in our own lives are important.

So what would Morris have made of all this? Mila did her MA on Morris she felt that there were some similarities, his key ideals included;

happiness in work,

fellowship,

beauty for all,

He worked to achieve these through his Morris and Co workshops, SPAB and later political socialism.
Perhaps the key difference between Morris and the craftivists is not the ends but the means. Morris saw creativity as closely related to skills, he was keen on people experiencing the pleasure of mastering difficult skills whereas craftivism tends to flourish using skills which are quickly and easily learned and shared. Where Morris's products tended to be beautiful quality, made to last and expensive the products of craftivism tend to be ephemeral or it could be argued that the real product is actually the change in feelings of people not the tangible woolly thing.

Is this a typical male female divide? It was interesting that Crafts Council research presented at the conference last week showed strong gender inbalance in the contemporary crafts with for instance over 75% of gallery/curatorial workers being female. In some traditional crafts such as hand engraving the inbalance is be the other way. Craftivism thus far has been a largely feminist movement using feminine crafts. Perhaps it is time for us all to get together.

When I look at craftivists getting together and having fun making stuff and making a statement I think it is great. There is a bit of me that thinks, all that energy could be used to make something useful too but then I don't think that when I see folk enjoying making music or cooking for friends or any other ephemeral social activity. So is it time we had some more masculine craftivism? what form would that take? making using sustainable technologies in the 21st century is a very political thing to do, it addresses many of the big issues in society from sustainability and climate change to world inequalities and Western over consumption. Is it the nature of soft feminine crafts such as knitting that make craftivism work? Could a bunch of greenwooodworkers get away with whittling spoons in Kings Cross station? or would we have our knives taken away?

crafts and the way people relate to objects

2011-09-22T18:23:00.002+01:00

Kevin Murray gave one of the keynote papers at the Making Futures conference last week. a very entertaining speaker he encouraged us to question the way we relate to physical objects. In the great hall at Dartington with the oak lectern he looks rather like a preacher but the sermon was anything but dry.

We started by looking at tram conductors in Melbourne who used to give tickets to passengers. The ticket had a meaning and was also connected to a personal interaction between conductor and passenger. The conductors were much loved and avoided being replaced by automatic ticket machines by several high profile public campaigns to save them, though despite overwhelming public support they were done away with in the end.

We then considered other objects of meaning, in many cultures charms have great significance. The Japanese will give a charm which brings luck and again creates a powerful connection between the giver and receiver. Perhaps our last strong example of this embedded meaning in objects is the wedding ring. Kevin recomended Stuart Walker's work on environmental design, particularly the discussion of the way in which surfaces age, either beautifully (wood or natural materials) or not beautifully (an ipod) If we want to design for sustainability we should make objects that last and remain in use. If we can embed meaning into the objects, as with charms, wedding rings or special gifts then they are less likely to be discarded.

Final thought it is perhaps the distance between maker and user of objects that allows us to become complicit in an exploitative supply chain which we would not condone if it was closer or more visible eg Iphone. Crafts can re-establish a covenant between maker and user and endow objects with meaning.

Alastaire Fuad-Luke had a related message, "re-crafting capitalism"

His argument was based around a broader understanding of "capital". He used Jonathan Porritt's 5 capital's

natural capital
human capital
social capital
manufactured capital
financial capital

He pointed out that we pay rather more than our fair share of attention to financial capital or GDP and whilst natural capital has risen up the agenda a little we need to pay more attention to social capital. That is the value of our relationships and communities which allow us to enjoy and maintain health, knowledge, skills and motivation better than if working in isolation.

Craft can help us build social capital (or strengthen our communities) He gave a nice example of craft project that was doing this. "give fleece a chance" involved 70 knitters making 250 small sheep from local fleece, connecting local wool users with wool producers. From the project has grown an online wool directory locally and a great deal of interest in running similar projects to reconnect with locally sourced wool around the country.

This short film tells the story.

"Give Fleece A Chance" 2010 from Brent Zillwood on Vimeo.

Craft is Great Britain

2011-09-22T17:31:00.001+01:00

Today David Cameron launched a £500,000 ad campaign promoting British Culture with 10 posters highlighting British Heritage, Music, Countryside, Sport, Innovation etc

but they forgot the crafts one again so we helped them out. Please share these with your friends, post it on your blogs and facebook and let's get it out there as widely as we can. We have an incredible heritage of craft skills in the UK which should be recognised as being as valuable as any other part of our culture. Will you help get the message out there? Click copy paste share, thanks.

Prof Kate Soper on craft and sustainability

2011-09-21T23:36:00.000+01:00

Making futures brought together delegates from the UK and around the world to question how we can live sustainable lives, and whether craft has a role to play in getting from here to there. The full conference program and summaries of the papers are available online here in due course the full text of the papers will also be published freely online. I hope for now to share some of the highlights and also talk about how the discussions have helped me to feel more positive about the potential for a sustainable future.

So lets go straight in with the first of the big name speakers. Professor Kate Soper is a philosopher, which she defined as an armchair thinker who has no idea how to make an armchair.

It was great to hear someone talking about the crafts seriously from a philosophical perspective, I guess most craftspeople are philosophers in as much as being very concious of their own life philosophies and it was somehow validating to hear a professor of philosophy preaching to the choir.

Kate pointed out how our current materialist culture "grooms children for a life of consumption" which is clearly unsustainable in a finite world. We have to change consumer desires and we won't do that by trying to force folk into a position of altruistic compassion and environmental concern, rather we need to sell a positive message of the self regarding gratification of consuming differently. We need what she called an "alternative hedonist" approach which means not looking back but rethinking the nature of prosperity and the conditions of human flourishing (currently measured purely in $ £ as GDP)

She recommended the book "the spirit level" and suggested the Happy Planet Index as a better more holistic judgment on how we are doing as a country than GDP. How does your country score on the "Happy Planet Index" map here?

We finished with a startling sculpture I had not seen before the wee man made from 3.5 tons of discarded electrical goods which is the average amount each of us in the developed West will discard in a lifetime.

So what can craftspeople do? Kate felt that there was perhaps a slight fatigue with the traditional "downsizer" "good life" alternative culture, I don't agree with her there but there were clearly problems with the existing consumer culture evidenced in growing sense of disconnection, obesity etc.

We have to then question what matters in our lives, what life we want to build for the next generation, craftspeople are in a strong position to question the existing capitalist order and propose more meaningful and sustainable alternatives.

a sample of Kate's writing for the Guardian here

Dartington Hall and the Elmhirsts

2011-09-21T18:19:00.001+01:00

Just back from 6 days in Devon discussing what role crafts have in helping create a sustainable future. The setting was the magnificent Dartington Hall. I came away inspired and am now wondering if I can manage to pass on some of that inspiration just through blog posts, I'll try my best though as a medium it can't compare to a real person talking passionately. First though a little history of the venue.

Dartington Hall was built in the late 14th century between 1388 and 1400 for John Holland Earl of Huntingdon.

The Hall was mostly derelict by the time it was bought along with the 1200 acre estate by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst in 1925. The Elmhirst's invested Dorothy's considerable inheritance in the estate with the vision of reinvigorating the declining rural community.

The gardens are a joy to walk in and the ethos of the Elmhirst's shines through here is a rather famous but wonderful quote from William Blake.

I was taken by this sweet chestnut tree, at a glance it looked like a Nash sculpture but I think it was the result of lighting strike killing a spiraling strip of bark which was painted with Arbrex, a practice which used to be common but nowadays arboroculturists prefer to leave wounds open to the air.

The list of outstanding people involved in the Dartington experiment includes Ravi Shankar, T E Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’), Bernard Leach, Walter Gropius, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, HG Wells, Yehudi Menuhin, Ben Nicholson, Aldous Huxley, James Lovelock, Amory Lovins, Jonathan Porritt, and Vandana Shiva amongst many others. For anyone interested in sustainable rural development or the arts generally it is hallowed ground. More recently the estate is also the home to Schumacher college. This was the view from my bedroom window looking down into the main courtyard.

And my little attic bedroom.

And the centre piece the main hall itself with a fine hammer beam roof, what better venue to discuss craft and sustainability? The following posts will pick up some of the threads and talks that particularly caught my imagination and also show some of the other fine rooms at Dartington.

fantastic old Swedish woodworking film

2011-09-13T09:44:00.000+01:00

Clogmaking, spooncarving and chairmaking all with consumate skill and simple tools.

I have known of this great film on Swedish TV channel for a long time and posted links before but I just discovered how to embed it here. Hope you enjoy. I could watch it a hundred times. The spooncarver is superb, the clogmakers bench was the inspiration behind by bowlmate design for a bowlcarving bench and I particularly love the work environment of the chairmakers in the last section.

tree hugging in a high wind

2011-09-12T17:59:00.002+01:00

I have to start this post by saying I am normally a very rational, scientific not very tree huggy sort of person. However I love outstanding experiences of the natural world and I also enjoy adrenalin rushes and any top entertainment that is free is a bonus, spur of the moment opportune experiences do it for me too, this has it all.......

Today the North of England is catching the tail end of Hurricane Katia with wind speeds up to 80mph and since my workshop is in a funnel shaped valley the wind whistles past the open stable doors battering the 200 year old beech outside. Whenever I see this and hear the huge gusts I have to go out for a bit of tree hugging. Now some folk may say this is irresponsible and dangerous but I suspect it is statistically far safer than driving down the road so it is a calculated risk I am happy to take. I have been doing it for years and have yet to see a tree fall though I have been close to a few. There are few ways of feeling the power of nature to compare to this and yet it is so easily experienced in town or countryside.

I press my cheek against the trunk of the tree and wrap may arms all the way round, the close body contact allows me to feel the movement and that is what is exciting, this is a 2 foot thick piece of wood, a pretty solid inflexible thing, yet in a big wind it comes alive.

Looking up you see the huge sail that the thing is having to hold up in the wind, imagine trying to hold a kite that big. It works best in gusty wind when you almost feel the tree breath a sigh of relief between gusts then brace again against the next battering.

Sometimes I take my shoes off and if you can stand with feet crossing ground and root buttresses you will feel a lot of movement there.

I imagine being on a tall ship in a wind must be a similar experience particularly holding on to the mast and feeling the strain. So next time you feel a strong gusty wind look for a tree, press close, breath deeply and look up. I guarantee it is an unforgettable experience. And after the wind dies down don't forget to pop by your local tree surgeons to see what interesting timber was blown down, "it's an ill wind that blows no good."

Edit to add a great quote from the great John Muir sent by my friend Ed
"After one has seen pines six feet in diameter bending like grasses before a mountain gale, and ever and anon some giant falling with a crash that shakes the hills, it seems astonishing that any, save the lowest thickset trees, could ever have found a period sufficiently stormless to establish themselves; or, once established, that they should not, sooner or later, have been blown down. But when the storm is over, and we behold the same forests tranquil again, towering fresh and unscathed in erect majesty, and consider what centuries of storms have fallen upon them since they were first planted,--hail, to break the tender seedlings; lightning, to scorch and shatter; snow, winds, and avalanches, to crush and overwhelm,--while the manifest result of all this wild storm-culture is the glorious perfection we behold; then faith in Nature's forestry is established, and we cease to deplore the violence of her most destructive gales, or of any other storm-implement whatsoever."
http://pweb.jps.net/~prichins/w-storm.htm
He goes on to climb a 100 foot Douglas in a big storm
"After cautiously casting about, I made choice of the tallest of a group of Douglas Spruces that were growing close together like a tuft of grass, no one of which seemed likely to fall unless all the rest fell with it. Though comparatively young, they were about 100 feet high, and their lithe, brushy tops were rocking and swirling in wild ecstasy. Being accustomed to climb trees in making botanical studies, I experienced no difficulty in reaching the top of this one, and never before did I enjoy so noble an exhilaration of motion. The slender tops fairly flapped and swished in the passionate torrent, bending and swirling backward and forward, round and round, tracing indescribable combinations of vertical and horizontal curves, while I clung with muscles firm braced, like a bobo-link on a reed."

Food for Thought: Craft and Sustainability

2011-09-12T08:56:00.000+01:00

Food for Thought: Craft and Sustainability

BY Julie K. Hanus

The article below was originally posted on the American Craft Council blog here

http://www.americancraftmag.org/blog-post.php?id=12554 I enjoyed it and wanted to share it unaltered, it is a good blog worth following. Craft and sustainability is a hot topic at the moment and I'll be attending this conference in a few weeks.

"As American Craft's senior editor, I get to meet a lot of great people in the craft community. And I'm often asked this question: What do you make? I make magazines, I answer. And gardens, food, and preserves. But because I don't primarily channel my creative impulses into one of the "big five" mediums, a second question often follows: So what's your connection to craft?
To me, craft's draw isn't a particular medium (though I'll admit to having favorites). It's about a way of working - an emphasis on skill and a relationship to materials - that can inform and enrich all parts of our lives, if we let it. Which is why I was riveted (and as a words person, you may be certain I don't use the term lightly) by the new issue of craft + design enquiry, recently published by the Craft Australia Research Centre.
Guest edited by writer/independent curator Kevin Murray, PhD, volume three of the peer reviewed digital journal deals with sustainability - specifically how craft and design might respond to our environmental challenges by facilitating social change. Sounds like a tall order, I know. But Murray's editorial and the six scholarly papers offer compelling, fresh insights.
To point: Murray opens his editorial with a familiar contemporary image, an anecdote about a craft center working to "green" its operations. But the story is not a thematic introduction to the issue; it's a baseline, a jumping off point. "The particular role of craft and sustainability is broader than a series of discrete energy-saving acts," Murray writes. "The question is not limited to the immediate environmental impact of craft production. Rather, it extends to the symbolic value of craft as an alternative way of being in the world."
Recent critical writing on sustainability, Murray explains, has worked to broaden our view of it from technological fixes to an ontological approach. That is, faced with environmental crisis, our road forward cannot be consumption-as-usual, mitigated by energy-saving technologies and token concessions to a changing climate. What is needed is a new relationship with resources and materials, a new way of being in the world. Or an old one: "While this ontological approach to sustainability is new," Murray writes, "it resonates with the birth of modern craft, more than one hundred years ago."
The papers that follow are delightful, densely packed with ideas. I won't recount each one individually, but here are two of my favorites...
In his contribution, Peter Hughes argues that the mainstreaming of environmental issues provides an opportunity for craft to re-politicize, re-engage, and play a role in "negotiating our way out of hyper-industrialism and turbo-capitalism." He points to a rising change in sensibility, "in some sense prefigured by [John] Ruskin and the Arts and Crafts Movement," in craft-minded phenomena such as the slow food movement or "emotionally-durable design." Here's a taste of his writing:
In recent years, the Crafts have been engaged in an increasingly desperate struggle to remain relevant in a hyper-industrialized world. Over the last three decades the two dominant alternatives to oblivion seem to have entailed either absorption into the field of design or into that of the "fine arts." The three areas of practice, craft, art and design, share many concerns and should be considered overlapping fields within visual culture that nonetheless have distinct identities. The design profession separates the act of design from that of making, which is usually done in factories by people who have no, or minimal, input into the design of the objects they produce. Art has been increasingly conceptually driven for well over two centuries, during which it has been progressively divested of its associations with craft, with particular materials and their skillful manipulation. ... The key to craft, however, is the fusion of design and making and the ongoing dialogue this establishes between maker, object, materials and process. By collapsing, to greater or lesser degrees, the distinction between mind and body, the object and subject and, ultimately, the material and spiritual, craft represents a challenge to the dominant conceptual framework of our society.
Matthew Kiem, in another paper, examines craft's sustaining and transformative potential through various fruitful theoretical lenses. He begins by picking up a framing thread from theorist Tony Fry, who argues that contemporary design and manufacturing practices construct and normalize a state of unsustainability. "Designing and making is therefore directional, in that it creates and negates possible futures, and political, in that it creates and negates certain arrangements of power," Kiem writes. "...Just as we may identify design as a source of ontological transformation, it is also possible to identify craft as a mode of production that gathers and shapes a particular manner of being-in, of, and towards the world."
Kiem is full of interesting observations. He examines Ezio Manzini's "garden of objects," for example, which he describes as "a condition in which our interaction with the material things of our everyday world is like that of the relationship between a gardener and a garden."
"The experience of this world names something more than the mere satisfaction of brute needs, economic interest, or a concern for calculable efficiency or frugalness," Kiem writes. "Rather it describes a disposition of care, wisdom, and respect towards our material/temporal existence that enables what is truly important to flourish and endure."
But while Manzini's focus is on the potential of design to facilitate such a shift, Kiem sees the potential, even the necessity of craft:
"While we might recognize Manzini's scenario as something like a condition of Sustainment, what would be fundamentally necessary for a ‘garden of objects' to work is, firstly, a certain material quality of things that make up this world, and secondly, practices that would foster what we might call ‘cultures of quality.' By cultures of quality, I mean complex and highly-attuned practices of workmanship that incorporate a deep concern for the sustain-ability of people, practices, and equipment. ...The health of a ‘garden of objects' is dependent on the development - and in some instances the re(newed) development - of the kinds of socio-technical modes of being that exist within various craft practices."
None of the papers are what I'd describe as "quick" reads, but if you have some time to sit down with them – they're all worth the effort."
Julie K. Hanus

Returning to "food for thought" I feel the crafts have a lot to learn from the way the food industry has responded to market demand for more sustainable production, I think this rather cute youtube is nice. I imagine in 15 years time we will see a similar turn around with specialty clothing, furniture etc companies fighting to show how ethical their production is.

lots of wooden bowls

2011-09-07T19:50:00.000+01:00

This week I am in full production mode in the workshop and thoroughly enjoying it. These are beech bowls, perfect for soup or cereal. They are turned green then stacked for the air to circulate whilst they dry, it takes about 6 weeks.

I think it is sad so few turners make bowls to eat from it is such a delightful experience. Within the world of turning non functional "artwork" is more highly regarded and more lucrative than functional work. My feeling is that whilst at the tip of this artistic iceberg there is some interesting work the majority of this so called art will in a few years time be no more collectible than the 1970s amateur art pottery that folk can't sell at car boot sales today. Far better if all those turners instead aspired to making really good useful bowls. Anyway rant over, as well as the run of the mill breakfast bowls I have turned a couple of big nests.

These are a pair of nests made form a big sycamore log. Making nests was a sort of green woodworkers holy grail that it took me years to work out you can see a video of the whole process here. Having done that I find I get more satisfaction and more income from making the smaller bowls and plates but it is good to turn big nests occasionally.

The second nest with carved rims.

This shows a close up of the cut surface, to the left you see the result of the roughing out cut and to the right the fine finishing cut. I do not sand the work so very sharp tools and good technique are important to get a clean cut surface, this actually performs much better in use than a sanded surface which can tend to fluff up once you start using and washing the bowl.

Turning big bowls is very hard physical work, I can only do it maybe 4 hours in a day and my body is done for. This leaves some time for my voluntary Heritage Crafts Association work and some time for playing in the forge, I am continually experimenting with new tools, this is a spoon hook knife. I have a big forge for my turning hooks but for the small spoon knives this set up with just a few firebricks from an old storage heater and a blowtorch is perfect. After forging the shape I harden it, then temper it then a final sharpen and put a handle on, this one worked well.

halloumi and watermelon

2011-09-05T20:25:00.003+01:00

Just discovered halloumi and watermelon a combination made in heaven (or Cyprus apparently it's popular there) sweet crunchy juicy melon is the perfect match for the rich salty grilled halloumi.

Bowls by me, Wille Sundqvist and Richard Raffan, plates mine, wine glass air twist by Tony Wassell, cutlery Alexander Clark Co Sheffield, 2006 Rioja and good company to share it with.

"Handmade in Britain" BBC TV

2011-08-29T22:43:00.001+01:00

My first post of 2011 said "I believe this year will see an explosion of traditional crafts in the media" a couple of weeks ago I was filmed for John Cravens BBC "Britan at Risk" series and today the BBC announce "Handmade in Britain." All great news.

The BBC and V&A today announce Handmade In Britain, a year-long season of programming that will be the most wide-ranging and ambitious exploration of decorative arts ever to be undertaken on British television.

Ceramics, metalwork, stained glass, textiles and woodwork are some of the most beautiful and treasured objects with pride of place in British palaces, churches, stately houses and family homes. Handmade In Britain brings these fascinating, functional and often forgotten works of art to the fore in a major new season of programming which will explore the history of British artistry and craftsmanship.
Furthering the BBC's commitment to building partnerships with the arts sector that go beyond broadcast, from sharing expertise to widening public engagement in UK arts, from Autumn 2011 to Autumn 2012, Handmade In Britain will present three, three-part series and a selection of individual hour-long films, focusing on a wide variety of art and design disciplines: ceramics, wood, metalwork, textiles, stained glass and paper.
The programmes will follow the development of each of these media, unveiling stories about the objects that tell us about the social, political and cultural climate of Britain at the time in which they were made. They will also reveal why, throughout the nation's history, makers have created objects that are beautiful as well as functional.
BBC Four Controller Richard Klein said: "BBC Four is the home of in-depth, expert led content and the channel for arts and culture. Handmade In Britain will provide a new perspective and a deeper understanding of the decorative arts. Our partnership with the V&A will celebrate these often overlooked treasures of British culture, giving viewers access to one of the world's finest art and design collections."
Damien Whitmore, V&A Director of Public Affairs and Programming, said: "This is an exciting opportunity to bring the V&A's collections and the stories behind them to a national audience. We are delighted to be collaborating with the BBC on this important partnership."
Handmade In Britain will draw on the collections and expertise of the V&A, one of the world's greatest museums of art and design. V&A objects will be used to tell particular stories, highlight ground-breaking technical innovations and illustrate how the story of artistic development in Britain is one of multiculturalism and globalisation. Contributors to the programmes will include V&A curators as well as collectors such as David Attenborough and contemporary practitioners including Grayson Perry and Edmund de Waal.
The series begins this autumn with a three-part series on ceramics and two single 60-minute programmes on stained glass and Chinese porcelain (1).
To complement the Handmade In Britain season, the V&A will host a series of events and will create online content and an in-gallery mobile experience. Using smart phones, visitors to the Museum will be able to locate and learn more about key objects featured in the programmes that are on display in the V&A's permanent galleries.

first turned bowl

2011-08-27T18:26:00.000+01:00

My daughter Jojo is very talented with many hand skills from cake baking to knife forging. Whilst she has carved bowls and spoons before she has never turned a bowl on the pole lathe. I think it is a bit intimidating when you have grown up seeing someone doing it at full speed professionally but she finally felt it was time to give it a go.

This shot shoes how well she undercut the core.

The core snaps out.

cleaning up the base.

and the inside

The finished bowl, one of the best first bowls I have seen.

stained glass courses in London

2011-08-25T00:57:00.002+01:00

Looking for an interesting way to spend the weekend? an unusual gift? or to learn a new skill? Some folk will have seen my friend Sophie Hussain as the tutor on Monty Don's BBC Mastercrafts program last year. Now you have the chance to learn the skill yourself.

Sophie is offering 2 day weekend courses for a maximum of 4 students, a real masterclass. You get to run through the whole process of making a glass panel from cutting glass and lead to designing the piece and making it up to take home. You'll work in Sophie's Woolwich studio so also get a glimpse into the real working world of a skilled professional craftsperson. Cost is just £200 plus cost of materials used (normally around £20) Sophie has worked with stained glass for over 20 years gaining much experience at the world renowned Goddard and Gibbs workshop, she is also a great and fun teacher.

There are 2 course dates booked for October 8th 9th and October 29th 30th. To book email Sophie here sophie@lightlust.co.uk or phone 07946 511639

More details here

interesting wasp behaviour

2011-08-23T09:03:00.000+01:00

3 nights ago a badger dug out a wasps nest alongside my woodstore. The nest had clearly been considerably larger than a football and all the comb and grubs were gone leaving only half the outer paper shell. The remaining worker wasps were clustered around on this having nowhere else to go. The thing that surprised me was that despite having no queen and no grubs to rear the worker wasps have continued rebuilding their nest. They are busy chewing up wood pulp from my woodstore and building a new paper structure.

This shows a close up of the work, it will be interesting to see how it develops, I had expected after 24 hours or so with no leadership, no grubs and no new eggs being laid that they would decide it was pointless and disperse but clearly they are reprogrammed and just going through the actions without thought.

This brought to mind one of my favourite authors from my youth Jean-Henri Fabre

Fabre was a fascinating character who is sometimes called the father of modern etymology, in Victorian times most folk that studied insects did so by catching them, dissecting them and arranging collections of them depending on anatomy. Fabre instead studied living insects and watched how they went about their lives. He was not well received by the scientific world at the time partly because he was not academically trained and partly because he chose to write in rather anthropomorphic prose rather than dry objective language.

His experiments and observations though were incredibly complex and insightful. A famous one involved pine processionary caterpillars. These play follow my leader each following a silken track laid down by the caterpillar in front but what if there was no leader? One day Fabre spotted pine processionaries heading up the outside of a plant pot, he led them toward the edge where they turned and headed around the rim. A minute later Fabre had a complete loop of caterpillars and he quickly swept away the others climbing the side and cleared surplus silk. He then sat down to watch how long they would follow their pore programmed behaviour, they marched for 7 days before one fell off through exhaustion and the others followed the silk over the edge.

Another experiment I remember which related to my wasps was Fabre's studies of parasitic hunting wasps. These have a set process they go through. They dig a hole, go catch some caterpillars which they paralyze with a sting and drop in the hole. Then they lay an egg on top of the food and cover the hole over. Fabre would interrupt this behavior at various stages and see what the wasp did to establish if there was any thought going on. He established the wasp was simply going through a set series of actions, for instance if he stole the paralyzed caterpillar the wasp would lay it's egg in an empty hole and seal it over without food, same thing if he stole the catapillar and egg it still sealed over the clearly empty hole because that was it's reprogrammed next step.

I shall be interested to watch my wasps over the next few weeks and see if they are bothered by the fact they have no brood to rear. Fabre's books are a joy cheap second hand and I highly recommend them.

Journal of Modern Craft article

2011-08-22T14:43:00.000+01:00

The Journal of Modern Craft contains some of the most thought provoking writing on current craft practice worldwide. I was delighted to be asked by the editors to submit a piece which appears in the current issue.

Technology and hand skill in craft and industry.

As a craftsman I am interested in how stuff is made and the effect that has on the maker and consumer and also in the heritage of making things in the UK which was once the workshop of the world.

I work at the very simple technology end of the craft spectrum. I turn wooden bowls on a foot powered lathe. When I started it was important to me to be in control of all aspects of the work, to be as self sufficient as possible. I burnt my own charcoal to fire the forge in which I forged my turning tools from recycled car springs. This was partly an ethical decision and partly because I had no money to buy tools. I still love the depth of understanding that can be achieved by breaking down even a seemingly simple craft into all it’s constituent parts analysing and experimenting with each one, optimising it then putting it all back together again. I also love to watch craftspeople at work who have a great depth of tacit knowledge. The speed and effortlessness of their physical movements controlling potentially difficult materials is as beautiful to me as a ballerina or someone doing Tai Chi.

My own craft was of great importance in medieval times, nearly everyone in Europe ate from turned wooden bowls, pottery was only used for jugs and storage/cooking vessels. It went into decline in the 18^th century with the expansion of industrial pottery manufacture and finally died out when it’s last practitioner George Lailey died in 1958. I had to learn the craft from studying old lathes, tools and bowls in museums though much of the accumulated knowledge passed down through generations of turners has been lost. I learned blacksmithing partly from books, partly from watching a few smiths working at heritage open days and partly by asking anyone and everyone that had any knowledge about steel and it’s properties. It would have been far easier today with much of the information about different steels and their properties, hardening and tempering techniques and forging qualities being available on the internet. The theory is there ready to be internalised through practice. Whilst it is not very long ago this information took a lot of time to collect in the early 1990s.

Most craft practices are about using tools and manipulating materials. Making my tools, getting the profiles optimised and the hardening, tempering and sharpening good was one important aspect but there was as much again to learn about the raw material. Woodworkers today generally work wood in a dry state, and foresters grow large trees which are cut up into small pieces dried and sold to woodworkers. There are many middle men so foresters know nothing of the working qualities of wood and woodworkers know little of trees or their conversion and drying. I wanted to get closer to the raw material and having worked as a forester for the Natinla Trust and run a sawmill I had a good start. I was able to buy whole trees and experiment with different drying and working regimes myself. I read old books like Sturt “The Wheelwrights shop” and Rose “The Village Carpenter” and found that fcraftsmen used to have many words for timber in different states. It was not just green or dry, it could be frow, mellow, ripe or any number of different states. After years of experimentation I find that I can get the various hardwoods that grow locally into a state in which they work particularly well. This tends to be “mellowed” as a whole tree for anything from 2-6 months depending on size, species and time of year before cutting the tree up and turning it straight away.

Historically different turners tended to stick to just one wood and this allowed them to optimise their tools and really get everything working in the most efficient way possible. Lailey used only Elm, Jack Jordan in Shropshire used only sycamore. Interestingly they would often then state that their wood of choice was the only suitable timber for making bowls and give many reasons why the others were unsuitable. Gwyndaff Breeze the turner at St Fagans told me how alder was quite unsuitable for bowls being too soft yet I knew the during the Anglo Scandinavian period over 60% of bowls were made from alder. I enjoy using a variety of woods and this means forging different tools for alder (soft) to beech (harder).

My greatest sources of inspiration have been old bowls found during archaeological excavations. In the world of ceramics Shoji Hamada and Bernard Leach did the same. The forms that inspired them were English Medieval jugs, 18^th century slipware and ancient Chinese and Korean bowls. They found few English bowls to study because in the medieval period we ate from wood and few survive. I spent ten years travelling to museums across Europe getting into the reserve collections and handling and photographing medieval wooden bowls.

These bowls have exactly the sort of life, vitality and humble character that Leach and Hamada admired in pottery. They were made at great speed, with great skill, but simple tools for daily use. In form they share a lot with old tea bowls, not surprising perhaps as both were made originally to be held in the hand and eat sloppy food. These bowls were so different to anything produced by contemporary woodturners. Because they were made from part dried timber they moved as they dried. The particular way they were cut from the small diameter tree caused them to shrink in a predictable manner and they end up rather boat shaped. Then the old turners did not use abrasives as nearly all modern turners did. This meant that I could see the mark of every stroke of the lathe, how sharp the tool was and how clean the cut, even how fast the turner had been turning the bowls out. In some cases, with the woodware from the Mary Rose for example I have been able to identify the work of individual turners, groups of work that share the same fingerprint of a single maker.

This was the work I loved and like many potters before me I set out to make humble functional ware that people could use and enjoy. Svend bayer said when he started he wanted to make pots that people could afford to break. I wanted to make enough bowls that they would never appreciate in value and so no one would ever feel they had to stop using a bowl because it was too valuable. I started to get letters from customers who had been eating from my bowls and plates every day for a year or two and to me the depth of feeling in those letters and the connection with the people who use them is very important. I also wanted to be as good as the old turners, I could tell from their toolmarks how fast and clean they cut and I knew I would only get there by repetition. It’s often said of craftwork that the first 1000 are the hardest. This is certainly true of woodturning but it doesn’t really start to flow until maybe 5 or 10,000.

In the UK there are thought to be over 10,000 practicing woodturners. Most woodturners start by turning a few functional wooden bowls but as they develop more skills the majority whether professional or amateur move on to produce "artistic" pieces. By artistic I mean anything that is non functional, useless in fact. The main reason they do this is because it is more highly respected and more highly valued. This is the case in the world of wood but in the world of ceramics wonderful functional works are also highly thought of and valued. We have never had a Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach or Michael Cardew in the world of wood, if we had perhaps things would be viewed differently. In ceramics there is a market for the very best functional ware and it is not perceived as being in any way lower status than the best artistic pieces.

When I talk to woodturning conferences I always start by asking for a show of hands of who makes functional work. Normally around 30-40% of hands go up. Then I ask who eats from a wooden bowl or plate and it's rare that more than 1 hand goes up. "Functional" to most woodturners is limited to salad bowls, I would love to see the other 99% of woodturners go home and turn a simple bowl to eat their breakfast or soup from, it really is a wonderful experience and from 600-1600AD eating from wood rather than pot was one of the things that defined us as Europeans.

For many years I struggled with the idea of signing my work. In the folk craft world it is recognised that most of the best work ever produced was unsigned. It became apparent to me that in the 20^th century refusing to sign was simply inverted snobbery. Especially when the piece was sold for a high price wrapped in an individual signed box. So I went back to my medieval woodworkers and found that some particularly coopers had simple incised marks made with a few strokes of the knife. I developed a simple mark, a W made with three strokes of a cutting tool, it doesn’t detract but it is there if anyone asks.

Now after 15 years with more than 15,000 bowls and plates out there all being used I get plenty of repeat business, folk come to dinner and enjoy eating of a wooden plate and so I am very secure in the ongoing market for my work.

It surprised me that there was no support for rediscovering a traditional craft like this. I later found that in the UK traditional crafts fall between the remits of arts and heritage organisations and so receive no support or promotion.

I worked alongside many craftspeople who were the last of a long line practicing a particular skill and became aware that many crafts were in imminent danger of dying out. A good example would be Owen Jones the last swill basket maker, based in Cumbria Owen makes the traditional Lakeland swill out of riven oak strips. They are objects of great beauty that are also a part of the cultural heritage of Cumbria. They are pictured in Beatrix Potter books, old ones are in all the museums in Cumbria, there are even swill makers workshops in museums. It seems the day the last craftsperson stops working the skill, or at least the associated paraphernalia becomes recognised as heritage but not whilst it is a living viable business. We need to change this situation so that like the Japanese, the Koreans, the French and the Croatians we recognise the living heritage of craft skills.

Whilst the rural crafts I know well could be better supported there is another whole category of craft industries that are completely below the radar. I first became aware of this when visiting one of the last places making scissors in Sheffield. They had all the same issues as the rural crafts, aging skilled population, no recognised entry route for apprentices, lack of any government support network yet the work was highly skilled and involved a huge amount of knowledge of difficult techniques and materials. Where the rural crafts have been recognised at least by the media these skilled town based workers tend to be regarded as “industry” rather than “craft” and have received very little attention. Many of these craft industries were the reason for the growth of our towns and cities, cutlery in Sheffield, saddle making in Walsall, hats in Luton and furniture in High Wycombe for instance. Sheffield is known the world over for quality cutlery yet the City culture plan did not mention cutlery. The Heritage plan looks after the buildings and culture is forward looking arts, traditional skills fall between.

I have always felt that these craft production processes should be regarded as part of our heritage, not just the machines and buildings but the living knowledge of how the production processes work. Many countries worldwide now recognise the importance of living heritage and 130 nations signed the UNESCO 2003 convention on intangible living heritage a key element of which involves recognising and promoting traditional craft skills.

The difference between craft and industry is difficult to pin down but an interesting area of study. The truth is they are part of a continuum of production without a fine dividing line between the two. I visit many craft industries particularly the metal trades in Sheffield such as Trevor Ablett one of the last independent pen knife makers and Dave Alison one of a handful of metal spinners left in the country. Time served to his uncle 35 years ago Dave is one of the youngest spinners practicing today, I met him when looking for someone to make silver rims for some of my wooden “mazer” bowls and “quaichs”. When visiting these workshops I always ask “how much hand skill is involved at the point of production?” If there is one then this seems to me to be the defining difference between craft and industry.

At some other workshops I see a great amount of skill in setting up the machinery and processes by the foreman but at the point of production little skill is involved. David Pye would define “hand skill at the point of production” more precisely as “the workmanship of risk” and the lack of it as the workmanship of certainty. Those workshops where the workers are also responsible for the maintenance and setting up of their machinery seem to be happier places to me even if we are dealing with the workmanship of certainty, and meaningful, fulfilling work is something people are interested in today. The industrial revolution was a process of braking down complex operations into small segments which could be done with little training and little knowledge of the whole process as epitomised by Adam Smith’s pin mill however even Adam Smith pointed out that such radical division of labour amounted to the “mental mutilation” of the worker.

In 1999 I was a presenter at a woodturning conference in the Jura region of France. Woodturning was the second largest export industry in the region after wine and they were looking at ways to revitalise the industry. As part of the conference we toured various workshops with varying levels of technology. We started in a small one man workshop using early twentieth century lathes to produce a range of boxwood objects. The craftsman maintained all his own machines, sharpened the complex cutters, selected his raw materials chose what he made, who he worked for, was proud of his work and seemed very content. The next workshop had around 15 employees and a greater differentiation in work tasks. Each task still involved a fairly high level of skill but training for just that individual task would not take so long. This was more like a team sport than individual but each person played their part, was respected for it and despite the more repetitive nature of the work seemed happy enough. Our final visit was to a modern factory in which computer controlled machines removed all skill from the production process, they were making wooden manikins for shop windows. The workers feeding the machines with prepared blanks of wood required to use virtually none of their capacities as a human being and looked little more alive than the wooden manikins they were making,

One way of achieving the increased productivity of the factory whilst avoiding the boredom and mental mutilation is operated in some Sheffield cutlery factories today including Wright’s scissor works and David Mellor’s cutlery works. Each worker is trained to do each part of the process and rotates around the machinery so they are not doing one thing all the time, they also have the feeling of value and self worth that comes of learning a number of difficult skills and being valued for them. In some ways as large industries have contracted we see a reversal of the industrial revolution as the smaller workforce again have to learn all the parts of the job.

I feel there has been a hangover from the Arts and Crafts movement which has unnecessarily demonised all but small scale workshop production. Many folk in the crafts and perhaps society as a whole look down upon any factory production often with little knowledge of what goes on inside. My experience is that within the crafts industries there are many highly skilled artisans that deserve as much attention and recognition as the rural crafts or designer makers. In many ways they are less tainted by the inevitable intrusion of ego and personality of the current art craft world, here are the true humble artisans that Ruskin, Morris, Yanagi and Leach admired working in the industry that they apparently disliked.

The worst horrors of Victorian industrialisation needed addressing but whilst we have made great steps in looking after the health and safety of factory workers we have taken little interest in the question of whether their work is fulfilling and meaningful. It seems to me that meaningful work comes from developing a skill, having responsibility and autonomy in our workplace, and having recognition for the difficult skills and techniques we master and good work we do.

In society today people are often defined by their consumer choices, where they holiday, their house, their car, their clothes etc. Even amongst craftspeople most of us wear clothes and fill our homes with objects made by industrial processes in the far East. One of the dilemmas of the Arts and Crafts Movement was that it’s products were by and large only accessible to the rich. Morris’s utopian vision was never going to provide all the material objects that society had grown used to and society was not going back to a place with very few material objects. Could there be a middle way, an intermediate technology that could give us a reasonable level of production and material objects that people can afford and also provide wholesome, meaningful, fulfilling, work?

This may sound like a utopian dream but 30 years ago locally sourced artisan produced food was quirky and alternative but today it is mainstream. There is a strong consumer trend involving ethical decisions from organic farming and fair trade clothing to ethical banking and sustainable forestry. In some ways the studio crafts have sidelined these once important questions, though what has been called “the politics of work” was once at the very heart of the crafts. William Morris, Ruskin and the whole Arts and Crafts movement rebelled against industrialisation as dehumanising, proposing a utopian vision harking back to perhaps rose tinted medieval ideals. Today many people express feelings of disconnection from the real world in their work and everyday lives. EF Schumacker argued in “good work” and “small is beautiful” that the level of technology employed is the single most important factor in achieving meaningful work. Perhaps it is time to look again at how we make stuff and see if there are insights which the crafts have to offer contemporary society.

In February 2009 along with friends and associates we set up the Heritage Crafts Association which I chair. Our vision is of a vibrant future for traditional craft skills which are recognised and sought out in the same way people today search out quality local food producers. We aim to survey the traditional craft sector to find which crafts are most endangered and which are in good health, to share best practice and work toward a vibrant future, and in between times I’ll be in the workshop turning out simple wooden bowls.

hairy biker bowls

2011-08-21T23:57:00.000+01:00

I don't normally work Sundays unless at a show but today I had a rush job on and made a pair of bowls and spoons for BBCs hairy bikers.
Nest week they are filming at HMS Victory and needed some appropriate tableware so this morning I started with a beech log and cherry log and this afternoon I had a pair of nice bowls and spoons.

Normally my bowls air dry slowly over 6 weeks or so but when pushed for time controlled use of the microwave speeds things up. These were dried, aged a little then oiled in the day.

Both bowl and spoon design are based on finds from HMS invincible 1758, a few years before Trafalga but as close as I could easily find.

When I had finished them they seemed too good not to give a test run for dinner. Daughter Jojo had been making home made pesto from a pile of basil I had growing on the windowsill

The verdict? they are better than most of my current eating bowl designs and I will have to make some more.

filming and turning

2011-08-19T09:48:00.000+01:00

I spent yesterday filming with the BBC in the workshop and turning a nice nest of bowls. Stopped on way home and dropped them in a clump of heather, I love to see it in flower.

The beeb are doing a series on Heritage at Risk and it sounds like it will be a good mix of old buildings and what I tend to call living heritage. The Heritage Crafts Association have been feeding them lots of nice stories and they spent all day filming at Portland Works. John Craven is the presenter, we filmed 3 hours which will make about 2 minutes if I am lucky, it goes out next March.

This is the biggest bowl from the nest I turned I was rather pleased with it, I had in mind the big bowl from the Mary Rose which is on the cover of my book.

production and consumtion, London riots and craft

2011-08-18T10:16:00.001+01:00

As the London riots were kicking off last week most commentators were going on about lack of respect, broken Britain and the breakdown of moral values, the proposed solution is normally increased discipline by home and state. I was blogging about my take on it, that being that these folk were just doing what we had trained them to do.

In the last week there have been some interesting articles one of my favourites titled The Politics of Desire and Looting and even a facebook group formed to explore how craft can be a stronger and more focussed force for positive social change. They aim to develop a "Makers' Manifesto" to draw attention to positive practical examples and set out the case for craft as a force for empowerment and hope." Grayson Perry's blog was as good as ever on the subject.

Clearly crimes have been committed and justice needs to be served but I feel we also need to do some soul searching as a society. Today the news says youth unemployment reached record levels in the UK with over 20% of 16-24 yr olds out of work, I don't have figures for the chances of a black man in South London getting a job before the age of 24 but suspect his chances in life are rather less than I was privileged to expect.
How do we turn this around? How do we motivate and incentivise folk? This entertaining youtube discusses what motivates us to work and comes up with surprising answers.

Of those looters we saw how many I wonder have ever been offered any opportunity that offered them the chance to achieve Challenge, Mastery and the sense of Making a Contribution? What a waste that we did not offer them that.

Does craft have anything to say about these issues? I believe the root cause of the problem is not lack of discipline but the avarice and lust for goods that we want, rather than need. This is coupled with the lack of meaningful work to achieve those desires.

This gives craftspeople a dilema, as a county we consume way too much stuff and send it to landfill, how do we convince people that happiness is not a new pair of trainers, plasma screen or BMW? What is craft going to contribute to that debate? As folk who market work as luxury products to aspiring consumers are we part of the solution or the problem?

Having worked alongside craftspeople for 20 years I find many, particularly traditional craftspeople, are also committed environmentalists. We mostly get into craft for lifestyle reasons and it goes along with the whole "Good Life" thing of growing your own veg, shopping at the wholefood co-op, buying locally sourced bread and organic meat etc. I suspect that on average craftspeople earn less and consume less of the earths limited resources than the average Westerner. I think perhaps the best we can do is set an example, to show that it is possible to live a really enjoyable, enviable life on less than £20,000 a year, we need to get that message across in the media and in my own little way I try to do my bit, with the blog etc and I'll be filming today for a BBC programme which hopefully may inspire more folk to choose fulfilling work over chasing money and stuff, to be proud of what they do instead of what they earn, of how they help others instead of how many holidays they have.

I suspect my work will not inspire our rioters as much as one of my heros Danny Macaskill, I have no doubt this young man suffered much prejudice as he hung out on street corners in his hoody with his bike, a friend of mine taught him to ride the unicycle and his teachers thought he was wasting his time playing on bikes, if you appreciate hard earned skill enjoy this.

What do we want these kids to do then? It's no use saying we just don't want them rioting. Most of our industrial creative jobs have gone, I think it is sad that there are not wholesome creative jobs that are valued within society but it could change, being a chef or a prep cook 15 years ago would appear menial, today it is sexy. We need to rediscover those values of the things in life that really make our lives happy and worthwhile, forget the expensive stuff, value freedom, achieve challenge, mastery and the sense of making a contribution.

Dunhill craftsmanship films

2011-08-09T19:59:00.001+01:00

Just wanted to share these gorgeous films. HCA have been working closely with leaders of the UK luxury sector, we share a common belief in the value of craftsmanship and that given good promotion it has a very bright future.

first mens tailoring just got sexy

document case, I think it is the sound of the tools on leather that really get me

no craftsmanship shown in this one except but the filmaking is exquisite

a nice one with wood and leather

and last one on design rather than craftsmanship, I first saw this folding plug a year or two ago and was blown away, great design

London riots

2011-08-09T10:02:00.000+01:00

Let's breed a generation and convince them that success is a new pair of trainers and a 50" plasma tv, bring them up from age 2 to covet material goods and if you can achieve it without having to work hard so much the better, pop stardom, soccer stars, lottery winners this is what we train them to admire. Then we give them little or no chance of achieving that material success by legal means and suddenly one day they see it's all there for the taking. The glass window is all that's between them and what we have trained them to aspire to and if they are all out together then they so far outnumber the police there is no chance of getting caught. Well of course they should have more self control like you or I but I think we also need to admit that the avarice and conspicuous consumption which is the base of capitalism and "economic growth" is a contributory factor. My thoughts are with all the folk that are affected. Here is a bit of footage of what is going on across London right now.

This is not the sort of thing I normally blog about but I have many international readers who may be interested in a more local take and I also believe that it does connect with the things I normally write about, fulfilling work, or lack of it and particularly the way as a society we relate to stuff. We have an obsession with having lots of expensive stuff, having it cheap and easy without any effort, the admen have done a good job, but whatever you do you must keep spending. Just as folk were encouraged to in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World in 1932
"Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches. "

Economic growth (that means buying and throwing away more stuff) is the single measure by which we as a society judge our success. Not how friendly our neighbourhoods are, not how well looked after our old people are, not how hopeful our children our for the future, not how healthy the Earth that sustains us is, the belief seems to be that without economic growth (buying and throwing away more stuff than we did last year) the whole of our society crumbles down and that only if we have money can we achieve those other things that might be nice. Well the problem is we live in a finite world with finite rescources and rapidly growing population so the consumption can not go on expanding indefinitely.

Back to the riots then which I believe are a by product of two things, one is the fueling of desire for goods we don't need and the other is a lack of meaningful work. 7 days before the first riots in Tottenham this video was posted on the Guardian website looking ta disaffected youth and the closing of youth clubs "there is nothing to do...there are going to be riots"

I can understand folk who say there is no excuse for blatant pointless robbery, there is no excuse but there are reasons. What are these folk to do? Youth unemployment is at an all time high, I know many young folk with good degrees and even MAs who can not get a first job, talented, committed dedicated folk from privileged backgrounds, When I stay in deprived areas in London I can barely imagine the hopelessness, the boredom, the pointlessness of life. As Abraham Lincoln said "There but for the will of God go I"

how are cricket balls made?

2011-08-04T10:02:00.000+01:00

Well I never knew that Tonbridge was famous for the making of cricket balls. This is a craft process involving a lot of hand skill. I had little idea what was inside a cricket ball, a lump of compressed cork, a tightly wound ball of string....this lovely old Pate news clip shows the process

CRICKET BALLS

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In the 1960's there were 85 folk making balls in Tonbridge alone, but there was already mention of cheaper balls made in Pakistan and India, I love this 1960's article from the Kent messenger especially the union reps title.

I am not sure how many ball manufacturers are left in Tonbridge. nor what proportion are hand stitched as against machine made but I do remember watching a guy from Alfred Reader's stitching balls at Art in Action in 1996. This is a vid from their works

Reader's are clearly still the major brand name in cricket balls I just called them to ask about how their balls were made and was told by a wonderfully frank and honest lady that they are all imported and only "finished" here. Bit naughty when they proudly bear the "Made in England" brand, years ago when I worked on a cutting table in Leicester lingerie firm I was told it was legal to put "Made in England" so long as some manufacturing process had taken place....and sewing in a "Made in England" label counted as a manufacturing process. The old Reader factory was sold off for housing development. The more I learn about how we treat our heritage the more I think it is bonkers. Just look at this travesty, clearly the powers that be decided what was important was to keep the factory frontage with it's nice big sign, so they knocked it down and stuck a horrid modern house on the back. I have no doubt this makes great economic sense and was the way to make the most money out of the particular site.

Here are a few interesting links I found, the ballmakers union which "upped stumps and headed for the pavilion" in 2006 http://www.unionancestors.co.uk/Cricketballmakers.htm

Nice page on Tonbridge ball making http://tonbridgecollectables.com/page5.php

So we will be following up the glorious English game with the ECB and hoping that we don't find the sort of story of child labour that was highlighted with footballs a few years ago. If anyone can find us info on any UK made cricket balls I would be pleased to hear and we will give the makers a good plug.

80 percent of success is just showing up

2011-07-31T12:29:00.001+01:00

Today I am cutting winter firewood in the Derbyshire hills, tomorrow I'll be at Clarance House, home of HRH The Prince of Wales, Tuesday at Department of Culture Media and Sport DCMS all to support traditional crafts skills.

First meeting at Clarance House is with Emily Cherrington.

Emily is Assistant Private Secretary to The Prince of Wales. The Prince has been a keen supporter of traditional crafts and is president of the Heritage Crafts Association. Emily is our new contact so we need to brief her on the work of HCA and discus ways in which we hope the Prince can support our work in the future, we have some exciting things in the pipeline...watch this space.

Then on Tuesday we meet Helen Williams Head of Heritage at DCMS,

Helen's is a new role created after considerable restructuring at DCMS. We have met before with a previous heritage adviser and Mick Elliot previous director of culture. Advocacy work has to be ongoing, people and roles change and it is people that make a difference so we keep meeting with key people in key roles to let them know early on about the position of traditional crafts in the UK. Woody Allen said "80 percent of success is just showing up' we show up a lot.
We will be pointing out how traditional crafts have not been recognised as arts or heritage so have fallen outside the remits of all support and promotion agencies. This has been a tremendous lost opportunity, with good promotion the traditional crafts can thrive and be a great asset to the UK arts, tourism and heritage, generate income and provide worthwhile jobs.

On all London trips I fit in as many meetings as possible so I'll also be meeting Guy Salter, a long time champion of craftsmanship in the luxury sector. I'll also be visiting a couple of workshops, first a tailor and haberdasher I met at Art in Action Jeremy Morgan

I have a suit I bought at a charity shop, nice Merino wool, sadly Italian not English but it was good quality and was £25 which is about what I can afford for a suit. Jeremy told me for a further £25 he can take the jacket apart and make it fit (it's currently a little loose) so I'll give it a go. I have also never been inside a traditional tailors workshop so hope to take some pics. Another visit which I hope to do if time allows is to a new London tweed weavers workshop London clothworks. And the final meeting is with Catherine Large director of Creative and Cultural skills.

By Tuesday night a few more folk will have a better picture of the state of traditional crafts in the UK and if Woody Allen is right then maybe it will make a difference.

good news for supporters of living heritage.

2011-07-31T09:28:00.002+01:00

Richmond dock was built at Appledore on the mouth of the River Torridge in 1856 and was said to have been the largest dry dock in all the Bristol Channel ports at that time. By the early nineteenth century much of the timber for shipbuilding in Britain was being imported from North America, the traditional supply from the Baltic Ports being interrupted by the Napoleonic Wars. Appledore was excellently sited to use the North American trade economically, but the business became more sophisticated when ships were rough built on Prince Edward Island and sailed over to Appledore for finishing. Its exceptional importance in the history of North Devon shipbuilding has been recognised by its designated Grade 2* listed status. That puts it in the most important 5% of all listed buildings.

The dock was built by William Yeo who had 5 large ships that were engaged in the emigration trade. A diary was kept by a passenger emigrating on the Ocean Queen. Sailing from Appledore to Quebec, William Gliddon, says: "About half past four, we got under way with a good breeze, having on board a fine crew of 20, Mr Yeo, the pilot, 22 passengers, a pig, a cat, and a dog. Half past five, safe over the bar, the pilot and the owner took leave amid the cheers of all of board."

Today the dry dock lies unused and as you can imagine property developers have moved in with the intention of putting lots of posh houses here by the sea.

In 2005 a local group called Celebrating Appledore's Shipping Heritage started campaigning to use the dock as a local maritime heritage centre including restoring the dock to working condition and using it for shipbuilding, fitting and repair. The Heritage Crafts Association support this groups vision and have contributed to helping oppose the planning application. The application was turned down in 2010 and we are delighted that the appeal has also just been turned down. This decision means that it would now be virtually impossible to build any residential development on the dock.

What is most pleasing is the wording of the decision written by independent planning inspector Olivia Spencer

"Appledore retains a strong working relationship with the river and the sea. It is clear not just from the written historic evidence but also from the submissions of local residents, many of whom worked or whos families worked at the dock, that it has played a very major part in the economic and social history of Appledore. It lies both physically and culturally at the heart of the community. The working history of the dock thus has considerable significance nationally and locally."

"The form and structure of the dock has value as a rare and interesting object but the dock is a tool, a machine for building and repairing ships. It's operation as a dry dock is thus fundamental to its significance. For this reason and and in view of its role in the working life of the community, I consider development that would prevent or seriously curtail the operation of the dock as a dry dock for the building and repair of of boats would therefore amount to substantial harm to the significance of the listed structure."

What is important about this wording is how well it recognises the living heritage aspects as well as the physicality of the site, this sets a great precedent which we can use in future cases. Often in the UK heritage is managed as if it was dead and people were not part of it. HCA have been involved over the last 2 years in 4 important sites where there are linked physical and living heritage, we now feel to have seen 3 wins and one loss.

Farnham Pottery has now been purchased by the Farnham Pottery Trust thus securing it's use as a community pottery and avoiding the risk of development.
Portland Works in Sheffield successfully opposed planning for conversion to flats and the craftspeople tenants have formed a company to attempt to buy the building and run it is a community venture, you can even buy a share in the building here
Sadly the story at Standard Quay was different. The local council and local English Heritage officer did not recognise the living heritage aspects of the site. The craftspeople have been evicted including Colin Frake one of only two ships blockmakers in the country (he rigged Nelson's flagship Victory)
The story at JW Evans silversmiths was different with the fabric and contents of the building saved but the business of making silverware gone.
We have just heard of a new case, the living looms project which aims to preserve the heritage of carpet making in Kidderminster, lets hope this one reaches a happy ending.